Tanya Stanley

Women Within Tragedy

            Throughout my interest in literature and the emphasis of the human experience, I have not looked deeply into a specific group or individual to reveal their important additions and impacts to literature. (Close minded, maybe.)  Previously in my research, I have centralized my thoughts on humanity.  The importance of women as characters and as creators slipped past my highlighter without notice.  Antigone, Iokaste, and Medea as functional characters within Tragedy awakened my imagination and inspired me to further explore women in Tragedy.  Lorraine Hansberry kept my interest in A Raisin on the Sun to the point of finding more of her work outside the required readings of the course.  Prior to Tragedy, the course, I looked at women within Tragedy as back court, back seat, silent figures appearing in literature only for realistic purposes.  With a deeper insight into the roles of women, such as Iokaste in Oedipus Rex, I began to return to the basic texts of my introduction to literature and see the women in a new light.         

            The concept of women within Tragedy expands through various conceptual ideas regarding women as characters and actors.  Euripides and modern writers express their ideas regarding the addition of women and women’s importance within literature.  Women in Tragedy reflects the notions that women are portrayed as ethical characters, as superficial additives, and as scandalous characters which offers the suggestion that further research regarding women in Tragedy is required to fully understand the role of women in literature and their importance.

            Helene P. Foley depicts women as ethical characters in her book Female Acts in Greek Tragedy.  Rebecca Bushnell reports on Foley’s findings in a review of Foley’s work.  Bushnell suggests “...Euripides congratulates himself for having brought ‘everyday life’...into the theater by portraying women as well as men” (348).  Regarding Foley’s book, Bushnell notes that women are depicted “...as ethical actors.  Foley’s deeply historical work defines the highly circumscribed yet still critical moral role that women played in Greek society in matters of death, marriage, and family” (348).  The women make ethical choices throughout their public life.  Foley believes that the women in Tragedy have “...much to teach the city” (Bushnell 348).  Krisiti M. Wilson of Stanford University also notes that Foley suggests all types of women are represented within Greek Tragedy and the “...women played a central role in the dramatic institutions as a whole” (1718).  The public and private lives are expanded upon within Greek Tragedy through the complex notions which arise out of ‘gender division’ (Wilson 1718).  Women are depicted as ethical characters through their appearances and roles within literature.

            Wilson believes students who read Greek Tragedy do not view the gender role complexities as “...nothing more than the inversion or exaggeration of real life for the sake of dramatic effect” (1715).  Before researching women within Tragedy, I believed this notion also.  Oedipus Rex and Antigone sparked my interest in the importance of female characters upon society and as individuals within Tragedy.  This notion of unawareness is partly due to the notion that most of the female characters within Greek Tragedy “...have little or no relation to the lives of real women” (Wilson 1715).  Wilson reviewed the book Making Silence Speak: Women’s voices in Greek Literature and Society by Andre Lardinois and Laura McClure and reports on the work which is divided into sections within her review.  According to Wilson, Lardinois and McClure suggest that there are “...complexities of women’s speech and notions of public and private space in classical Athens, the multivalent voice of Sophocles’ character Antigone and female impersonation on the tragic stage in general, the function of women’s voices...and the role of women’s voices in Greek oratory” which deserve further research (1716).  Regarding  Lorraine Code, compiler of  Encyclopedia of Feminist Theories, the twentieth century allowed women to challenge “...Aristotle’s patriarchal principle.  In her groundbreaking work, “Feminism and Theater” (1988), Sue-Ellen Case proposed a new poetics that discusses non-linear structures, and posits women as subjects rather than objects of the drama [sec] narrative” (Code 471).  The importance of women within Tragedy is recognized as a notion for further research of the subject.

            Women are depicted as scandalous and controversial in Antigone, Medea and other dramas according to Wilson.  Regarding Foley, Wilson notes “...female characters do the work...of articulating, exposing, challenging, and sometimes healing the failure of the male characters to maintain the complex rigid boundaries prescribed for the Athenian state and household” (1719).  Medea and Antigone open the world’s view of women through the heroine’s actions against society, men, and their families.  Instead of passive characters with basic, expected dialogue, these women explode their importance on stage, on paper, and on the imprints of one’s mind.  Further research regarding other strong women such as Electra is needed for other synthesizing of character traits and impacts.

            I would like to further research the lives of Shakespeare, Sophocles, and Eugene O’Neill to determine if a foundational woman existed in their lives and in composing their literature.  Women play a much more important role within Tragedy and literature in general than what is observed at first glance.  Lorraine Hansberry, Iokaste, Antigone, and Medea are centralized figures in the discussion of women involved with Tragedy.  I have learned that women do hold an important value within literature and are not mixed into literature on account of a realistic portrayal of the writer.  End Time: 11:05 a.m.    

Works Cited

Bushnell, Rebecca.  "Helen p. Foley, "Female Acts in Greek Tragedy"."  Common Knowledge.  JSTOR.  Princeton, NJ:  Princeton University Press, 2001.  348.  Online.  University of Houston-Clear Lake Lib.  20 June 2006.  http://libproxy.uhcl.edu/.

Code, Lorraine.  Encyclopedia of Feminist Theories.  London: New York Routledge, 2002.

Hall, Edith.  "Aristocratic Women In Tragedy.  Classical Review.  42.1  1992.  56-58.  JSTOR.  Online.  University of Houston-Clear Lake Lib.  20 June 2006.  http://libproxy.uhcl.edu/.

Wilson, Kristi M.  Book Reviews.  Signs.  Winter 2005. 1715-1719.   JSTOR.  Online.  University of Houston-Clear Lake Lib.  20 June 2006.  http://libproxy.uhcl.edu/.