Medea's Monologue Analysis

This is an ironic statement as Medea is actually planning to kill her children, a fact which the audience does not yet know about. Jason uses another form of rhetorical stretching, which includes his plea that leaving his wife and children was a ‘wise move’, and that the decision was made with Medea’s best interests at heart, as much an attempt to convince himself as much as the audience. The chorus is quick to point out that ‘You have betrayed your wife and are acting badly.’ The Nurse is our first instance of anagnorisis during the play. Though an ancient Greek audience would well be in tune with the stories in Greek mythology, the Nurse’s role would still have proved important, as she was a tool Euripides used to transport the audience

ha! Father, daughter, and my husband.” (57) By having Medea commit such despicable and heinous acts in her lust for vengeance, Euripides shows us how committing revenge lowers the person who orchestrates it more than the one who wronged them in the first place. Medea is defended by many as a wronged mother and faithful wife who is justified in her actions for filicide, but she acts and appears more like the “evil witch” (742) trope, cursing and killing anyone in her way. Medea is also unquestionably blinded by her wrath, and she annihilates Glauke, Creon and worst of all, the blood of her blood, her two children. These atrocities

Good Morning theatre makers here at the La Boite HW. Personally, I am very thrilled to be here today and present to you my directional concept for the contemporisation of this Ancient Greek play Medea by Euripides, written in 431 Bc.

In ancient Greek drama, the chorus was a group of people used throughout the play to represent the beliefs of the citizens of the play’s setting, and show the audience how to feel over the course of the play. In Medea, written by Euripides, the chorus is a group of women, as opposed to the usual group of men. This occurs purposely, with the chorus meant to represent the beliefs of women, with women’s rights being a major theme of the play, but also to sympathize with Medea, a woman protagonist. In the beginning of the play,when Medea is cursing Jason and asking to die, the chorus thinks that she is overreacting. They believe that she is justified in being sad that Jason has left her, but she should not wish to die.

Medea was an absolute lunatic. Before moving to Corinth Medea killed her brother by chopping him up and throwing him in the ocean. She then tricks the king’s daughters into cutting him up and boiling him. Once in Corinth Medea finds out that her husband, Jason, is marrying the daughter of Creon. This infuriates Medea and she has to have her revenge. After talking Creon into letting her and her sons stay in Corinth for another day this is when Medea begins to plot out her revenge. It is shown that she has gone a bit crazy when she says, “Medea: [Creon] lets me stay one extra day, to make three enemies corpses:ha! father, daughter, and my husband” (50). Medea starts her murderous rampage by killing Creon and his daughter by giving them cursed gifts. She then argues with herself debating whether or not she should kill her own children. She decides that it is necessary that they die and slaughters them. This was all done just because her husband decided to marry another woman.

The consequence to that decision is Medea’s anger influencing her decision to go through with murder. From there, it begins a domino effect of consequences. The first being Medea formulates her plan to kill Jason’s new bride followed by Medea killing the children that she and Jason shared together. In today’s society, it is not uncommon for fathers to leave their families because of affairs. It is also not uncommon to hear of the wife seeking revenge on the mistress for breaking up their family. Another example to Medea tying in to modern society is Jason never takes responsibility for his actions, much like how many want to “pass the buck” in today’s society. Everyone wants to save their reputation and don’t want to admit that they have done wrong, much like

Medea never intends to commit any acts of cruelty until she’s banished which eventually leads to the rising action. The King tells Medea to leave even though she has no plan and no help for her sons. She is pushed further off a cliff with no chance of escape.The moment after she has a last day granted to stay, she starts planning the murder of Jason and his wife. She feels the need to get back at Jason for what he did and any chance of getting back with him is ruined.That drives her to drastic measures to either be with Jason or destroy anyone else’s chances to be with him. Medea wasn’t stable before the exile which is seen when she kills her own brother for Jason. The added pressure of it fueled her anger and caused her to act based on emotion

Medea was treated unfairly in the patriarchal society that she lived in and due to the circumstances she was forced to abide by, she sought to achieve her own form of justice. Women were mistreated and regarded as inferior to men. In fact, Medea mentioned how women were like foreigners forced to abide by their husband’s laws and remain subservient. Essentially, women were treated as outsiders and were thought to need constant protection from male figures. So, when the King of Corinth kicked her and her children out of Corinth and Jason left them, she wanted revenge since she felt she had been wronged. Thus, she formulated a systematic plan to achieve her agenda and to rectify the injustice that had occurred. Essentially, the King of Corinth

