Oedipus (Dryden play) act was concluded. Among all our English plays, there is none more determinedly bloody than Oedipus, in its progress and conclusion. The entrance of the unfortunate king, with his eyes torn from their sockets, is too disgusting for representation. "Oedipus Rex" was originally written by Sophocles in 430 BC, and later on the subject was adapted by Seneca and Corneille. In the preface to "Oedipus, a Tragedy", Dryden refers to these authors and comments on their works. By doing so, he reveals his concept of "Oedipus, a Tragedy", and explains why he thinks that the Latin and French adaptions of
Representation of women in Athenian tragedy of him is motivated by a range of male abuses. Medea becomes the aggressor when her husband Jason plans a new more advantageous marriage. There is also a theme running through the plays based on the setting. Performed in open-air theatres, Classical Athenian tragedy was set outside the private sphere of the home. Indeed, Euripides was notorious for "taking the streets, the bedroom, into tragedy" and thereby reducing its remoteness. In "Hippolytus", Phaedra first appears, carried out of the house by her servants, demanding open air, in order to declare her love for her stepson and thus the spiral of