Resumo de Prometheus Bound

Aeschylus is considered by academics to be the founder of Greek tragedy. In addition to his presence in literary history, the century that followed evolved from his influence by other dramatists like Sophocles, Aristophanes, Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle. In theatre history, Aeschylus is known for changing Greek tragedy completely. The performance of the Greek drama is transformed from being played out by one actor and a chorus, by introducing a second actor to create the dramatic conflict necessary in the dialogue of any tragedy. Though Prometheus Bound contains 43 pages of almost no physical action, there is however extensive character development and an emotionally charged psychological exploitation that makes this an energetic tragedy of ideas and ethics.
Prometheus Bound is the first of three plays in Aeschylus? trilogy, the second being Prometheus Unbound, following with the third Prometheus the Fire Bringer. The first story of this trilogy is the Greek adaptation of the story of man and his evolution on earth. The plot unfolds on the peak of the Caucasus Mountain, where Prometheus has been condemned to punishment by Zeus for stealing fire. Hephaestus, the god of fire, binds shackles around Prometheus's hands and attaches them to the rocks and while expressing his regret, Hephaestus then nails Prometheus's chest to the rock. Force, the pragmatic agent of Zeus, urges Hephaestus on and condemns his apparent sympathy for Prometheus as useless and unnecessary. Force declares that suffering will make Prometheus accept Zeus's authority, to understand he was wrong to betray Zeus by giving mankind the gift of fire. Hephaestus states that in time, Zeus's tyranny may moderate but until then he will be bound forever to this rock.
It is natural for the reader to empathize with Prometheus here and to see Zeus as a pitiless tyrant, more concerned with suppressing insubordination than with the general wellbeing of his subjects. Zeus appears cruel in this drama but remember this is only the first of a trilogy. The Zeus portrayed in the second play, Prometheus Unbound, is far less callous; reconciling with Prometheus and then later freeing him. Prometheus is a god being portrayed as a subject of suffering by the pettiness of gods, symbolic to man's petty inhumanity to man. The play ends with Prometheus being tortured by extraordinary acts of nature, from lightening to carnivorous animals pecking at his bloody wounds. As Zeus is inflicting organ devouring beasts to pluck at Prometheus? body, this physical pain will not end because Prometheus is a titan and therefore cannot die.
Prometheus's theft of fire, while presented as the immediate reason for his punishment, is overshadowed by his auxiliary offences like his defiance to Zeus and his extreme love for humanity. Fascinatingly, almost all of the skills Prometheus has taught to humanity in this drama from his own dialogues do not rely on fire. Fire is presented not as a literal ground of human progress but as a symbol of the technological advancement in humans, portrayed by Aeschylus as the evolution of man to be documented in this play by the ancient Greeks.

Resumos Relacionados