Abstract

This paper examines heroic consciousness in Sophocles’ Ajax and shows how Mikhail Bakhtin’s construction of Dostoevsky’s hero sheds light on Ajax and on Sophocles more generally. The notion that Sophoclean tragedy functions by way of dramatic irony persists as a commonplace. According to this theory, the audience perceives what the characters onstage do not. I argue that Ajax follows an opposing model, according to which the hero’s consciousness exceeds the audience’s comprehension. Ajax, objectified and destroyed, is at the same time granted autonomy through Sophocles’ use of dramatic indeterminacy