Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Alcestis, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Mortality and Happiness
Obligation, Limitations, and Fate
Hospitality and Friendship
Loyalty
Summary
Analysis
Now Herakles enters, followed by a veiled girl. He tells Admetos that he had thought, as Admetos’s friend, he had the right “to stand beside you in your hour of need / and prove my loyalty.” But Admetos hid the truth from Herakles and misled him, while Herakles proceeded to revel drunkenly. This was wrong; but Herakles lets his friend’s transgression go.
Herakles confronts Admetos about his breach of friendship. As a friend, he should have been permitted to grieve alongside Admetos. Actually, though, Herakles has proven his loyalty in an unexpected way, which is soon to be unveiled.
Themes
Herakles gestures to the girl. He asks Admetos to keep the girl, whom he won as a prize in an athletic contest, in his care until he returns from his errand in Thrace. If he doesn’t return, then Admetos must keep her forever. Admetos begs Herakles to take the girl somewhere else. She only reminds Admetos of his loss; her presence would be too much to bear. Plus, there would be gossip that Admetos had betrayed his vow. He notices the girl’s resemblance to Alcestis and weeps, feeling weak.
Herakles hasn’t just come to admonish his friend; he has surpassed the ordinary obligations of loyalty (similar to what Alcestis has done) by solving Admetos’s problem altogether. The “athletic contest” is of a different nature than Admetos supposes. For now, he can only grieve the veiled girl’s likeness to Alcestis. Her very presence, veiled though it is, seems to deepen Admetos’s grief by confronting him firsthand with his loss.
Themes
Herakles gently questions his friend, asking him what good it will do to refrain from marriage for the rest of his life. Admetos acknowledges that he will be judged as foolish, but that he owes Alcestis his honor. Herakles tells Admetos that he is “loyal in love.” Then he brings the girl forward and orders his friend to “obey […] / The courtesy you show this girl / may serve you in your time of need.” He tells him he must take the girl into the palace, but Admetos refuses to touch her.
Here, Admetos has a chance to redeem himself, demonstrating his growth in loyalty. Whereas social expectations weighed on him earlier—such as when he refused to be thought inhospitable by rejecting Herakles’s visit—now he cares only to preserve his loyalty to Alcestis. Herakles brings events full circle by appealing to Admetos’s hospitable instinct, but now Admetos refuses to admit someone to his home on false pretenses, remembering his vow to Alcestis that no other woman will live there.
Themes
At this, Herakles seizes Admetos’s arm and won’t let go, though his friend protests that he’s being forced against his will. Herakles gently joins Admetos’s and Alcestis’s hands and lifts the latter’s veil. He tells Admetos to look at her. Admetos does, in disbelief.
Herakles’s grip on Admetos parallels Admetos’s earlier grasp of Herakles, refusing to let him leave. This time, it’s Admetos who must submit to force. His doing so signifies his acceptance of the constraints of ordinary human life. In consequence, the newly humbled Admetos regains his wife, whose life he’d surrendered out of hubris.
Themes
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Admetos doubts the miracle, thinking at first that Alcestis must be a ghost. Herakles retorts, “I am your friend, Admetos, / not some vulgar trafficker in sorcery and ghosts.” At last Admetos believes and rejoices in his wife’s return. Admetos nonchalantly describes his wrestling match with Death, explaining that Alcestis cannot speak for three days until death’s stain has disappeared. He tells Admetos to “treat your guests and those you love / as they deserve” and then leaves, summoned to work that cannot wait.
Herakles, albeit humorously, reminds Admetos that he’s a true friend, and that friendship is founded upon honesty. He encourages Admetos to treat his loved ones and guests justly from now on, now that he’s learned to embrace the proper boundaries and limits of human life and hospitality. Ever committed to his own obligations, Herakles goes on to his next task.
Themes
As Herakles exits, Admetos turns to his subjects, proclaiming a thanksgiving feast: “From this day forth we must remake our lives, / and maker them better than they were before. / Happiness is mine, and now I know it.” He and Alcestis exit into the palace. The chorus observes that the “god has found his way / for what no man expected” and exits as well.
With his closing proclamation, Admetos shows that he has embraced the moral of the play and will now “remake” his life accordingly, as should the audience. Now that he accepts mortality, he is capable of living happily for the first time. The chorus points out to the audience that the play’s resolution has subverted expectations. Far from just being a self-sacrificing wife, Alcestis has overcome death, teaching her husband the ultimate life lesson as she does so. The tragedy has become comedy, with everything set right.
Themes
