SHORT-ANSWER QUESTIONS
- Many ancient Greeks would see in Neoptolemus someone who is clinging to old values of loyalty and friendship; Odysseus, on the other hand, is a sophist who says that the only important thing is success, so it is permissible to abandon your friends (Philoctets) in order to succeed in your goals (capturing Troy). What messages about loyalty and friendship do you see in this play?
- This is one of the few Greek plays that is set in nature. Pay attention to how the play represents the desert island and Philoctetes' struggle to survive on it. Is nature presented as positive and nurturing or as hostile and destructive? What makes you think that?
- Setting the play in nature allows the poet to meditate on what civilization means. If life outside the city in nature necessitates a grim struggle for mere survival, is civilization a simple blessing? Does the play suggest that civilization lacks when compared to nature (consider that Odysseus is the most "civilized" character)?
- Does the play ever hint at or suggest why the gods have allowed him to suffer like this? Did he do something wrong at some point? What kind of person is he?
- There are no female characters in this play. How does this absence affect the play's concerns? Is the masculinity of the cast significant?