Constructing Character in Greek Tragedy

Critics of ancient drama are still keenly engaged in a long-running debate about character, despite a readiness on everyone’s part nowadays to acknowledge significant differences between play-worlds and ordinary social reality. No one any longer asks the equivalent, in relation to Greek tragedy, of the question ‘How many children had Lady Macbeth?’, naively supposing that the stage figures can be studied as if they were beings with a continuing off-stage existence. And most critics are much more willing to recognize that the old certainties about character and personality can no longer be taken for granted. But there is still plenty of room for disagreement, and in this chapter I try to suggest why this should be so, without pretending to wish away, let alone resolve, the difficulties that arise.