1. The essay examines how women gain power and influence through sacrificing their lives in Euripides' plays Alcestis and Hippolytus. In both plays, women assert more agency by forfeiting their lives for honorable causes.
2. Typically in ancient Greece, women had limited power and agency, even within their own households. They had little influence over their husbands.
3. The essay will analyze whether giving up one's life and being can paradoxically increase a woman's reputation and therefore her power, through studying the themes in Euripides' two tragedies.