Ajax

Ajax, like Philoctetes, Electra, or Antigone, is indeed a rebellious figure, and as with the others, his rebellion may well be justified by the betrayal of his own people, by the injustice done to him, and by a need for vengeance that is the necessary response to humiliation. However, while in all these plays the excess and intemperance of human emotions are the driving force behind the tragedy, *Ajax* presents an originality that gives it a new and unsettling dimension: the central theme here is madness—true, delirious madness—the terror it inspires, and the suicide it provokes.