Mobs and civilization..its all in the Mind

The play is irrational in the respect that there is no way that many people would be able to be completely brainwashed into getting rid of all of their inhibitions. Even in a culture where the gods are seen as real this play would seem irrational. However, this was probably Euripides using satire to establish a point about mob mentality and good old fashioned peer pressure.



Peer Pressure and Inhibitions

The fact that Euripides tells the story from the view of someone not overcome by Dionysus helps give the play a little more realism. He could have written it so that the people trying to stop Bacchus looked crazy and all of the irrational people looked sane. While this would add an interesting dynamic to the play, it would compromise what little realism the play has because the readers and watchers of the play probably hadn't sworn their lives over to the god of wine and care-free feelings so they would realize that the bakkhai were still acting insane.

The change in the settings of the play, the fact that the followers of Dionysus go out of the city into the wilderness, helps provide framework for the play and even supplies a theme or moral for the story. In the beginning of the class we talked about what makes a civilization. I think that Euripides is arguing in this play that inhibitions and self-control are also necessary for civilized life because they distinguish humans from animals.

I am taking a psychology class this semester and we are currently talking about the brain and the specific parts that control different aspects of our human lives. One part of the brain is in charge of our personality and self-control. It was interesting to listen to the stories of people who have injured this part of their brains, resulting in a more aggressive personality and increased sexual drive, and then reading this play which focuses on the same changes but with a supernatural cause instead of a physical one. The fact that Euripides grouped these two symptoms, violence and sexuality, without a knowledge of the specialized sections of the brain, is very impressive and tells us a little more about human nature.

Praise, Greed, Escape

The Irrational:

-          First, it is very irrational for Dionysus to be so bitter about not being praised (see lines 378-379). I would be a little upset if people didn't take me seriously as a person or a god, but the fact that not everyone is praising him for his godhood it kind of pitiful and greedy. I don't know if I was accurately interpreting the text, but it seemed like he was upset that he 1) wasn't able to be ruler of Thebes, but also that 2) he couldn't get the entire city to worship him. Then again, Kadmos and Pentheus are the same way- only wanting the power and praise (see lines 394-398).

-          The next completely irrational thing that I found was the different ways that they treated each gender. I understand that at this time, women were seen as more frail and delicate and men were the protector and powerful. I understand that gender roles were different. Even so, reading (on line 876-877) “Women defeated the men--- and not without some god” as if the only way any women could beat a man is with a god’s assistance. There were other lines, too, from that play that seemed fairly irrational in their views of women and men.

The Rational:

-          Although many of the actions portrayed in the this play prove the irrationality of thought in different characters, the play seems to display them in a way that proves rationality- Of course the idea that gods and the worship of them can encourage a whole group of women to abandon everything and run into the woods to become wild is absurd, it shows the rational and realistic view that people can be persuaded and change in character. The irrational (gods, etc.) makes a great framework for the natural (persuasion, wanting to be a part of something bigger, freedom, etc.)

           

The Personal:

-          I have used music in my life to get the freedom and fulfillment that I desire- I was able to feel belonging and purpose by playing in a concert band for about nine years. It’s just too bad that Dionysus couldn't find fulfillment and acceptance in some other way, and neither could the women that ran into the woods.

"Look up just a moment at the sky"

Two Sided Creatures

The human soul sometimes appears to be divided into two halves which often seem to conflict with one another. One half is the rational, which we associate with logic, contemplation, inventing, discerning, planning, predictability, and stability. We love the security that comes from this.

The other half, the half that I believe we sometimes fear, is the irrational. The irrational are the things about ourselves that we can’t often explain such as passions, love, hate, jealousy, and curiosity. Though understand very little about this second half, we must agree that through the ages it has often raged as the more powerful of the two. How many irrational decisions have we seen throughout history? Men influenced by their love for a woman doing things that logically don’t make sense, others overcome with emotions of anger that they do something that they later regret, and on a happier note, people who have sacrificed or done something charitable for someone else even though there was no personal gain involved. While seem to be creatures of both passion and logic, passion may be the more dominate of the two.

The persuading power of passions can be very scary and hard to understand, especially when you are experiencing them. It can be hard to see the forrest through the trees.The Greeks discovered that by experiencing the irrational via drama, art, music, or dance, it helped us to come to grips with this powerful and necessary part of ourselves.  

Some of my best Friends

A powerful lesson from the Bakkhai was taught to me through Kadmus. Kadmus’ daughter, Agaue, while in a trance, had done many things that she would later be ashamed of. She had no idea she was behaving so irrationally. Upon returning home and talking to her father, Kadmus draws her mind back to the way it was before and her world began to clear.

