The Bacchae is meant to make you think; the way this is achieved is through language throughout the play. As we discussed in class, from reading only a few pages we received a remarkable amount of information, but also many questions. What came to my attention, and many others, was how the language can change abruptly. For example, madness is one of the key components within this play as Dionysus has turned women mad to get revenge for his mother as she was slain for him being born. On the other hand, the chorus emits a feeling of joy when they are in his presence because they are his worshippers that he feeds off for power. It is difficult to determine the language as it seems to change from one paragraph to another; two extremely different tones. It also has the audience question if what Dionysus is plotting is truly evil or justice. With his many followers claiming he makes them feel joy, while he is turning women into sociopathic animals, creates a good argument about his own being, his own intentions, and his own worth. Looking through language, there are so many perspectives that can come from within it and contradictions.
Following the theme of language, in the book, Interdisciplinarity, there is an argument of why English can not be one of the disciplines like sociology or philosophy. The Bacchae proves why it can be as the play creates a greater depth to the characters and makes the audience really think what this type of language is trying to “tell” the audience. On page 22 of Interdisciplinarity, literary criticism says “textual interpretations” from books are supposed to be “every bit as precise and painstaking as a laboratory experiment, and to use this newly acquired methodology to challenge the dominance of scientific rationality in society.” The Bacchae is an example of this idea as it challenges the audience to think about right versus wrong and to dig in-depth the language that is used to interpret what they believe is the answer to all their questions. It is based on their feelings and ideas, not others and that is what makes English useful and helpful in that it pushes people to make their own opinions. Without difficult language or weaving together two separate ideas together through language, this would hardly be possible as the audience would not be challenged as they should be and why English should always be considered part of the disciplines.