Medea has already lost her husband and her home so this decision is an obvious one for her. She wants to leave everyone in the same misery that she has been experienced and continues to experience. After this, she even plans to murder her own children just to distress Jason further. Medea knows that she will live in regret and misery by doing so, but her need to sadden Jason trumps her own future feelings. The murder of her sons also symbolizes the death of her marriage with Jason. In order to move past Jason leaving her, she must kill the people that remind her of him. Revenge is an important theme to the story, and is revealed through this

It was not premeditated at all. Along with killing her brother, she indirectly killedPelias. She toldhis daughters that if they were to dismembertheir father’s body while he was sleeping, he would be rejuvenated.However, the daughters soon realizedthat they had just slaughtered their father and he would forever be departedfrom their lives(as stated in the footnotes). Medea also mentions this to Jason when they are talking abouthow Medea helped himtoget the Golden Fleece. She exclaims, “I got your enemy Peliashacked to death byhis own daughters’ hand” (Euripides 98).She did notnecessarilyhave any grudges againstPelias, but Pelias had killed Jason’s father and took the thrown. He also caused Jason’s mother’sdeath through grief. This gave Medea her motive for having Pelias killed. Itwas a moment of insanity because even though she hadPelias killed,she is not in a constant murderous state.She wasjust assistingJasoningettingthe Golden Fleece and she woulddo whatever she hadto to get it. The previous murders were committedbecause of her blind love for Jasonforced upon her by Venus, agoddess. She did not have any premeditated murdersduring this time. She purelykilled them to get what she neededor more so, what Jason needed. It was a solitarymoment of insanity. The next four murders, however, were committedbecause the death of these people would crush Jason emotionally. Euripides used

Medea husband’s leaves her for another woman. Medea is particularly hurt by this since she betrayed her own family to be with him. King Creon banishes her and her two sons even after she begs for mercy. She meets Aegeus who promises her and her children a place to stay and then begins to enact her revenge. She uses her children to deliver poisonous objects to the king and Jason’s new wife, killing them. Then to spite Jason even more, she kills her own two sons and escapes on a dragon sent by Helios.

In Antigone and Medea , the women are ruled by their emotions. Due to this, they make impromptu decisions which leave them in a vulnerable state. Medea feels betrayed by Jason, and her heartbroken hearts fills with rage for him. She becomes so irate she makes an deathly decision, “oh, what misery! Cursed sons, and a mother for cursing! Death take you all – you and your father” (Euripides 20). Her irrational decision is caused by the misery she is in, and it overrules her rational thinking. The threatening tone she gives her children helps illustrate the fact that she plans to have death take her children & Jason, due to Jason’s betrayal to her. Even her children are endangered due to her irate state of mind. Furthermore, this connects to

For while Medea acknowledges that the gods are in charge, she prays for him to live. In many respects, by leaving his fate up to heaven, Medea is pleasing the gods by saying they are superior to her. So Medea offers this prayer to the heavens, claiming that she does not necessarily have to love him to pray for him. For once, she is demonstrating a behavior of being concerned for the wellbeing of another; however, one can rightly assume that Medea has her own self interests in mind, considering she just wants the ability to be with a handsome man; despite her attempt to claim otherwise. After all, she has a tough decision to make between a man who she believes she loves and a homeland that she knows she loves. Regardless, Medea chooses to chase after Jason, a man that she is attempting to not love, but cannot get over because it is based on infatuation and she is ignorant of this

Under Homer’s supposed ‘Hero Ethic’, it can be understood that an individual should support one’s friends and harm one’s enemies. This system leaves little to no room for forgiveness or for mercy. Jason has become her enemy by abandoning Medea and their children. He justifies this by pointing out that he has given her “more than [she] deserve[s]” as Medea now lives in “the center of the world.” However, Medea views him as “A brutal man whom [she] once loved [that] has smashed [her]/in the face so hard [she] wear[s] the face of death.”Medea is portrayed as reacting to Jason’s betrayal by “doing what other heroes before her had done...when confronted with an enemy. She schemes, she tricks, she deceives,” and she seeks revenge on those who have harmed her. Medea enforces this notion that she is merely doing what any self-respecting man, Greek, or Hero would do when she scoffs at Creon's concern over her type, stating: “A woman like me!

“Let death destroy Jason and Jason’s children! Let the whole ancestry of Jason be destroyed!” (Fredrick, 2015 , p. 18)