The reversal in Adelphoe by Terence
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The reversal in Adelphoe by Terence
Terence in his Greek dramatic play, Adelphoe, employs the conventions of reversal of circumstances and fortune also, known as, Peripeteia as part of the tragic element in the story. This concept of the reversal is embedded to the philosophical concepts of aequitas and humanities that give a force to the journey made by Demea. He does not change his practice and education story, but he recognizes his world and himself as fundamentally change.
Terence in his story clearly portrays his ability to double and to articulate the struggle between new and old and between the Cato adherents and the adherence of the Scipio that were prominent in the Middle Republican era. He manages this by showing the constant rivalry between Micio and Demea, each having an explicitly challenges over the other’s approaches involving the application of fatherhood based on the traditional strictness of the Roman and Greek humanities versus patria potestas. The two characters present their own understanding of these aspects based on the reasons resulting to their failings in relations to their sons.
Demea has a character similar to Cato who has to change and adapt to the practices of his childrearing. This is because his lessons have endangered deceit, hatred, and terror among his sons. The educational methodology and behavior of Demea are based on tyranny, and the play clarifies that this has led to his sons preferring their uncle Micio and despise him. When Demea realizes that he lacks knowledge of being an educator or moralist or recognition, anagnorisis occurs.
Anagnorisis is a Greek dramatic device and concept that stand for a moment when one comes to a critical discovery. It is when a character comprehends profoundly his situation and himself. This often is followed by peripeteia, which means the reversal of circumstances in Greek. The story, Adelphoe clearly illustrate the occurrence of peripeteia and anagnorisis as seen in the way Demea changes his direction based on the new educational approach according to the Peripatetic philosophy of the Greek. The playwright says, "I bid him look into the lives of men as though into a mirror, and from others to take an example for himself (Adelphoe, 415.)” Demea starts following the ideals of aequitas and humanitas leading him to win his sons back. These are the two ideas that Terence champions in his play. He wishes the readers to view these ideals as being the best just as Demea has done.
This turn of events is unexpected. It is as though the transition of Demea from ignorance to knowledge shift the whole play into an enlightening and serious tone on morality. The main theme of the play education as we see the way Demea shifts from misery to finding a new happiness.
This play clearly indicates Terence effort in defeating the ideas of the stern, conservative, and cold image of the tyrannical and Cato-like Roman father. This is an important element in my writing in removing the traditional images fund in the modern sources like Lewis Morgan and Paul Veyne. These sources do respect their writings based on the paterfamilias images as being the absolute domestic authority and useful paradigms over sons. I like the effort made by Terence in his play Adelphi for he removes these misconceptions that defined Roman fatherhood. Instead, he compliments the qualities of the early imperial sources and those of the Late Republican.
The playwright Terence was a former slave who was adopted and later freed. This experience can be seen in his writing in making himself a representative of social, cultural, and political shifts that took place in Rome in the middle of the 2nd century BCE.