We may also say that the humanity-talk' to which all the characters of the play concur - with exception, maybe, of Pylades who thinks of his own first and last and who's extremely likeable for that - works like a disguise, that it is a code, a set of semantics, used for not talking about the real interests of the characters. .
Because, the differences between the parties, concerning interests, wishes and desires, are absolutely evident from Iffi's first monologue on, and they are absolutely unreconcilable. .
Thoas not only wants Iffi: he always did want her - but now he needs her to breed, to replace his dead sons, to secure the safety and the legitimacy of his reign over the country. You may argue that he could take another girl. But Iffi, the godsend virgin, surely is the most suitable and the most prestigious candidate - a fate, by the way, that she brought on herself by influencing the king and changing the ways the country is governed.
Iffi on the other hand is sick and tired of living in Barbaria, she's sick and tired of holding the old guy who is lusting after her at bay, she just wants OUT! Goethe gives us very good reasons to view with doubt the sentimental feelings and charming memories Iffi displays about the family life back at Agamemnon's castle. A lot of that has to be made up from pure imagination. But anyway, one thing is evident: If Iffi is staying in Skythia, she's staying because she lacks another option. .
And she will not marry him. NO WAY. Period.
Problem is, she will finally have to. Thoas, unwilling to force her physically, has set a nice little trap. No Iffi - no mercy. Scorned, he will shift back to the old barbarian ways. If Iffi herself, so he reckons, holds on to all the high virtues and principles she has seduced him to follow for years now: she will have no choice. She will have to give in. As it would have been her duty for a long time now, anyway.
So, we get to the critical point.
