Medea Factual Analysis

In a normative context, contemporary society puts a much larger emphasis on family and community than society did in the time of Medea. Specifically, society today promotes an environment of equality between people of different genders, classes, and ethnicities. Women are no longer bound to men after marriage, and attain the same rights as them. Foreigners are granted the same rights after immigration. Overall, this creates a familial community of cooperation rather than a patriarchal or power-structed community seen in ancient times. Concepts of preservation and family are more prominent than vengeance or retribution. People do things less for personal justice but rather to protect those around them. Using this normativity, my alternative
Seeing a character who did no good throughout the entire play get away with the last laugh is frustrating, at best. The normativity of contemporary society would also frown upon allowing a threat to the peace of the public escape with no repercussions. To counteract this, my rewritten ending of Medea depicts a situation where the reader can empathize more with Medea’s actions. While ancient judiciary systems emphasized a harsher system focused around principles such as “an eye for an eye,” modern judiciary systems include the analysis of one’s actions and motifs to determine the punishment and level of punishment. That being said, modern readers are more likely to take into account what Medea has done when putting her on an imaginary trial rather than just feel the need to punish her because she committed a sin. Medea’s killing of Glauce is understandable. Immoral, but understandable. The killing of her children was the main reason people consider it unsatisfying to see her escape. With the removal of this, and the addition of Medea’s maternal instincts showing through, the reader can empathize with Medea at the end of the