Question 2b

Assignment: Though tragedy is historically a male-authored genre, women frequently appear as protagonists or as major characters. Why? What issues do their presence and voice highlight? How do women characters “drive the plot,” and how do they helpfully complicate any simplistic classification of tragedy as a genre? Refer to at least 3 plays from our readings, at least 2 of them from the “Tragic Women” section (Antigone, Medea, A Raisin in the Sun, and ‘night, Mother).

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Complete Essay

Women stand at the boundary between the private and the public world, and this intersection is where tragedy often occurs. According to the Greeks, the private world is the world of women and the public world is the world of men. Women represent the home and men deal with the world and perform duties outside of the home. When women characters cross or blur the lines between these two worlds, we are able to see the true greatness of tragedy as it represents reality.

      We can see the blurring of these lines clearly in Antigone. Antigone believes in the sacred family bond and the private relationship that exists there. However, Creon is only concerned with the laws of the state. Even though Antigone’s voice is that of the private world, her stance takes on some very masculine qualities. She is defiant and goes against the laws of the state, against Creon himself. We see this contrasted in the views of Ismene. She is compliant and believes Antigone should be as well. These are two very different women with two very different voices. It is the defiance in Antigone that is at the heart of the plot of Antigone. We must have her defiance in order to have the play.

      The lines between the private and public worlds are blurred once again in Medea. Medea disrupts the private world by killing her own sons, and she disrupts the public world by killing the princess and the king. In Medea we see woman’s voice expressed not as a single voice but as contending voices. Medea questions her own motives, yet, at the same time, she is very manipulative. She has to become like an actress in order to carry out her plan, yet without that very plan we would have no plot for our play. It is interesting to note that Sophocles and Euripides, both male authors, wrote plays in which the entire plot of the play centered on and was dependent upon women and their thoughts, feelings, and actions.

      It is this development of a woman as a main character and the development of that woman character that complicates our desire for a straightforward classification of tragedy. For example, we see a more romantic moment enter in to the end of Medea when Medea rides off in the chariot in the sky. Even though she is hurting and will have to live without her husband and her children, she stills escapes and rises above. It is almost like transcendence, even though it is a tragic one. We also see this romantic element entering into ‘night, Mother. Jessie’s act of suicide is like a transcendence, though, again, a tragic one. She is able to finally rise above her troubles and trials and take control for once.

      Something has to matter in tragedy. Many tragedies deal with how something matters to the public world, to society. We saw this clearly in Oedipus when his society was falling apart because the question of who killed the king had not been answered. We saw this again in Hamlet when the stability of the state rested on Hamlet’s decision of what to do about his father’s murder. In the Antigone, Medea, ‘night, Mother, and Raisin in the Sun we see a different twist to this tragic idea that something has to matter. The issues in these plays are those of the private world, how things matter to the family or the individual. This move in tragedy to dealing with problems centered in the home or family is most effective and clear when women are used as the main characters and when these women characters are fully developed. In Raisin not only is the entire issue of the play a familial one, but also the entire play itself takes place in the home. The same thing can be said for ‘night. Not only does the entire play take place in the home, but also Jessie’s reason for killing herself has to do strictly with family issues and hurts. [AAS 02]

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