Theme Of Happiness In Euripides The Bacchae

Happiness is the most ideal state of mind that any person can achieve in his life and which indicates complete physical and moral satisfaction of an individual. According to Freud, happiness is nothing but another synonym for sexual pleasure; in other words, following the pleasure principle, happiness can only be achieved by investing all of our libidinal energies in the aim of reaching genital satisfaction. But due to some obstacles that will never allow any human being from reaching the ultimate state of happiness, like the weakness of our own bodies, Freud, adopting the reality principle, came up with the theory of sublimation; which suggests that an individual can avoid the pain caused from not achieving complete happiness by deviating his libidinal energies towards other activities, like sports, gardening, painting… These activities will later cause the birth of human civilization. But note that when this sublimation exceeds its limits, and there are no more libidinal energies to be diverted, a more primitive instinct begins to show: the death drive, which can only be contained by the fund of libidinal energies that we possess.
But what does such a conflict reflect about human civilization? Euripides’ play starts by introducing us to one the two main characters: Pentheus, king of Thebes, whose characteristics can be immediately noticed, like his rationality and his will to enforce law and order in his city; thinking that this will help his people prosper and his kingdom