Hippolytus Analysis Essay Example For Students

Hippolytus Analysis Essay A monologue from the play by Euripides NOTE: This monologue is reprinted from The Plays of Euripides in English, vol. ii. Trans. Shelley Dean Milman. London: J.M. Dent Sons, 1922. HIPPOLYTUS: By a fair semblance to deceive the world,Wherefore, O Jove, beneath the solar beamsThat evil, woman, didst thou cause to dwell?For if it was thy will the human raceShould multiply, this ought not by such meansTo be effected: better in thy faneEach votary, on presenting brass or steel,Or massive ingots of resplendent gold,Proportioned to his offering, might from theeObtain a race of sons, and under roofsWhich genuine freedom visits, unannoyedBy women, live. But to receive this worstOf evils, now no sooner are our doorsThrown open than the riches of our houseWe utterly exhaust. How great a pestIs woman this one circumstance displays;The very father who begot and nurtured,A plenteous dower advancing, sends her forth,That of such loathed incumbrance he may ridHis mansions: but the hapless youth, who takesThis noxious inmate to his bed, exultsWhile he caparisons a worthless image,In gorgeous ornaments and tissued vestsSquandering his substance. With some noble raceHe who by we dlock a connection formsIs bound by hard necessity to keepThe loathsome consort; if perchance he gainOne who is virtuous sprung from worthless sires,He by the good compensates for the illsAttending such a union. Happier he,Unvexed by these embarrassments, whose brideInactive through simplicity, and mild,To his abode is like a statue fixed.All female wisdom doth my soul abhor.Never may the aspiring dame, who graspsAt knowing more than to her sex belongs,Enter my house: for in the subtle breastAre deeper stratagems by Venus sewn:But she whose reason is too weak to frameA plot, from amorous frailties lives secure.No female servant ever should attendThe married dame, she rather ought to dwellAmong wild beasts, who are by nature mute,Lest she should speak to any, or receiveTheir answers. But the wicked now deviseMischief in secret chambers, while abroadTheir confidants promote it: thus, vile wretch,In privacy you came, with me to formAn impious treaty for surrendering upMy royal fathers unpolluted bed.Soon from such horrors in the limpid springMy ears will I make pure: how could I rushInto the crime itself, when, having heardOnly the name made mention of, I feelAs though I some defilement thence had caught?Base woman, know tis my religion savesYour forfeit life, for by a solemn oathIf to the gods I had not unawaresEngaged myself, I neer would have refrainedFrom stating these transactions to my sire;But now, while Theseus in a foreign landContinues, hence will I depart, and keepThe strictest silence. But I soon shall see,When with my injured father I return,How you and your perfidious queen will dareTo meet his eyes, then fully shall I knowYour impudence, of which I now have madeThis first essay. Perdition seize you both:For with unsatiated abhorrence, stillGainst woman will I speak, though some objectTo my repeating always the same charge:For they are ever uniformly wicked:Let any one then prove the female sexPossest of chastity, or suffer me,As heretofore, against them to inveigh.