MEDEA Medea is a tragedy, written by the ancient Greek playwright Euripides in 431 BCE based on Jason and Medea, and particularly Medea’s revenge against Jason for betraying her with another woman. The play is set outside their house which represents the entire nation, Corinth, a Greek city. If the structure of the house is decentralized, so is the nation. In this play, revenge is a necessity and central to the play. Medea’s husband has not only wronged her by marrying the King of Corinth’s daughter but the King of Corinth banished her from the city to protect his daughter from Medea.
Medea’s tone throughout her speech is proper, confident, and angry. It is as if she is a military leader, preparing her troops for battle. She uses “we” to show connection between herself and the chorus. She states her points of why she has been wronged and we see this applies to the other women because the chorus fully supports and sympathizes with her. The chorus says, “You are right Medea” (L 266).
In Euripides’ play Medea, Jason provides many arguments for why he owes Medea no allegiance or appreciation. The first argument was about how Medea spoke badly of the royal family. “You uttered unholy curses against the royal family” (CMIC 514). Jason doesn’t think Medea deserve appreciation if she keep insulting the royal family. The second argument started when Medea talked about how she saved him during the process of obtaining the golden fleece.
Compared to ancient Greece, women suffered great tribulations and these current activities are unimaginable for a woman under the complete supervision of a male husband. In the play Medea by Euripides, the main characters Jason and Medea are atypical characters in many ways. Medea defies perceptions of the normal attitudes of men and women by overcoming her female emotions and performed acts that the Greeks considered unfeminine.
n the play Medea by Euripides we are presented with a woman who is about to go into exile with her two children. Her husband has left her for another and now Medea wants revenge. She does this by way of gifts and their destructiveness is conveyed through the fact that she destroys everything that ties her to Jason except Jason himself. The biggest sacrifice Medea had to make was killing her children. She knew that she would not be able to win Gluace over on her side if she was to present the gifts, but her children would be much more appealing as they are a symbol of a new relationship due to their inability of causing harm.
'She is no ordinary woman', her pride was her strength and her fuel of dedication which drove her to achieve her ambitious goal. The play starts off by showing Medea suffering and crying upon her husband's betrayal and it presents an ordinary woman of the time. 'Oh I am wretched pity me for my sufferings! Oh, if only I could die'. Her anguish and anger was relatable by the audience because her sorrow and grief symbolises an average woman of her time who would have reacted in a similar way after a loss of her husband.
Thus Ward is able to address the double edge sword that presents females in stories as “weak” or built upon the “wrath of a woman.” The inclusion of the universality that is associated with Greek mythology allows Ward to shed off the label of blackness from her work. With China, Esch and Katrina all carrying some traits of Medea, it allows the reader to see all aspects of being female from being vulnerable, brave, nurturing and protective. Moreover, Ward insinuates that women should be presented as empowering to one another and through Medea paralleling story Ward articulates her
I will be offering an analysis of the key themes explored in the play Medea, I will be going in depth on the different themes used throughout the play and give textual evidence, relevant critical material as well as comparing the themes and exploring how they interrelate. From the get go in the play Medea is in troubled situation, one being her husband, Jason, he has wedded a woman who is named Glauke, the daughter of Creon, who is the King of Corinth. Later on in the play Creon exiles Medea and her children from Corinth, she has two sons. We then go on to find that Medea decides she is the woman to take such exploitation; she plans a bloody vengeance and quickly sets about finding a way to kill them all. Murdering her own children isn’t easy
After Medea’s husband, Jason, betrayed her, desiring justice for his sin is a predictable action because the natural inclination to punish those who violate what is precious, for example, the sanctity of marriage, connects all of humanity – no matter the culture or time period. Therefore, one can understand Medea’s feelings and judge her goal as righteous. Moreover, the chorus, who’s role in a Greek play is to morally educate, defends and encourages Medea in
Is Medea´s development through the story the one of a hero or of a mentally unstable? Medea´s character development consists mainly in the transition from suicidal to child-killing hero (or some say). Said transition consists mainly of a physiological struggle between reason and passion, which can be perceived as the struggle of a hero or the struggle of a mentally unstable and sexual-jealous person. The main objective of this essay is to explore these two options in order to develop a more clear understanding of the characteristics of Medea and her actions. At the beginning of the play Medea demonstrates a suicidal and depressing state of mind cause by the psychological harm that her soon to be ex-husband has caused her when he decides to leave her in order to marry Creon´s daughter.