Dramatic Suspense in Euripides' and Seneca's «Medea» (American University Studies Series XVII : Classical Languages and Literature, Vol 6)

This study is an investigation of suspense in two highly influential Medea plays, presents a complete re-reading of these plays, and offers a comparative study of the dramas, particularly with regard to their capacity to evoke suspense in the authors' audience. The principal focus, however, is Euripides' «Medea» in which the playwright manipulates audience reaction by his original handling of the source material - in all probability his audience would have expected the Korinthians to kill her children, or, at most, were unsure who would do it or why.