People have always been an important part of my life. Whenever I struggle to understand myself or feel that I might be behaving irrationally I go to someone I can trust and explain what I am thinking and feeling. Often in the process of talking to a loved one my world clears and I can see things the way they really are. Sometimes we just need someone to tell us to "look up just a moment at the sky"

Don't Abandon Ship!

            The desire to completely let oneself loose and forget all the troubles and forums of life is exemplified quite well in Euripides’ drama Bakkhai. The women run off into the wilderness, lose all sense of morality, and frolic in the woods away from family, responsibility, and civilized life. How could they just abandon their lives like that? How could they forget everything they hold dear?

The 'Abandon Family' ship has too many patrons

After thinking about it, I see those desires in people today. How many of you have considered just dropping out of college? Perhaps go gallivant the country just trying to get away from responsibility. I certainly have. Or when something big is about to happen in life, we desire to run away.

Perhaps more poignant is to look at how many parents (particularly fathers, but sometimes mothers too) abandon their family in search of goodness knows what. I have some great friends who had a parent desert them when they were young and can’t seem to rationalize why it happened.

The maenads personify this condition perfectly. They show us the craziness of letting it all go and running away. Agaue killed her own son because she let herself go too much. It is interesting to note that as soon as she makes it back to civilization she is able to get back to a more normal frame of mind. As soon as they “escape” from that which is their lives, they abandon all form of reason and would do something as unthinkable as murdering their own child. Had they never left they could have remained as a happy family in the city of their ancestors.

Is there a way to deal with this irrational desire to get away from it all? I have used sports for just such a purpose. It is a way to escape the rest of life and focus on that specific competition. I can go away from everything for a brief time, let it all go, and then make it back to regular life unscathed. Perhaps this is part of why watching sports are so popular in today’s world.

I killed Mufasa...

I can always look back and remember times when I’ve heard “So I have this friend…”  We all know that this “friend” is really an easy way of not admitting something embarrassing of oneself.  It’s how we can talk about the undiscussed.  We can try to understand the topics that are not quite open for much understanding.  It is one way that we deal with the irrational.  And I may or may not have used this one unsuccessfully in my own life.

There are many irrational elements in the play Bakkhai.  But Euripides knew that the opportune moment for discussing these irrational passions was in the rational, comfortable and respected stage of the theatre.  He knew that he would have a large audience and could bring up these issues to the minds of many.   He knew that his audience respected the gods and would side with the chorus but at the same time he plays on their emotions.  Through the use of pathos the audience begins to pity Agaue.  Without realizing, she had killed her only son.  This stirs up a mixture of emotions.  Should the audience be happy because Dionysus showed his power as a god or should they be upset because a family had to pay the price through murder?  Euripides uses opposites to display that what is considered to be rational may not be all that rational in the end.

Speaking of irrational, the god Dionysus may not be the most rational of the greek gods. What kind of a god would trick women into becoming senseless killers?  In our culture we consider women to be daughters of the Most High God and to be respected.  Euripides turns things around completely by having an irrational, unforgiving, and ill-tempered god put women into a haze and use them as tools without agency to show his power.  Also family members killing other family members doesn't seem too godlike, yet it always reminds me of The Lion King.

The Irrational Acts of Revenge

Everyone has sought to get revenge in their lives and it wasn't until reading Bakkhai that I realized how irrational revenge is.  We don't like the outcome of an event, or we feel personally victimized by a situation, and it compels us to do some of the most irrational things.

Tommy and I couldn't even pretend to
get along and be happy at The Happiest
Place on Earth, Disneyland.

Dionysus was the son of Zeus and Semele (a human).  Although he was born of the most powerful god, none of the royal family accepted him as one of their own.  Dionysus always had a hatred towards the gods for rejecting him, wanted to get revenge and show them that he is truly an honorable god.  He went around getting humans to worship him in the woods.  He is so fixated on people following him, that when he has a hard time convincing King Pentheus, he tricks him into spying on the women in the woods, which ends in Pentheus getting ripped apart by none other than his mother Agave.  In the end of the play it never does say if the gods respected Dionysus and welcomed him, but my opinion is that they don't.  If they didn't respect him in the past fully knowing that he was the son of Zeus, then they would most likely not respect him after showing his power upon humans. 

When I was younger, my cousin Tommy and I hated each other.  He would push my buttons every time he could, and I would go crazy.  One time I remember in particular was when he kept hitting and knocking me over just to be mean.  After about a half hour of this, I finally went up to him an bit him in the back so hard it made him bleed.  My parents taught me to never bite, and that was one rule I always followed--except this one instance.  I went completely against my better judgement to show Tommy that I wasn't his punching bags, and man did it feel good!  In the end, Tommy still would pick on me and nothing changed, but I felt like I had to do something just like Dionysus.