The Bacchae

In the Bacchae, for whom do you feel more sympathy – Pentheus or Dionysus? In the Bacchae, Pentheus and Dionysus have very different characters. They are both very complex characters and they both go through changes that alter the way you see them. At the beginning of the play, we are given a very dramatic image of Dionysus at his mothers, Semele’s monument. He is wearing a crown of ivy, carrying a thyrsus and wearing …

…character I feel more sympathy for. Almost all the way through the play, he is not aware of what is happening around him, or the way he is being used. It is quite pitiful to see the way he tries to grasp on to his power and sanity. He deludes himself all through the play that he is the one in charge, the one with the authority. Bibliography The Bacchae, and other plays, by Euripides