Feminism in Medea Medea is the tragic tale of a woman scorned. It was written in 431 B.C. by the Greek playwright, Euripides. Eruipides was the first Greek poet to suffer the fate of so many of the great modern writers: rejected by most of his contemporaries (he rarely won first prize and was the favorite target for the scurrilous humor of the comic poets), he was universally admired and revered by the Greeks of the centuries that followed his death (Arrowsmith, 52).
Euripides showed his interest in psychology in his many understanding portraits of women. Euripides choice of women support characters such as the nurse and the chorus is imperative to the magnification of Medeas emotions.
The very fact that the nurse and chorus are female deepens Medeas sadness, impassions her anger, and makes the crime of killing her own children all the more heinous. Medeas state of mind in the beginning of the play is that of hopelessness and self pity. Medea is both woman and foreigner; that is to say, in terms of the audiences prejudice and practice she is a representative of the two free born groups in Athenian society that had almost no rights at all (Arrowsmith 739).
Euripides could not have chosen a more downtrodden role for Medea. Here is this woman who has stood by her man through thick and thin. She has turned her back on her family and killed her own brother while helping Jason capture the Golden Fleece. By examining Medea’s continuous use of evil and her plot to kill her own children, Creon, and the princess, it will be clear that the Medea was not a plea for women’s liberation for it was a deceitful plan of revenge.
The Essay on Women In Greek Art
Women in Greek history have had many roles. In Ancient Greece the mythological stories tell of very powerful women. Some archeological finds hint at the same suggestion. Women also represent some of the most powerful of deities. In the Classical Age women were subservient and primarily homebound. Women did the sewing, cooking, cleaning and raising of the children.In Hellenistic times women were ...
In the first episode of the play, Medea appeals to the women in the Corinthian chorus with words about their sad predicament. She speaks about how they must buy a husband for a huge price. How they are not treated well by their husbands who are not always faithful. Women are not recognized for the hard pains of labor that are more painful then fighting a war. At first glance this can seem to be the beginning of a plea for liberation. Oh my father! Oh, my country! In what dishonor I left you, killing my own brother for it.
(Medea 164-165) Despite all of her devotion to her husband he has fallen in love with someone new, Glauke. The Nurse and the Chorus understand and sympathize with Medea as only other women could. Euripides develops the heart of Medeas character by the sympathetical approach of the Nurse. In the first episode of the play, Medea appeals to the women in the Corinthian chorus with words about their sad predicament. She speaks about how they must buy a husband for a huge price. How they are not treated well by their husbands who are not always faithful.
Women are not recognized for the hard pains of labor that are more painful then fighting a war. At first glance this can seem to be the beginning of a plea for liberation. Then Medea ruins it by getting personal and shows her selfish side. She states that it is twice as hard for her as a foreigner without a country. Then she gives her reason for getting the women to sympathize with her. “If I can find the means or devise any scheme to pay my husband back for what he has done to me – Him and his father in law and the girl who married him.” (Medea, 209).
It may have seemed in the beginning of the monologue that Medea was out to join forces with the other women in complaint to the way they are treated, but Medea was out for revenge. That was underling everything she said. … he has given me this one day To stay here, and in this I will make dead bodies Of three of my enemies, –father, the girl and my husband.(Medea 369-379).
Medea never lets societies norms of a female discourage her from doing the justice she sees fit. Weak and submissive are not something shes going to settle for. (Blundell, 117) Her rage empowers her with liberation and free thought that far surpasses the women of her time.
The Essay on Women Are Evil
Most women in history have had a hard time being taken seriously. A lot of ladies have fought to change that. We’re not talking about those women here in the present. We’re talking about the women in history who haven’t done us any favors. The topic I come before you to present is one that even the greatest and powerful men fear. That, my friends, is the high levels of evil ...
Although the Chorus never adds to Medeas frenzy directly, they add fuel to the fire of the audience and evokes a certain You go girl! attitude that makes the justification of Medeas actions seem limitless. You have the skill. What is more, you were born a woman, and women, thought most helpless in doing good deeds, are of every evil the cleverest of contrivers. (Medea 404-406) When one looks at the women’s liberation movement that occurred in the United States history, one will see that the women wanted to appear stable and sane. The women wanted equal rights and they used logical and rational arguments. If liberating women was what was in Medea’s mind she would have tried to put women in a positive light. Instead she resorted to her evil, and used the plight of women as part of her justification to avenge what had been done to her. Women were known to be good at evil doing.
The chorus states, “Women are paid their due. No more shall evil sounding fame be theirs”. Medea explains how she killed for and was deceitful for her love of Jason. She even betrayed her own father. The Chorus develops a protectiveness of Medea, and quickly sides with her in scolding Jason. It is the thought of men that are deceitful, Their pedges that are loose.
Stories shall now turn my condition to a fair one, Women are paid their due. No more shall evil-sounding fame be theirs. (Medea 409-413) This can be another plight of the women that they are expected to do anything for their husbands. Again it’s clear that this is not a plea for liberation. Medea attempts to use the same methods that were used in the past, the evil, to achieve her goal. New methods would be needed to change the attitude towards women, but Medea is out for revenge not women’s liberation. Her mind is still set in her old mode. She is not trying to break out of anything.
If she were trying to break out, how wise would it be to use evil to show that women are not evil and should be treated differently? A change in her behavior would have hinted to a wish for social change. Medea presents more evidence that she is out for revenge and not women’s liberation. She states that in finding kindness in Jason she has made enemies. Her acts of revenge will do the same. How does one expect to change the thoughts of society by not making allies? “Let no one think me a weak one, feeble spirited, A stay-home.” These words of Medea again begin as a plea for liberation but then she ruins it with her real motive, revenge. She states that she would like to be known as, “one who can hurt my enemies and help my friends”.
The Essay on Medea and the Chorus
The exchange that takes place between Medea and the Chorus serves several purposes in Euripides' tragedy, The Medea. It allows us to sympathize with Medea in spite of her tragic flaws. It also foreshadows the tragic events that will come to pass. Finally, it contrasts rationality against vengeance and excess. The Chorus offers the sane view of the world to the somewhat insane characters of Medea, ...
The chorus tried to dissuade her from performing her plan by telling her that her actions are not normal to mankind. Revenge was so important to her that she did not listen to what others had to say she even went as far as killing her own children to prove her point. After Medea achieves her goal of killing Creon and his daughter, she is torn between killing her children or not. Her need for revenge is so strong she even states, “But stronger that all my afterthoughts is my fury, fury that brings upon mortals the greatest evils”. (Medea, 572) Her purpose is as clear as day; she is out for revenge. Euripides role of female characters to sympathize with Medeas heartache in the beginning, and magnify the unscrupulous murder of her children in the end is brilliant.
(Bouvrie, 74) The reason for the female support is evident. If the Nurse or Chorus had been a male servant or a mixed crowd in society the plot of the play would have been lost. Medea is a woman suffering from a broken heart, and it seems only fair that she be given sympathy and judgment from peers who can relate. Hell hath no fury like that of a woman scorned!
Bibliography:
Euripides, Medea. Oxford. Palmer, A.
(1967) Synnive des Bouvrie, Women in Greek Tragedy: An Anthropological Approach, Symbolae Osloenses suppl. 27 (1990) Sue Blundell, Women in Ancient Greece, Cambridge, 1995 William Arrowsmith, “A Greek Theater of Ideas,” Arion 2.3 (1963).
