"Ellen Schoeters is a member of Actorama + where actors can upload a monologue or scene performance for peer review. What do you think of Ellen Schoeters's performance?"
(0 votes)
| Character | Deianeira | |
|---|---|---|
| Gender | Female | |
| Age Range(s) | Adult (36-50), Senior (>50) | |
| Type of monologue / Character is | In love, Persuasive, Descriptive, Depressed, Lamenting, Frustrated, Reminiscing life story/Telling a story, Malicious/scheming | |
| Type | Dramatic | |
| Period | Ancient Greek | |
| Genre | Tragedy, Drama | |
| Description | Deianeira tells the Chorus she will try a love charm to keep her husband | |
| Location | Middle of play | |
Summary
The play deals with Deianeira's jealousy for her Heracles', her husband, attraction for a younger woman, Iole. Iole is a young woman that Heracles brings back to Trachis as a slave after having won a battle. Determined to keep her husband, Deianeria tries a love charm on Heracles but accidentally injuring him. Realizing what she has done, she kills herself. Heracles, being in agony, asks to be killed by being burned alive.
In this monologue Deianeira addresses the Chorus of Trachinian maidens. She laments the fact that Heracles is now attracted to a younger and beautiful woman. She has a plan to keep her husband: in one episode that happened years before, she was being carried by a centaur across a river. The centaur, Nessus, made a pass on her and he was killed by Heracles. Before dying, Nessus told her that his blood could be used by her as a love charm to make her husband love her and no one else. Therefore she decides to smear Nessus' blood on a robe that she will give as a gift to her husband.
In this monologue Deianeira addresses the Chorus of Trachinian maidens. She laments the fact that Heracles is now attracted to a younger and beautiful woman. She has a plan to keep her husband: in one episode that happened years before, she was being carried by a centaur across a river. The centaur, Nessus, made a pass on her and he was killed by Heracles. Before dying, Nessus told her that his blood could be used by her as a love charm to make her husband love her and no one else. Therefore she decides to smear Nessus' blood on a robe that she will give as a gift to her husband.
Written by Administrator
| Excerpt |
|---|
| DEIANEIRA Dear friends, while our visitor is saying his farewell to the captive girls in the house, I have stolen forth to you,- partly to tell you what these hands have devised, and partly to crave your sympathy with my sorrow. A maiden,- or, methinks, no longer a maiden, but a mistress,- hath found her way into my house, as a freight comes to a mariner,- a merchandise to make shipwreck of my peace. And now we twain are to share the same marriage-bed, the same embrace. Such is the reward that Heracles hath sent me,- he whom I called true and loyal,- for guarding his home through all that weary time. I have no thought of anger against him, often as he is vexed with this distemper. But then to live with her, sharing the same union- what woman could endure it? For I see that the flower of her age is blossoming, while mine is fading; and the eyes of men love to cull the bloom of youth, but they turn aside from the old. This, then, is my fear,- lest Heracles, in name my spouse, should be the younger's mate. But, as I said, anger ill beseems a woman of understanding. I will tell you, friends, the way by which I hope to find deliverance and relief. I had a gift, given to me long ago by a monster of olden time, aid stored in an urn of bronze; a gift which, while yet a girl, I took up from the shaggy-breasted Nessus,- from his life-blood, as he lay dying; Nessus, who used to carry men in his arms across the deep waters of the Evenus, using no oar to waft them, nor sail of ship. I, too, was carried on his shoulders,- when, by my father's sending, first went forth with Heracles as his wife; and when I was in mid-stream, he touched me with wanton hands. I shrieked; the son of Zeus turned quickly round, and shot a feathered arrow; it whizzed through his breast to the lungs; and, in his mortal faintness, thus much the Centaur spake:- 'Child of aged Oeneus, thou shalt have at least this profit of my ferrying,- if thou wilt hearken,-because thou wast the last whom I conveyed. If thou gatherest with thy hands the blood clotted round my wound, at the place where the Hydra, Lerna's monstrous growth, hath tinged the arrow with black gall,- this shall be to thee a charm for the soul of Heracles, so that he shall never look upon any woman to love her more than thee.' I bethought me of this, my friends- for, after his death, I had kept it carefully locked up in a secret place; and I have anointed this robe, doing everything to it as he enjoined while he lived. The work is finished. May deeds of wicked daring be ever far from my thoughts, and from my knowledge,- as I abhor the women who attempt them! But if in any wise I may prevail against this girl by love-spells and charms used on Heracles, the means to that end are ready;-unless, indeed, I seem to be acting rashly: if so, I will desist forthwith. |
