Thoughts on Medea
Here are some thoughts on Medea. Read them then select one to respond to in a post of your own. Be sure to read what your fellow classmates think.
- Euripides uses an unexpected dramatic climax to explore the hypocrisy and oppression of the patriarchal nature of Greek society; he creates a fearful, but powerful woman thus revealing the deep psychological potential of insanity lurking beneath her consciousness and perhaps that of other women. Euripides explores the darkest psychological reaches of the female psyche and the reasons for it.
- In Euripides’s Medea, Medea is a calculating woman, being slighted in her marriage, she seeks revenge as a traditional heroic male value. She was composed and collected without remorse after thenews of the princess and the king’s death, killed by her poison and black magic. Furthermore, her carefully planned killing of her children which was not done in a spur of moment of distortion and confusion must have stupefied the male audiences and send shudders down their spines!
- In Euripides’s Medea, Medea is a calculating woman, being slighted in her marriage, she seeks revenge as a traditional heroic male value. She was composed and collected without
remorse after the news of the princess and the king’s death, killed by her poison and black magic. Furthermore, her carefully planned killing of her children which was not done in a spur of moment of distortion and confusion must have stupefied the male audiences and send shudders down their spines! - It is disturbing to know that there was a mood of great urgency in the despairing climax of her speech that she must act ‘as swiftly as possible’ and ‘without delay’ in killing her children. She killed them in her home- the haven,a place associated with peace and security; she shocked the male audiences who associated violence with the public realm not the
private home! The great satisfaction of seeing the immense suffering of loss in Jason, her husband, predominates her maternal instincts of tender love and protection of her children.
“ …to make their father suffer, when I shall suffer twice as much Myself? (line 1045/6). ‘Are my enemies To laugh at me? Am I to let them off scot free?’ (line 1047/8). By killing her
children she imposes the rivers of tradition and normality to run uphill -the supreme expression of her difference from female normalcy- the murder of her sons. - In addition, Euripides astonishes his audiences/readers with displays of male hypocrisy that reveal the weakness of the patriarchal society which were considered perfect. In Medea, Jason, the status-seeker, the arch-rationalist polarizes himself and Medea; he, the logical person whereas she the emotional in their psychological exchange. Medea’s theme is simple ‘Then I saved your life’ (line 478). He minimises his obligation and claims it is their mutual benefits and that by marrying the princess he is securing a future for her and their children. Euripides jolts the men’s ego by exposing the hypocrisy, rationalism and weakness of men in Jason who was seen as a great hero.
- Finally, he induces a jarring contrast to men’s negative stereotype of weak women by creating a strong, clever and resourceful woman. ‘Courtesans we have for pleasure and concubines to satisfy our daily bodily needs, but wives to produce true born children and to be trustworthy guardians of the household’ (D5b-Demosthenes 59.122 p.103). Women were expected to live unassertively in private as men’s plaything or his housekeeper. Male audiences were surprised seeing Medea with her commanding personality in the public realm of men and completes assertively and equally with her male opponents;
and her capability to move at will from logic to appeal to emotion in each case securing her objectives. ‘This one day- You can hardly in one day accomplish what I am afraid of’ (line 355-6).With Creon, she appeals to his feelings as a father and finally a disarming humble request - to demand from him a day’s grace that led to the lethal concession. In her exchange with Jason she focuses on important Greeks values of helping friends and punishing the enemies, resulting in the heroic masculine Medea, seen as embodying
traditional Athenian male values whereas Jason is seen to be deficient in the male role. - Euripides breaks convention by setting a bold and dramaticstatement as the final scene (the climax) by preparing hisaudience for the wrong denouement. A mythical precedent of a child-murderer - Ino, she at least have the excuse of been rendered insane by god and she finally killed herself. The myth has resumed. The powerful effect and dramatic intensity of Medea’s final supernatural scene broke convention. The scene of the dragon chariot transformed Medea’s status from a criminal to the grand-daughter of the sun god, Helios to symbolise her heroic identity. Medea deprives Jason ultimately of the paternal role of a consoling funeral and this highlights the striking absence of Jason’s traditional male function. Medea, godlike is elevated above the sorrowing Jason. Its starkness makes it deeply disturbing, how could she killed her own children and be allowed to triumph?
- Euripides uses myths to question the position of women incontemporary society. He illuminates their oppression and questions the rationalism and the weakness of the male gender as well as the hypocrisy of Greek hero. He resisted the superior attitudes of the Athenian. The reversal of the roles of the genders serves as a strict warning to the male audiences - are they still in control
