Medea Feminist Analysis

Medea sits in her room all day sobbing loudly for the world to hear. She screams and cries as to capture everyone’s attention. As abnormal as it seems, the readers of Euripides’ Medea witnesses this scene at the beginning of the book. The Nurse and Chorus continually speak about the hardships Medea is going through, and tend to feel sorry for her. Euripides emphasizes the point that Medea is going through extreme pain internally with the thought and actions of her killing her own children. [Some may say that Medea is not sympathized with because she is full of so much grief, and her being a witch, is expected to do unexpected things.] However, readers can see that Euripides does sympathize with her because of the repetition of the Nurse and Chorus’s pity, as well as Medea’s own feelings. Throughout Euripides’s Medea, the Nurse and Chorus foreshadow Medea’s evil actions followed by their attempt at trying to stop and
However, they are incorrect because the Nurse and Chorus’s compassion is presented several times, where they try helping her and offering her advice. Medea, being the crazy woman she is, is considerably expected to behave in the manner she did. To take revenge against Jason, and in reference to killing the kids and new bride, Medea says, “To make you feel pain.” (p. 46) She is explaining how she wants to make him feel pain emotionally and mentally rather than physically. Jason says about himself at the end of the play, “...who will get no pleasure from my newly wedded love, /And the boys whom I begot and brought up, never/ Shall I speak to them alive. Oh, my life is over.” (p 44) It hurts Medea enormously that she killed her kids, but only did it for revenge. The Chorus, towards the end of the story, tries helping Medea and giving her advice, but she does not