The Tragedy Of Althaea In Atalanta In Calydon

Algernon Charles Swinburne is one of the famous poets in the Victorian Era, whose masterpiece, Atalanta in Calydon, ranks among the finest in British poetry. In this poetic drama and the tragedy based on a Greek mythology, Queen Althaea, a loving mother, slays her beloved son, Meleager, and her son's death leads to her own destruction, her own tragedy. Then why does the mother put her son to death? What causes her tragedy? This dissertation intends to answer these questions and to explore three origins of Queen Althaea's tragedy: Althaea's too strong character, the cruel unconquerable fate and the patriarchal power. That is, Althaea's tragedy is a tragedy of character, fate and society.Chapter one asserts that Althaea's tragedy is a tragedy of character. According to Aristotle, fatal defects in character bring about fatal action, which results in tragedy. Althaea's tragedy results from her fatal defects in character, that is, her strong desire to dominate and her too much love for her son, Meleager. Disappointed with her good-for-nothing husband, King Oeneus, and her two virile brothers, Toxeus and Plexippus, the intelligent and insightful Queen has all her love and hope on her eldest son so that she wants to dominate everything about him, to have him all to herself, and her love becomes thwarted and perverse. Her desire to dominate and her distorted love lead to her murder of Meleager. Meleager's death results in her own final destruction.Chapter Two proves that Althaea's tragedy is a tragedy of fate. According to the ancient Greek, fate is a supernatural power or absolute power, which is changeable, vicious, cruel and hostile to human beings, and which dominates and controls the whole world; man is helpless, futile and minutive in front of fate. Everything is predetermined and everybody is the instrument of fate, including Queen Althaea, though she is stoical, wary, strong-willed, intelligent and insightful, filled withforeboding. Althaea kills her beloved son and is only a tool for Artemis to carry out her revenge on the land of Calydon.Chapter Three claims that Althaea's tragedy is a tragedy of the patriarchal power. There is the patriarchal power prevalent in this Greek tragedy, which is centered on those men's contemptuous bias against Atalanta, a virgin, and a good huntress. Toxeus and Plexippus are the first two representatives of the patriarchal power: they try every means to scorn and humiliate Atalanta; in the end, when they attempt to rob the spoil of Atalanta, they are slain by Meleager, who means to protect his beloved Atalanta. Queen Althaea kills Meleager in order to revenge for her two brothers, which causes her own death. That is, she dies for Toxeus and Plexippus, the representatives of the patriarchal power, and she is a martyr to the patriarchal power. Therefore, Althaea's tragedy is a tragedy of the patriarchal power.