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The bacchae sparknotes5/23/2023 He is finally forced to acknowledge that the licentiousness he had condemned is what he is drawn to and wants to witness.Ĭan Dionysus be called a champion of women? He is driven to question his own beliefs, and loses his willpower, ending up in Dionysus's grasp. He realizes, in the course of their conversations, that Dionysus has the upper hand, that is, that the reasoning of irrationality is stronger than himself. Aside from the threat to the kingdom, Dionysus appears to Pentheus as a threat to him personally. Dionysus is "that which cannot be conquered." His fundamental antipathy towards Dionysus and what he represents leads Pentheus to brand the bacchic revelers as profligate, accusing them of lawlessness. As the chorus sings, Dionysus not only disrupts civic order. Pentheus sees himself as protecting a civilized society and does not want a force in his realm that he cannot imprison, let alone control. In Pentheus's scheme, in a tightly controlled society such as his there can be no room even for Dionysus's less intense powers, for even they involve relaxing restraints and breaking barriers, antithetical to Pentheus's sovereign rigor. To Pentheusmdash the ruler of Thebes and the protector of law and order-the luxurious stranger is Eastern and Barbarian, insidiously beautiful and suspiciously charming. The long-haired, ruddy-cheeked, laughing Dionysus displays no overtly frightening qualities, but Pentheus takes an instant dislike to him. Why is Dionysus, as the Stranger, perceived as dangerous by Pentheus?
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