IPHIGENIA IN AULIS Essay Paper Example For Students

IPHIGENIA IN AULIS Essay Paper A monologue from the play by Euripides NOTE: This monologue is reprinted from The Plays of Euripides in English, vol. i. Trans. Shelley Dean Milman. London: J.M. Dent Sons, 1920. IPHIGENIA: Had I, my father, the persuasive voiceOf Orpheus, and his skill to charm the rocksTo follow me, and soothe whomeer I pleaseWith winning words, I would make trial of it;But I have nothing to present thee nowSave tears, my only eloquence; and thoseI can present thee. On thy knees I hang,A suppliant wreath, this body, which she boreTo thee. Ah! kill me not in youths fresh prime.Sweet is the light of heaven; compel me notWhat is beneath to view. I was the firstTo call thee father, me thou first didst callThy child; I was the first that on thy kneesFondly caressed thee, and from thee receivedThe fond caress; this was thy speech to me:Shall I, my child, eer see thee in some houseOf splendour, happy in thy husband, live,And flourish, as becomes my dignity?My speech to thee was, leaning gainst thy cheek,Which with my hand I now caress: And whatShall I then do for thee? Shall I receiveMy father when grown old, and in my houseCheer him with each fond office, to repayThe careful nurt ure which he gave my youth?These words are on my memory deep impressed;Thou hast forgot them, and wilt kill thy child.By Pelops I entreat thee, by thy sireAtreus, by this my mother, who beforeSuffered for me the pangs of childbirth, nowThese pangs again to suffer, do not kill me.If Paris be enamoured of his bride,His Helen, what concerns it me? and howComes he to my destruction? Look upon me,Give me a smile, give me a kiss, my father,That, if my words persuade thee not, in deathI may have this memorial of thy love.My brother, small assistance canst thou giveThy friends, yet for thy sister with thy tearsImplore thy father that she may not die:Een infants have a sense of ills: and see,My father, silent though he be, he suesTo thee: be gentle to me, on my lifeHave pity. Thy two children by this beardEntreat thee, thy dear children: one is yetAn infant, one to riper years arrived.I will sum all in this, which shall containMore than long speech: To view the light of lifeTo mortals is mos t sweet, but all beneathIs nothing: of his senses is he reftWho hath a wish to die; for life, though ill,Excels whateer there is of good in death.