PLAY GLOSSARY

Antigone by Sophocles (441 BC): Antigone, daughter of Oedipus, the former king of Thebes, seeks to bury her brother Polyneices who was killed during a civil war against his brother Eteocles, also slain in battle. Creon, her uncle and present king, considering Polyneices a traitor, forbids the burial, and Antigone is sentenced to death for disobedience. The prophet Teiresias warns Creon that his arrogance will cost him the lives of his own family, but the king repents too late to rescue Antigone or his son Haemon, her fiance, who kills himself. Creon returns to the palace with his son's body only to find that his wife has committed suicide as well.

Dr. Faustus by Christopher Marlowe (1591): Seeking forbidden knowledge and power, Dr. Faustus sells his soul to Mephistopheles, an agent of Satan, for 24 years of earthly pleasure. He uses his magical powers to transport himself around the globe, play tricks on the pope, and raise the spirit of Helen of Troy as his paramour. Tempted by both good and evil spirits, he eventually succumbs to despair, giving up on God's grace, and is dragged unrepentant into hell.

Duchess of Malfi (The) by John Webster (1614): A noblewoman recently widowed secretly marries Antonio, one of her servants, against the wishes of her two wicked brothers, the Cardinal and the Duke. Bosola is hired to spy on the Duchess and discovers her secret. To punish her, the brothers separate her from her husband and children, lock her in a madhouse, and convince her that her family is dead, at which time she submits to the strangulation Bosola offers her. Bosola is so impressed with her noble spirit that he swears to avenge her death. He succeeds in killing the brothers but not before slaying Antonio by accident and receiving a mortal wound himself.

Hamlet by William Shakespeare (1601): Prince Hamlet returns to Denmark for his father's funeral to discover that his mother Gertrude has already married his uncle Claudius, who now sits on the throne. A ghost resembling his father tells him that he was murdered by Claudius. Under pretense of madness, he searches for confirmation of the ghost's accusation, discovering it in Claudius' guilty reaction to a play devised by Hamlet called "The Mousetrap," which depicts events similar to his father's death. Meanwhile, Hamlet mistakenly kills Polonius, and his son Laertes challenges him to a duel, to avenge his father and his sister Ophelia who has committed suicide after being rejected by Hamlet. Claudius poisons the swords, and both Laertes and Hamlet receive fatal wounds while Gertrude and Claudius die by a poisoned drink.

Heracles by Euripides (425 BC): The evil tyrant Lycus takes advantage of Heracles' absence to threaten the lives of his wife, children, and father. Thinking that Heracles will never return from Hades where his final labor had led him, his family gives up hope and blames the gods for abandoning them. At the last possible moment, Heracles appears, comforts his family, and sets a trap for Lycus, who quickly meets his doom. Suddenly, the goddess of madness descends from heaven, sent by Hera, queen of the gods, who wants to punish Heracles for being the illegitimate son of Zeus and a mortal woman. Struck down with insanity, Heracles mistakenly murders his own wife and children. When he comes to, he wishes to die himself, until his friend Theseus convinces him to bear his suffering and show himself more noble than the gods.

King Lear by William Shakespeare (1606): This tragedy relates two parallel stories. The 80-year old Lear decides to relinquish his kingdom to his three daughters, giving them shares equal to the amount of love they profess. His eldest daughters, Regan and Goneril, flatter him shamelessly, but Cordelia, his favorite, refuses to play this humiliating game. Offended, Lear banishes her along with Kent, a nobleman who defended her. Meanwhile, the Earl of Gloucester mistakenly trusts his deceiving son Edmund when he tells him that his brother Edgar wants to kill their father. Edgar must disguise himself as a madman to escape. Soon both fathers learn the error of their ways. Lear is kicked out of the sisters' homes to fend for himself in the midst of a storm. For attempting to help the king, Gloucester is blinded with Edmund's approval. Cordelia raises an army from France to take back her father's throne, but their forces are defeated. Jealous of her sister's love for Edmund, Goneril poisons Regan but then commits suicide when Edmund is morally wounded in battle with Edgar. With his dying breath, Edmund attempts to save Lear and Cordelia from his sentence of death, but too late: the king enters, bearing the lifeless body of his daughter, strangled in prison, then dies of grief.

Macbeth by William Shakespeare (1606): Macbeth meets three witches who reveal that he is destined to be king. Tempted by the possibility, he tells his wife who urges him to take advantage of the fact that Duncan, the present king, will spend the night in their home. Macbeth murders Duncan in his sleep and becomes king, only to arouse the suspicion of Banquo. To cover his tracks, Macbeth has Banquo murdered as well, but his ghost appears at dinner to haunt Macbeth's troubled mind. Soon the nation rises up in civil war against Macbeth, who dies at the hands in Macduff, while Lady Macbeth commits suicide after many sleepless nights of guilty dreams.

