Throughout all ancient Greek literature, there is one theme that consistently arises. This is the theme of women. In ancient Greek literature, women and depicted as cunning deceitful people and this implication is supported by characters such as Clytemnestra, who embodies all that is fraudulent and deceptive in the world. She loses our faith in women because of her ruthlessness in killing her husband Agamemnon and she is clearly feared by those under her. One example of this is the watchman whom she has posted on top of a building to look for the beacon signal.
Euripides has been accused of being a misogynist as well as the world's first feminist. In your view, do the portrayals of Medea and Jason allow such contradictory interpretations? Euripides' Greek tragic play, 'Medea', depicts a wife's desire to right the wrongs done to her by her husband and in the pursuit of satisfaction, she commits the heinous of crimes, infanticide. The play is set in a patriarchal society, where women are treated as mere tools to satisfy their male partners. Euripides' portrays Medea as both a weak and strong woman, being able to stand up to some of the male characters and simultaneously succumb to their presence.
Like a normal man that has an immensely gorgeous girl in her late teens thrown at you, John Proctor fell in sin and committed adultery and had sexual relations with Abigail. This gives Abigail a pseudo-sense of anticipation that they will once be together. But this all twists invalidately, when Proctor shuns her down for his wife and good name. Subsequently Elizabeth Proctor known of this affair and as in result Elizabeth is forced to let Abigail go as the servant in the Proctor house.
As one of the few gods to be married of the Greek Pantheon she is frequently unfaithful to her husband. Hephaestus is one of the most even-tempered and humorless of the Hellenic Deities. Of her many lovers Aphrodite preferred Ares, the volatile god of war as she was attracted to his violent nature according to the narrative embedded in the Odyssey. She is one of a few characters who played a major part in the original cause of the Trojan War itself: not only did she offer Helen of Troy to Paris, but the abduction was accomplished when Paris, seeing Helen for the first time, was inflamed with desire to have her—which is Aphrodite's realm. In the novel The Golden Ass, Lucius Apuleius written in the second century A.D , Aphrodite poses as a secondary character in the Tale of Eros and Psyche.
He had an affair with Abigail Williams, which led to his downfall and downfall of others. Hercules too had a dark side. Zeus’s jealous wife, Hera made him insane and as a result Hercules killed his wife and his children. As his punishment, he had to perform 12 seemingly impossible labors. Hercules had a good side too, like Proctor.
During this time, she raised their son Telemachus to adulthood. Penelope's character is complex. There is a deep unrest throughout the poem about how Penelope's relationships with the suitors will play out. There are seeds of doubt about Penelope, sown by the shade of Agamemnon who says to Odysseus in Hades that his own wife, Clytemnestra will give "an evil reputation to all women, even on one who does good" (199). This deepens the possibility that Penelope might prove unfaithful to Odysseus and builds suspense throughout the narrative.
The hero of Greece and son of Zeus, king of the gods, Heracles is one of the most popular of the Greek mythological heroes. Son of the mortal woman Alcmene and Zeus, he was conceived when Zeus took the form of Amphitryon in order to seduce Alcmene. From birth Heracles was the subject of Heras’ hatred. Hera the queen of the gods hated him as he was a constant reminder of yet another unfaithful act of Zeus. Her fury at Zeus over his infidelity for his many affairs caused much of the hardships Heracles faced through his life.
I believe Gertrude from Hamlet, is a depthless individual who only thinks about her body and external pleasures. Like a child, she longs to be charmed and delighted by the men in her life. Gertrude is also a very sexual woman, and her sexuality may have been the reason that Hamlet turned so violently against her. Hamlet was already outraged with his mother for her marrying his uncle just a short time after his father's death. “Ay, that incestuous, that adulterate beast, with witchcraft of his wit, with traitorous gifts, -- O wicked wit, and gifts that have the power so to seduce!--won to his shameful lust the will of my most seeming-virtuous queen.”
The attitude in Atwood’s Siren Song by Margret Atwood is captured by an image of the sirens described as “picturesque and mythical.” Atwood draws her readers in by having the sirens use their sex appeal to lure in men and force them to “leap overboard in squadrons.” She then goes on and gives the readers the assumption that the sirens are bored with their beauty, and are almost sickened with the same routine and outcome. “Shall I tell you the secret, and if I do will you get me out of this bird suit?” that implies that the sirens are bored. We see that the song is “irresistible and anyone who has heard it is dead or can’t remember it.” This makes us as readers more interested. The sirens trick men with their beautiful song, and lure them into their deadly
When Winston writes “Down with Big Brother” (753), he knows that “every record of…his one-time existence would be denied and then forgotten” (753). Winston holds the belief that the Party attempts to control everyone and dispose of the existence of disobedient citizens, and his belief leads him to rebel against the Party. As a result, the Party carefully watches him. In addition to Winston, Julia becomes an outsider because of her belief that individuals should sexually rebel and stay alive. By having sex to rebel against the mind-controlling Youth Movement’s talks about pro-creational sex, Julia goes against the Party because “sexual privation induces hysteria…and could be transformed into war-fever” (822).