Comparing Medea And The Poisonwood Bible

Medea Final Essay

In novels and play writes such as Barbara Kingsolver’s, The Poisonwood Bible and Euripides, Medea, the theme Role of women arises: women in many societies are subjugated and displayed as the inferior gender, when they are truly the strongest; they carry all the pain and suffering of society, the wars and the deaths; thus they are the pedestal that keeps everyone up. In order to reveal theme Kingsolver and Euripides make use of literary devices such as symbolism, imagery and diction. Using all three literary devices Kingsolver reveals that women such as Orleana believe that they are just rag dolls that are pulled, pushed and just there, even so realize how strong they really are; that if it was not for them their children would not be able to live. Medea on the other hand represents all the pains and struggles of women and is attempting to inform all women that they have the power and must stand up for themselves.
Orleana in Barbara Kingsolver’s, The Poisonwood Bible sees herself as powerless and voiceless.
Due to her husband’s ignorance she is kept in the shadows and behind the current: “I washed up there on the riptide of my husband’s confidence and the undertow of my children’s needs” (Kingsolver, page 8). The symbolism and imagery of a “riptide”, which is a strong inescapable force, shows Orleana’s helplessness. She has no “life of her own”, as she is pulled by the “undertow” of her “children’s needs”. But later on as she is still viewing herself as helpless, she is brought to a point where she realizes she has to stand up for herself and her daughters. The death of her daughter Ruth May awakened Orleana from her helpless slumber: “no wonder they hardly seemed to love me half the time – I couldn’t step in front of my husband to shelter them from his scorching light. They were expected to look straight at him and go blind”. Using diction Kingsolver reveals Orleana’s revelation that she must step up and stand for what’s
right. Euripides in Medea uses diction to demonstrate or show that women need to learn how to stand up for themselves that they are strong and powerful. The chorus uses Medea as the very symbol that represents all women and their past pains and struggles, while twisting that to show how it is time for women to be on top and be the superior ones: “Male poets with their ballads of faithless women shall go out of fashion” (Kingsolver, page 29-30). The diction of “faithless women”, symbolizes the old and weak women and “out of fashion” reveals that the now is powerful and independent woman. The chorus approves of Media’s “rebellion” and claps at her courage, thus using her as the symbol of all women. Medea is the time for change, the time where women fall in front and are the victors: “That old discordant slander shall no more hold us subject”. In this quote the chorus uses Jason to represent all Men and suggest that women are no longer their property only slightly high than maids and servants. Diction reveals the rise of women and the fall of man. Thus illuminating the end to the subjugation of women and the fall of male dominance. Kingsolver and Euripides through literary techniques clearly illustrated that women are meant to be powerful. All the suffering and the hardships are what make a woman strong because she has to make pretend nothing happen and be strong for her children. The role of Women is to suffer for others, ergo to be strong in the face of hardships.