1. Medea as a representative of “We women” of Corinth
Views: Medea’s distraught wailing that fills the stage at the opening of the play captures the distress and desperation of a forsaken woman, who has few, if not, any rights in Ancient Greek. Medea is a victim of Jason’s shameful and unscrupulous betrayal.
Narrative devices:
- From the time, “this unhappy woman from Colchis”, opens the doors and steps out of “Jason’s house” to address the chorus, and into the “male” public space, she appears as a crusader for justice on behalf of “we women” of Corinth.
- In her initial soliloquy, Euripides depicts Medea as a crusader for justice, who universalises her stricken state and sensibly outlines the disadvantages suffered by a discarded wife in Ancient Greek. In this regard, Euripides appears to legitimise Medea’s sense of outrage at the disintegration of her marriage.
Quotes:
- Not only was Medea, according to the Nurse, an exemplary and obedient wife, “who seeks to please her husband in all she does” but she has little status as a divorced women in Greek Society in 4th century BC. Medea’s also tells Aegeus: “I have done him no wrong” (Aegeus)
- Medea states, “we must buy a husband taking a master to play the tyrant with our bodies” and then she becomes twice exploited when her husband, the “foulest of traitors” chooses the “princess’s bed”.
- Initially, the chorus (as the “Women of Corinth”) support Medea’s grievances and believe that agree that “it is just that you should take revenge upon your husband”. “My own heart suffers too When Jason’s house is suffering”.
Social context: Euripides also criticises the patriarchal world order that denies women fundamental rights.
Narrative devices: In agons at the beginning and at the end of the play, Jason continues to reduce her grievances to mere “sex jealousy”. In this regard, Euripides draws attention to his intransigent and intractable/unmovable attitude throughout the play. At the end, he accuses her, “my children; now, out of mere sexual jealousy, You murder them!”. Not only does he, as a misogynist, appear to scorn women, but he expresses the desire that there were some “other ways for mankind to reproduce itself, without the need of a female sex; this would rid the world of all its troubles”.
2. As “a stateless refugee” and the “Asiatic” outsider
Quotes: The chorus admits that the plight of the “stateless refugee” is one of the most miserable and desperate.
(A hint of xenophobia – also Creon). Wary of Medea, Creon is quick to exile her. He supports Jason’s new marriage and coerces Medea into submitting to their wishes, as presented as the law. He also then decides to banish her and her children.
(Social context) Using fine words, and in a tone of “glib highmindedness, Jason believes that Medea should be grateful for her new life. “In Greece, “where you have come to know justice and the use of law”, she has had a much better life than in her “barbaric” country. He tells her, “you gained more than you gave”, when she came to such a civilised country should therefore be submissive and accept his new marriage.
Quotes:
- Dismissively, Creon tells her: “Go, you poor wretch, and take all my troubles with you! Go” (27) Creon also concedes that she is a “clever woman, skilled in many evil acts”.
- Creon fears one who is “quiet and clever” over a “woman of hot temper”. Evidently, Euripides suggest, men distrust superior intelligence in general; they fear and hate it in a woman.
- Euripides also suggests that Jason is perhaps resentful of her “barbaric” status that is creating a sense of distance between Jason and his desire for fame and status.
- In one of her agons, Medea admits: “We came as exiles, and our friends are few enough:” And Jason also acknowledges that he prefers royal status because with Medea, there is a sense that the family is “shunned, given a wide berth by everyone he knows”.
3. As a schemer
Whilst the audience hears Medea’s hysterical outburst at the beginning of the play, Euripides also includes at strategic moments of the plot, agons with Jason and Creon that display her manipulative and calculating attitude.
She proves to be just as “clever” a speaker as Jason as she outwits both in her quest to exact revenge for the betrayal.
- Medea outwits King Creon and begs for an extra day… “…..” Medea appeals to Creon’s paternal feelings realising that homeland and children are critical to a man’s sense of self, his status and his vanity.
- Medea states “Do you think I would ever have fawned so on this man, except to gain my purpose, carry out my schemes?”.
- Medea manipulates the stereotype of the obedient and repentant wife and knows that Jason will be flattered by her submission..
- She lures him to his doom. “I talked things over with myself, she tells him, “and reproached myself bitterly”. “Why do I act like a mad woman? … What you did was best for me… I confess I was full of bad thoughts”.
- Jason does not recognise how she uses his “clever” words and manipulative strategies against him.
- Jason does not foresee the dangers/ the murder (despite Medea’s past violent history) Jason thinks that she has changed and become “sensible”, that is adopts Jason’s views and values.
4. As a murderess: The horror : Medea commits savage actions (to protect her honour)
Euripides depicts Medea as a character who is aware of the wilful aspect of her revenge agenda. She states in her soliloquy prior to murdering her children: “I understand the horror of what I am about to do”. (“(I am well aware how terrible a crime I am about to commit” )
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. The chorus’s fearful reference to ….. reflects their disapproval, and Euripides’s, because she has overstepped the boundaries of justice.
Narrative devices:
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.
(In this regard, 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”)
Quotes:
- “Arm yourself, my heart: the thing That you must do is fearful, yet inevitable. Why wait then? My accursed hand, come take the sword; Take it and forward to your frontier of despair.” (55)
- Prior to the murder, Medea admits: “the laughter of my enemies I will not endure”. (She 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”.
Social context/views/values: Rather than an external enemy, Euripides suggests that the biggest threat to Greek civilisation lies within.
The more Medea seeks to justify her bloody-pursuit of vengeance, the more she loses sight of her original pursuit of justice. She also subverts (goes against/undermines) all the values society holds dear, such as the sacred bonds of the family and the parallel obligations to the city.
5. As the granddaughter of the Sun God:
Euripides 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 exit is problematic because Euripides suggests that she is too quick to excuse/rationalise her crimes on the grounds that she is protecting her sun-god links.
(Medea tells Jason, “you know well the value of your oaths to me.”
Social context: During the 5th Century BC, the gods were revered and Euripides suggests that one of Jason’s biggest sins is to contemptuously believe that he is in complete control of his fate. Apart from paying homage to Aphrodite, Jason disregards the role of Medea and the Sun-God in his golden-fleece victory. (Homeric code of chivalry, “honour.. is flown to the sky”.
Narrative devices:
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. Quote… She 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.)
Quotes:
- “Zeus the father of all Knows well what service 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.”
- Return to Lesson 1: Class on Medea
- Return to Class Lessons Medea