Medea by Euripides (431 BC): Medea learns that her husband Jason has left her for the daughter of the local king. Calling on her powers of sorcery, she creates a deadly cloak as a gift to the princess, who bursts into flames upon wearing it. Her father, attempting to save her, is consumed as well. Jason returns home to punish Medea, only to find that her jealousy has led her to kill their own sons. Medea escapes when a chariot drawn by dragons rescues her.

Misanthrope (The) by Moliere (1666): Disgusted with the hypocritical flattery of others in society, Alceste lives by a code of absolute honesty, even though this means insulting everyone he meets. He has the misfortune, however, of falling in love with Celimene, the worst example of a two-faced gossip. He resents all the admirers she encourages and insists that she abandon these rivals. Eventually, Celimene is caught by her own webs when her lovers discover unflattering letters she has written about each of them. Alceste alone remains to profess his undying love on the condition that she forsake society forever and run away to a deserted place, a condition this young socialite cannot accept. Alceste leaves her to search for a place of complete solitude.

Oedipus the King by Sophocles (420s BC): Oedipus, king of Thebes, learns that the cause of a deadly plague lies in the presence of a man who murdered the city's previous king, Laius. Oedipus vows to find the guilty party and seeks the counsel of the blind prophet Teiresias, who reluctantly tells him that he is the man. At first Oedipus refuses to believe him, but others confirm that Oedipus was the son of Laius and Jocasta, his present wife, and that years ago he had killed his father and married his mother unknowingly. Appalled by the truth, Jocasta commits suicide and Oedipus blinds himself in a mad rage before submitting to self-imposed exile from Thebes.

Oresteia (The), a trilogy by Aeschylus (456 BC): In Agamemnon, the king of Argos returns triumphant from the Trojan War only to be murdered by his wife Clytemnestra who has taken a lover and who seeks revenge for Agamemnon's sacrifice of their daughter Iphigenia. In The Libation Bearers, Agamemnon's son Orestes returns to discover he must avenge his father's death by killing his mother, which he does with the help of his sister Electra. In The Eumenides, Orestes is pursued by the Furies who torture him because he spilled the blood of his own family. Finally, Athena establishes a court of law which pardons Orestes and which will arbitrate murder cases in the future, replacing the old system of "eye-for-an-eye" retribution with one of mediated justice.

Othello by William Shakespeare (1605): Iago, an ensign in the army of Venice, seeks revenge on his commander Othello, who has promoted another man to higher rank. Through treachery and circumstantial evidence (a stolen handkerchief), Iago convinces the jealous Othello that his wife Desdemona has been unfaithful. Othello smothers his innocent wife in bed before learning the truth and killing himself.

Tartuffe by Moliere (1664): Orgon becomes infatuated with a pious man named Tartuffe and takes him into his home. His family recognizes Tartuffe as a hypocrite and con artist, but Orgon trusts him completely, insisting that his daughter marry him and that he supervise all the household accounts. Only after catching Tartuffe in the act of seducing his wife does Orgon realize his mistake, almost too late, for Tartuffe has succeeded in blackmailing Orgon out of his home. All seems lost until a representative of the king arrives to apprehend the fraudulent minister and take him to jail.

Trojan Women by Euripides (415 BC): Hecuba, queen of Troy, and the other surviving women await their uncertain future at the hands of the conquering Greeks. Agamemnon's representative comes to take the prophetess Cassandra to be the king's concubine. Before they leave, she foresees both their deaths on his return to Greece (see Oresteia). Andromache, widow of the great warrior Hector, must surrender her young son to be thrown from the walls of the city, lest one day he rise up to take revenge. Menelaus, brother of Agamemnon, then comes to collect his unfaithful wife, Helen, whose affair with Paris was the chief cause of the ten-year war with Troy. Although the women of Troy call for her death, Menelaus succumbs to his wife's seductive beauty and they leave together. (While they may seem to get off easy, the audience has already heard Poseidon, god of the sea, promise to punish the Greeks by sinking their ships on the return voyage.) The remaining women are carried off to a life of slavery as their once-great city burns behind them.

Volpone by Ben Jonson (1606): Volpone, whose name means "the fox," along with his servant Mosca "the fly," creates an elaborate scheme to defraud their associates. Volpone pretends to be dying so that others will bring him lavish gifts, each hoping to become sole beneficiary in his will. Volpone carries his scheme too far when he attempts to rape the wife of one of his "friends." At the subsequent trial, the plot unravels as each person discovers that Mosca has promised them all the same thing. Accusing each other, they all are sentenced to prison or appropriate other punishments.