The Tragic Dialectics Of Euripides

Many scholars think that the main trend in Hebabe is "becoming worse,"because in mad revenge for her children,the heroin has corrupted her fine virtues.It is this paper's argument that the major shift in this play is "becoming better."In the first part,Polyxena is changing from a submissive slave into a noble and brave princess,respected even by the enemy army.In the second part,Hekabe has changed from a weak and crying old slave into a brave and intelligent hero carrying out amazing deeds.However,the overall tone of the play is tragic and "becoming worse."Generally speaking,Greek tragedy represents "from good to bad" or the fall of the good and the strong men.Therefore,Hekabe and other related tragedies tell us that Euripides has made new progress in tragedy writing,including his emphasis on"becoming better" and his insight into tragic dialectics of the multiple transitions between good and bad,strong and weak.