The chorus at one point remarks that the most profound hate emerges out of the loss of love. How does the play explore the ambivalence of violent emotions? Where does it preach against succumbing to such emotions; where against it? Background – Violent emotions in the play – Ambivalent emotions against the children – Ambivalent emotions against the husband and his new family – Chorus supporting such emotions – Preaching against such emotions “Her mind thinks in extremes, I know her well” The Nurse (About Medea) Medea is a woman with extreme emotions. These emotions tend to get in the way of her reason and logic. In the prologue, we come to know how Medea plotted to take the throne from Pelias (Jason’s uncle) for which she and Jason got exiled. Even before the play starts …show more content…
In the beginning, the nurse urges the children not to go near their mother, for all she knew in her frenzy she could harm the innocent kids. She no longer wanted to hurt just Jason, but also everything that had to do with him. “I’ve seen her look at them with savage eyes. As if she means to injure them somehow” The nurse (About Medea and the kids) Even Medea herself says that: “Cursed children of a hateful mother-May you die with your father” Not only does she curse her children, she uses them as a ploy to earn time for planning her vengeance. But as discussed before, hatred was only a consequence of betrayal. Even if it did blind her to a certain extent, the hatred did not completely erase the motherly affection Medea has for her children. At many points in the play, Medea speaks of her children as a real caring mother would. This proves how there were contradicting emotions boiling inside of her through the story. “Oh my children Why are you looking at me in that way? Why smile at me – That last smile Alas my heart gives away when I see those eyes I shall take my children from this country” “Let your mother kiss them. Oh these
She left Jason with nothing because all he left her with was her soul. Medea gave Jason the torture and suffering she thought he deserves. Corinthian women would never put their husbands through that even if they did leave them. They would never let their anger get the best of them to the point where they kill their own children they brought into the world. They learned that they are the caregivers of their children and should not bring harm to them.
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
She is now driven to the madness of these events by thinking to herself what’s the best way to get revenge on her cheating husband. By thinking to herself that getting rid of everything that Jason holds dear to himself, that alone will satisfy her need for revenge and will make her peace with the gods above. For the rest of the events that takes place in Medea’s revenge, this is where I start to disagree with her actions in justifying her shattered heart and the destruction of her sanity. She puts her husband’s mourning over the killing of their children to put her mind at
I want Medea to be justified in her actions, but I want this to be something that could happen to anyone. I don’t want her actions to be considered ‘what women do.’ There is also this theme of feminism and standing up for women in general. She criticizes men while using her wit to maneuver the situation properly. Medea is a cunning woman confined to this world dominated by men.
Through the epilogue described by the nurse, the audience is positioned to understand medea's desire for revenge. The audience may have viewed her position of being betrayed by Jason to be devastating( insert quote instead of devastating) and hold sympathy for her as she is not only an outsider from a presumed barbaric country, but also an exile. During when the play was first performed, religion played a big role in Athenian lives, during which breaking an oath to the gods was considered a crime. Hence, the audience would understand medea's wish to bestow revenge upon Jason for he broke his oath of marriage to her, which was witnessed by the gods, by laying in the 'royal bed'.
Euripides’s play Medea consists of minor characters who spout wise and generalized statements about humanity as a whole. One of these statements, spoken by the chorus, is, “It is a strange form of anger, difficult to cure,/When two friends turn upon each other in hatred.” (pg. 17, 12-13). The claim is true about both the play—specifically the characters Medea and Jason—as well as all of humanity.
Medea surpassed the regulations by murdering her family and the ones with higher status. Jason degraded his status by not being able to obey the regulations that were placed on him. He was unsuccessful in taking care of his family and understanding his wife and children. It is extremely shocking and unforgivable if a woman took revenge on her husband through murder in a society where women were always looked down upon. But the whole society overlooked Jason’s actions of betraying his own family and blood in secrecy.
”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!
Medea plots her revenge by murdering the king, the bride and her two children in order to make Jason suffer and take away everything Jason cared about. The Greek gods felt that Medea was in her right and they proved this by allowing and even helping her escape in the end of the play
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.
However, this was clearly not his intention because he did nothing to prevent his children being kicked out into the wild. Unsurprisingly, Medea became enraged and sought to obtain the justice she was not able to obtain. She wanted to judge Jason based on his inexplicable actions. He abandoned his paternal duties and were willing to start a new life, while she and their children were left to
Medea: The Revengeful “Let death destroy Jason and Jason’s children! Let the whole ancestry of Jason be destroyed!” (Fredrick, 2015 , p. 18) Studying the case of Medea, effects of PTSD made her commit Spouse revenge filicide because she wanted to punish her husband, Jason, for betraying her and breaking the oath he took. In his article, Combat Trauma and physiological injury, Brian Lush uses the same method Jonathan Shay used to interpret Achilles’s actions in the Iliad for Medea’s situation.
Her despair and grief intrigued everyone in Corinth which led to the appearance of the chorus. Since Medea is a foreigner in their city, it was easier for them to judge Medea for they do not know her. They thought that Medea’s reaction was too much and since she is a woman, she had no rights to act that way. Medea was too devastated to show up yet she wanted to point out her side. She shared her heart breaking story of how Jason left her and their children for Princess Glauke.
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!
Medea, the protagonist, is a woman driven by extreme emotions and extreme behaviors. Because of the passionate love she had for Jason, she sacrificed everything .. However, now his betrayal of her transformed the beautiful loving passion to uncontrollable anger, hatred and a desperate desire for revenge. Her violent and temperamental heart, previously devoted to Jason, now moving towards its doom.