reason vs. passion

A detailed Summary of reason vs. passion

In his plays The Bacchae and Medea, Greek playwright Euripides expresses his views quite clearly on the relationship between reason and passion in human life. Euripides believes that there is a constant struggle between the two elements, and people must be able to find the proper balance in order to exist peacefully, something his characters were unable to do. He expresses, via his characters, his belief that passion dominates this struggle in most cases, and when this occurs, proper logic is skewed. The lead role in each of these plays failed to find the proper balance of passion and reason, and in failure found death.

The title role in Euripides' play Medea is a proud, powerful, self-driven woman who strives to avenge an act committed by her husband, Jason. As the play opens, the audience learns that Jason has recently left Medea for another woman. This crushes Medea, as she has sacrificed much for Jason, and truly believes that they are lovers meant to be together for life. She enters a long period of mourning, and becomes inconsolable by even her closest of friends. Eventually her sadness turns to anger, and she begins seeking revenge for the wrong she has been done. Medea immediately begins plo

In The Bacchae Pentheus, the King of Thebes, falls victim to this same imbalance. In this play, a new type of religion is developing in the city of Thebes, and is quickly gaining popularity among the women of the city, including the king's mother. This angers Pentheus, as he feels that the leader of this religion, Dionysos, is violating and taking advantage of the women involved. Pentheus decides to strike out against Dionysos and attempts to jail him. Dionysos then escapes from his holding cell, and convinces Pentheus that he will understand the religion if he only observes the women as they worship in the hills. Pentheus, in his rush to find an answer to this problem, fails to see that he is being setup by Dionysus. This is the first example in this play of passion overtaking reason. Pentheus is so furious that the women of his city are taking part in this religion that he fails to notice the deception that lie before him. Again, the main character allows passion to dominate proper reason, and suffers for it. However, Pentheus has not yet seen his suffering.

These are all examples from Euripides' plays that show his belief in the relationship between passion and reason. Euripides believed that when passion is overly present, proper reason is absent. The two cannot peacefully coexist, as one always attempts to dominate the other. Euripides expr

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Approximate Word count = 922
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Category: Arts