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Themes In Banish Medea

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"Oh, my fatherland! How well I now remember you!" line 317, Medea makes a plea to Creon in an attempt to stop him banishing her from Corinth after he deems her dangerous and admits that he is terrified of her. "After my children, my country is my dearest love." line 318, Creon's responds, allowing Medea to use his weakness, his love for his daughter, to fulfil her wish to stay in the country. Here are two points of interest in this section of the play that relate to broader themes and issues; children and being stateless.
The fear of being stateless, which Medea was facing in this section, was seen as being a dreadful fate and had been described as a living death. Belonging to a state was a necessary condition of civilised life, a woman belonged to her husband after he had paid dowry to her …show more content…

Creon is willing to banish Medea and cast her into a fate of exile and statelessness to protect his daughter. This is in stark contrast to the main theme of the play in which Medea is willing to murder her own children in order to seek revenge and ensure that Jason does not have a sense of belonging and wealth in Corinth from his new marriage with their joint children. It seems, in this scene, that her fear of being banished is more of a concern to her than her children. Creon's actions are all to protect his daughter, "I'll not put you before my family." line 316 even though he has previously admitted that Medea does "sounds harmless" line 303, he is not willing to take the risk as he is "terrified you're plotting evil" line 304. His tough actions protecting his daughter despite his thoughts that Medea may not actually be dangerous. The only line in which Medea references children, maybe not even her own, is to refer to them as "a great evil" line 319 in which having them brings a lot of trouble and

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