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.…
Euripides constructs Medea to be a powerful voice in a world of silent women. All women of the time were treated the same way, and they weren’t valued. Medea was a King’s daughter, sorceress and Apollo’s granddaughter, so just those factors made her different. Medea was not herself when she was with Jason, she changed when she became Jason’s wife living as a foreigner in a ‘civilised’ land far from her native home. As “an exile,” Medea has been self-contained and submissive, she has “won a warm welcome from her new fellow citizens” and has been “complete support” to her husband. Despite this, Jason shows “criminal behavior” and leaves Medea for a “princess’ bed” in order to further his own social position. As Medea reminds Jason, he “owes his life” to her; she has helped him gain the Golden Fleece, even killing her own brother to ensure their escape and then tricking Pelias’ daughters into killing their father the King. Medea’s sense of betrayal is then amplified when Jason tries to convince Medea that he did it for…
Medea is driven mad by her love and hatred for her husband, Jason. In the story, Medea plans to kill Jason, Creon, and Creon’s daughter who Jason plans to marry. She wants to kill him because he betrays her love; Jason is in love with the power he could possess once he marries the new bride. Medea vows to make Jason suffer the same pain she had suffered. In three particular instances of the play, Medea could have stopped her ploy for revenge, but she chose not to.…
Medea’s relationship to Jason, as a Middle Eastern woman, provides for disaster if broken, for it is made up of Medea’s excessive sacrifices to be with a man of another race. She entered the relationship fully aware of the obstacles she’d encounter to be with Jason and of the fact that even if they managed to be together, the relationship would be illegitimate. This implies that her love for him was deep, clearly, she’d do whatever to be with him, but it makes her vulnerable if this love is tossed away. To lose Jason after all her efforts, such as “betraying [her] father for him, killing [her] brother, [and] making [her] own land hate [her] forever,” would prove that all of that was for nothing and that he never saw her the way she saw him. As with Addie and Sethe, her reaction is natural, her entire life was disrupted when Jason divorces her and thus her capacity to be a good mother is gone. She cannot be expected to be a good mother when all her life’s work is being unraveled before her eyes; she will lash out and attempt to regain a sense of herself. In the sorrow that Jason creates, Medea attempts to create the same sorrow for him and this plan incorporates killing their children. It is barbaric and vile, but it is irrational to label Medea as a bad mother for those murders. All her life before her, Medea was striving towards greatness, to…
One of the reasons as to why Medea is such a compelling character is because she does not have one particular tragic flaw. Her tragic condition is the result of a convergence of flaws. I think that these can be summarized by the idea of Medea not recognizing any balance in her emotions. She fled her father's home with an intensity of emotions invested in Jason that were never calculated nor any type of deliberation present. This same abandon is seen when Medea kills her brother. It is also evident when Medea cannot accept that Jason has stopped loving her and loves another. While Medea does consider the implications of killing her own children, it is to no avail as the intensity of her emotions overcomes all reason. When the Nurse understands…
that she needs a day to find “support for [her] children” (Euripides 342) and asks the…
Furthermore, Medea takes offense to men having nothing to bind them to their commitments and women having to uphold to higher standards of commitment. In her eyes this is an injustice because whether it is a man leaving his wife, or a wife leaving her husband it only reflects negatively on the woman. She states “we women are the most wretched…we have bought a husband, we must then accept him as professor of our body… for women, divorce is not respectable; to repel the man, not possible” (24). From this statement we can tell that women are not afforded the same options as men, but still women are less respected if they do not act according to the social expectations of women. Jason leaving Medea not only subjects her to societies ridicule and shame, but a personal shame. The extent of her loyalty as went unappreciated and it results in her feeling used. Medea states, “Do you see how I am used- In spite of those great oaths I bound him with-By my accursed husband? Oh, may I see Jason and his bride ground to pieces in their shattered palace for the wrong they have dared to do to me, unprovoked! ” (22). In Medea's eyes his actions are a betrayal and her actions express those of vengeance. Has much as she has done for him she would have never thought that Jason would have shamed her in the way that he did. The idea that unexpected behavior leads to belittlement can be best expressed in Aristotle's, understanding of an insult, when he states, “if [a person] should have been expecting the opposite. For what is greatly unexpected is the more painful... From these considerations it should be clear what seasons, times, dispositions and ages are easily moved to anger… (144). Medea was not expecting Jason to dishonor her because she has fulfilled…
