Analysis Of Medea

‘Jason was my whole life.’ ‘possessor of our body’
‘will the man we get be good or bad?’
Continuing in this vein of abstract dissertation, Medea laments the contemptible state of women: they are forced to become their husbands' possessions in marriage (with no security, for they can be easily discarded in divorce), they must endure the pains of childbirth, and they are kept from participating in any sort of public life (unlike men, who can engage in business, sport, and war). Once their home is taken from them, women like Medea are left with nothing. the lack of emotional restraint is "typical" of women, and the uncompromising attention to principled action is the hallmark of heroic Ancient Greek males.
Subordinate position A woman,
when she marries, must leave her own home and join her husband's. She is therefore always an outsider. Women are not free to socialize in public space as men are; while men roam wild, indulging sexual appetites or enjoying the company of friends, women are expected to stay at home.
Women are unfortunate because they have little or no control over their lives.
Whether married or single, they are in subjection to men and social structures favoring the more powerful sex. In order to find a husband, the women must display great material resource, but their “purchase” of a mate turns against them when, according to prevailing mores, they take not so much a partner as a master. There is in addition a double bind, which insists that even unmarried a woman cannot be considered “free”. She is without social status and legal protection and suffers ostracism for giving up her biological role in procreation. Her responsibility is to accommodate the in-laws while discovering how to “manage” the new husband. Happiness remains contingent on how well the wife silently manipulates the situation, taking care never openly to challenge the marital status quo. Married life can quickly become intolerable, since males have sexual freedoms which females do not. Infidelity to marriage vows brings no automatic condemnation to them as it does, in the patriarchal double standard, to wives. The latter’s subordinate role, it is claimed by complacent husbands, is actually peaceful privilege and protection from the necessity to wage war. {Patriarchy = system of social organization in which descent and succession are traced through the male line; the rule of a tribe or family by men; by extension, male
dominance}
Of all things with life and understanding, [230] we women are the most unfortunate.
Surely, of all creatures that have life and will, we women are the most wretched.
Death is better
A man can find another woman when he tires of his wife; a woman has no such escape.

All in all, medea is a very ambiguous character who can be interpreted in many ways, who can change very easily, shown by her three interactions
Aegeus
Sees a calmer, more composed Medea, a more conscious and compassionate Medea, perceptive, she is no longer in her rage
‘I hope you will get all you long for, and be happy’
‘it’s royalty and power he’s fallen in love with’
But this is questioned as she has an ulterior motive – to find sanctuary
‘My husband’s the most evil man alive’
‘It is the end of everything!’
Manipulative, trying to appeal to Aegeus, yet realistic as she realises her needs
‘I touch your beard as a suppliant, embrace your knees’ – beseeching to him
Creon
Medea’s cleverness which is achieved through two aspects: the manner in which Medea talks to Creon to gain what she wants, and how Creon continuously talks about how clever she
is
Medea
‘This is the cruel end of my accursed life!’
‘I beg you!’
‘Show some pity: you are a father too’ – appealing to the Creon as a father – ‘I’m no tyrant of nature’
Evoke sympathy and pity
‘What do you gain by being clever?’
‘After all, I am not so clever as all that’
Devaluing herself to make her seem less harmless and trustworthy to Creon
‘Don’t let me alarm you, Creon. I’m in no position – a woman – to wrong a king’
‘Yielding to superior strength’
‘I kneel to you, I beseech you by the young bride, your child’
Using her subordinate position to her advantage
Creon
‘I fear you.’ – truncated sentence
‘You are a clever woman, skilled in many evil arts’
Creon has serious fear about her and knows her capabilities
‘A woman of hot temper … is a less dangerous enemy than one quiet and clever’
Concept of excessive emotion, the need to have moderation, and shows Medea’s flaw, hemertia
‘You can hardly in one day accomplish what I am afraid of’ – foreshadowing
Nevertheless, he is eventually deceived by Medea and degrades her abilities, which truly shows how clever Medea is.

Jason
Very emotional, rules by emotion, governed by passion
‘looking friends in the face after betraying them…it is not even audacity; it’s a disease’
‘what fatal results follow from ungoverned rage’
She believes that she has been heinously wronged as she has sacrificed a lot for Jason and done everything right – her actions were governed by her passion for Jason
‘lit the torch of your success’ ‘Even after I had borne you sons!
She seems very lonely, Medea as the other – we understand her now as being very lonely, we see a more vulnerable side of her
‘My father’s house, which I betrayed to come with you?’
‘Go on, insult me…I am alone, an exile’ ‘where now can I turn?’

the figure of the tragic hero as someone more than human, but less than divine. He backs up his claim with examples of characters from literature, religion and mythology whose tragic stature is a function of their ability to mediate between their fellow human beings and a power that transcends the merely human: