However, in the tragedies of the fifth century, women were dominant major characters that were seen as heroines. ... The character of Clytemnestra in Aeschylus" Agamemnon is very masculine and is shown posses some male traits. ... Euripides Medea is one of the tragedies that shows a woman dominating the rest of the characters in the play. This female character throughout the play criticises the conditions of women and they way they were treated. ... These female characters are just some of the complex, intelligent strong women that appear in Greek tragedy, who seem t...

• Word Count: 1759
• Approx Pages: 7
• Grade Level: High School

The actors - all men - wore theatricalized versions of everyday dress, but, most important, they wore larger-than-life masks, which aided visibility and indicated the nature of the character to the audience. ... The characters are stock - identifiable, simplified social types, such as a miserly father or a nagging mother-in-law. ... Next probably are Antigone and Trachiniae (after 441). ... Antigone bestows the rites of burial upon her battle-slain brother Polyneices in defiance of the edict of Creon, who was the ruler of Thebes. ... Ajax, Electra, Philoctetes, and Trachiniae in varying for...

• Word Count: 2321
• Approx Pages: 9

It made the transitions between scenes, giving actors the chance to enter and leave the playing area, and even announced what characters those actors portrayed. ... In Greek tragedy the tragic situation, in which the characters find themselves, is always a situation of utmost conflict. Studying the plots of a number of Greek tragedies, we find variations of two basic tragic situations: either the fatal situation is brought about by the man's miscalculation of reality or the characters find themselves between two conflicting principles and are confronted with a choice, the results of which...

• Word Count: 1396
• Approx Pages: 6
• Grade Level: Undergraduate