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…
In the play Medea, the main character Medea is extreme on seeking revenge on her ex-husband, Jason. Jason has left her and their two sons Creon and Creusa for the daughter of the Cornith King. Medea is livid with this action from Jason. Since Jason and the Cornith King(Ceron) are frightened by Medea they decide that her and the children are to be banished from the kingdom. This just makes Medea even more furious towards Jason. The nurse characterizes Medea as being in pain and anguish that she is suffering through the terrible time of Jason leaving her. She also says how Medea is so angry with Jason and his betrayal she is treacherous. This is shown to be true when she plans to kill Ceron and Creusa to punish Jason for betraying her. Heartlessly she kills them to seek revenge on him. She thought hurting Jason meant more to her than her children did even though she loved them. Her plan was to seek retribution upon Jason as she did. Her seeking revenge hurt everyone even though she was proud that she had accomplished making Jason hurt, she had and domestic conflict killing her own children whom she loved very much.…
to hurt anyone. The term "Medea's revenge" refers to the murder of Creon, Glauce and Medea's two sons in order to upset…
In the Greek play Medea, there are two protagonists, Medea and Jason. Medea, who is the wife of Jason has fallen in love with him and has left her country to be with him. After all this loyalty, Jason decides to divorce Medea and marry the king’s daughter; Glauce. Medea becomes filled with fury and anger and wants to kill her husband and the king’s daughter. We can also say that she becomes suicidal. Jason on the other hand, only seeks his own benefits because he has married the King’s daughter just to gain benefits for himself and leaves the woman he used to love.…
Euripides and Ovid present two entirely different sets of motivations for Medea's behavior which surface through her attitude towards Jason. In the Athenian tragedy, it becomes clear from the onset that Medea harbors an unnatural and overwhelming hatred for Jason and anyone he is connected to. Granted, anger is a natural response when one spouse leaves his or her mate for another partner, but it should not consume the abandoned person's life. As the Chorus notes, "It often happens...You must not waste away" (156-158). Medea's stern rejection of this advice is puzzling to the reader, but her reasons soon become clear in a soliloquy following a meeting with Aegeus in which she states "Let no one think me a weak one" (807). Medea is a proud character whose self-image reflects an important person, but as was the case with her anger, she takes this idea to an extreme. The rage that follows Jason's threat to her authority motivates her to think and act destructively. Ovid, on the other hand, saw Medea behaving for a different set of reasons.…
This is a difficult question, because there is more than one character that can be blamed for the tragedies that occurred. First of all there is Jason who could be blamed, because he betrayed Medea by marrying the daughter of king Creon. Medea was hoping to spend a happy life with him and she betrayed her family by killing her own brother only to support Jason. Therefore he is somehow responsible for the anger that Medea feels.…
As the Nurse at the beginning of the story tells, Medea gave up everything she had to be with Jason. She left her family, and even killed her own brother to be able to run away with him. Medea, who has been dishonestly betrayed by her husband, uses revenge to punish him for his deeds and to seek the rewards which it offers to ones pride. The reader begins to feel pity for the main character and even excuse her actions. That is a result of identification with Medea, as a cheated spouse. In any kind of relationship during life, people expect fidelity, so they clearly understand why she wanted revenge.…
In the popular Greek tragedy Medea, by Euripides, the main character (Medea) kills her own children. This was all an attempt to get back at her ex- husband Jason who cheated on her. However, it is found in later text that Medea admits she will also share in the pain that she caused (Lines 1360-1365). Medea’s act was one of revenge. It led to and ending full of sadness and despair.…