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
The servants carry Alcestis’s bier to the funeral, and everyone exits. The stage is empty for awhile. Then a scowling old servant enters and addresses the audience. At the same time, Herakles can be heard singing a drinking song, off-key, in the background.
In this scene, the play takes a turn toward the tragicomic, also setting the stage for Herakles’s heroism and the turning point of the play. Herakles’s drunken revelry contrasts starkly with the sorrow and strife that’s gone before.
Themes
The servant says that he’s seen many strangers come to the house in his time, and they’ve all been shown hospitality. But the new guest “is the worst damned / guest this house and I have ever seen.” Even though Admetos is obviously in mourning, “this dull clod” orders the servants around, drinks like a peasant, and sings bawdy songs. And the servants have been ordered not to tell Herakles about Alcestis’s death, so they have to put up with the guest’s rudeness.
This scene addresses the fact that there are multiple sides to hospitality; the guest also has obligations to the host. By drinking copiously and generally being disorderly, Herakles fails in his obligations as a guest, especially a guest in a house of mourning. But Herakles’s failure traces back to Admetos’s dishonesty—by concealing the truth of Alcestis’s death, Admetos has robbed Herakles of the opportunity to be a good guest and a true friend.
Themes
Then Herakles enters, drunk, carrying wine and frequently hiccupping and belching as he speaks. He criticizes the servant for scowling just because “someone you barely knew dropped dead.” He asks the servant if he really understands the human condition: “we all gotta die. / […] That’s fate. A mystery.” So that’s why we should enjoy ourselves while we can, “think human thoughts […] / eat, drink, and be merry.”
Herakles’s comedic interlude nevertheless conveys some of the play’s central truths. Even though he doesn’t know that Alcestis has died, his generic comments about mortality point to those realities which Admetos has failed to grasp: death is inevitable and cannot be fully understood by mortal beings. This is part of the essence of being human—of “[thinking] human thoughts.” Failing in this, people can’t freely enjoy life.
Themes
The cranky servant agrees but points out that Herakles’s behavior is out of place in a house of mourning. Suddenly Herakles sobers, realizing Admetos hasn’t told him the whole truth. The servant finally tells him that Alcestis is dead, and Herakles is filled with remorse. He asks where the tomb is located, then summons his strength: “Come, o my tough spirit […] / come and prove what man I am.” When Death comes to Alcestis’s grave, Herakles will ambush him and “crush him in my mortal grip” until he releases Alcestis. If Death doesn’t show up, Herakles will pursue him in hell. It’s all worth it to repay Admetos’s friendship. He exits.
When told the truth, Herakles immediately transforms from a drunken partier to an undaunted hero, determined to reverse Admetos’s loss out of loyalty to him. Herakles’s strength is so formidable that even the powers of Hades will be forced to submit and surrender Alcestis back to life.
Themes
Get the entire Alcestis LitChart as a printable PDF.
