1. The horror : Medea commits savage actions (to protect her honour/links to the Sun God
Statements:
Euripides depicts Medea as an “Asiatic” outsider who is aware of the wilful aspect of her revenge agenda.
Medea’s campaign for revenge is particularly shocking because she appears to be motivated primarily by pride and honour.
Narrative devices:
- Medea’s internal conflict is evident in the voices of her competing and warring personas (passion versus reason): she addresses herself in the third person, as she seeks to quell any opposing concerns (“anger masters my resolve”)
- When the chorus learns of her murderess intentions, and labels her a “child-killer”, it becomes evident that Euripides increasingly isolates the protagonist (the “Asiatic wife”) and focuses the audience’s attention on the cold-blooded nature of her revenge.
- Comparative depictions: Euripides sets up a contrast between Medea and the Greek figure/goddess Ino (“whom the gods had robbed of her senses” 83) and who was in an irrational state when she committed the murder (“did violence to her own children”)
- As her children disappear offstage, Medea reveals the depth of her anger that “masters my resolve”
Quotes:
- Medea: “I understand the horror of what I am about to do”. (“(I am well aware how terrible a crime I am about to commit” )
- Ino was “robbed of her senses”
- As her children disappear offstage, she reveals the depth of her anger that “masters my resolve” and that for her, takes priority. (It is a “terrible yet necessary deed”). She knows that her children will pay the ultimate price in order in order “to cause their father pain” but Medea sacrifices her maternal instincts for the sake of her pride.
- Prior to the murder, Medea admits: “the laughter of my enemies I will not endure”.
- Medea triumphantly tells Jason, “it was not for you or your princess to trample on my love and live a life of pleasure, laughing at me… I have my claws in your heart as you deserve.” Her pain is “cancelled” now that “any mockery of yours is silenced”.
2. Jason: Reasons for betrayal (E/Medea exposes his “sophistry”)
(Ambition) Despite his “logical” reasons, Euripedes suggests that Jason is motivated by expediency/convenience and prefers the advantages of a royal connection and the security and prosperity that it brings.
Quotes:
- Jason feels that an Asiatic wife is no longer “respectable” and prefers “royalty and power”/ he has set his heart on the royalty “prize”.
- “My motives were different. Above all I wanted us to live comfortably and not go without anything, for I know that an impoverished friend is shunned, given a wide berth by everyone he knows”.
- Social context: To some extent, Jason appears to be motivated by patriarchal concerns typical of men in 5th century Greek society and believes that he has the right to make choices for his sons.
- (5th century patriarchal society) E is critical of Jason’s treatment of women which appears one-dimension and incapable of change: (same beginning to end)
- Jason is also cold-hearted (emotionally bereft/distant) and has a contemptuous and belittling attitude to women. “You got far more than what you gave”
- Jason believes that Glauce ought to listen to him: “If I count for anything in my wife’s eyes, she will prefer me to wealth, I have no doubt” (75)
- Keep in mind that Euripides opens with the consequences of the betrayal, i.e. Medea’s heart-rendering grief rather than Jason’s “fine” reasons.
3. Divine links: deus ex machina: ending
In this regard, E suggests that /criticizes Medea’s pride and her focus on Homeric honour and self-importance comes at the price of family ties and love. Her triumphant exist is problematic because E suggests that she is too quick to excuse/rationalise her crimes on the grounds that she is protecting her sun-god links.
Narrative device: Euripides opens the play with the Nurse’s prologue that relates to Medea’s role in the golden fleece narrative that is one that is steeped in bloodshed and betrayal. He also concludes the play with the striking deus ex machina whereby Medea sits triumphantly in the sun chariot and gloats over the demoralized father of her children.
Quotes:
- Medea tells Jason, “Touch us you cannot, in this chariot which the Sun Has sent to save us from the hands of enemies”. (She gloats over her crime and rationalizes the bloodshed according to her royal ties and the need to protect the god’s from scorn.)
- “Zeus the father of all Knows well what servie I once rendered you, and how You have repaid me.”
- “You were mistaken if you thought You could dishonor my bed and live a pleasant life And laugh at me.”
See Medea Summary Page
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