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The Bacchae and ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ S4, Episode 10
Catharsis and Murder.
“O Dionysus, we feel you near,
stirring like molten lava
under the ravaged earth,
flowing from the wounds of your trees
in tears of sap,
screaming with the rage
of your hunted beasts.”
― Euripides, ‘The Bacchae’
So here we are. And the frenzied finale most certainly does not disappoint. It may well be one of the most controversial endings to a TV show of all time and one that raises hugely important issues of justice and vengeance that have been bothering humanity since the mighty Greek tragedians and philosophers made us aware of their significance for civil society.
Where vengeance and justice were once viewed as the prerogative of the Gods or as in the monotheism of Judeo — Christianity, a single omnipotent and omniscient God, these last episodes of The Handmaid’s Tale in Season 4 have placed this firmly into the hands of human beings and Justice has failed (or maybe it did not. More of this later).
Yet Vengeance has — seemingly — triumphed in the form of, first the Furies and in the final episode, as a reincarnation of the Bacchae. We have moved all the way…
