Greek Durrenmatt

Medea, an ancient Greek tragedy was written by Euripides during the classical era. This play focuses on Medea and how she plots the revenge against her unfaithful husband. Jason has left Medea and their children to go marry the princess of Corinth, Glauce. This was Medea’s motivation to kill Glauce and her own children. Similarly, in Hamlet, a tragedy written by William Shakespeare during the post classical era is about Hamlet and his revenge for his father on Claudius, Hamlet’s uncle, that took his father’s life, throne, and wife. Hamlet was motivated to take revenge after seeing the ghost which was his father in Act I Scene V. In both plays, the theme of revenge is present and is represented through the main characters. Medea and Hamlet are both characters who seek revenge on those who betray them to prove their control over their lives and to preserve their honor, which leads to death and suffering. In addition, both characters went mad in order to fulfil their plotted revenge. Also, while Medea successfully took revenge against her husband and lived, Hamlet received the ultimate price of death after his revenge.

Furthermore, the disputed topic of the chorus supporting her, illustrates the ‘justice’ a society has. When the gods are pleaded to and do not take action against Medea’s acts of infanticide, it questions our morals on what we powerless humans can do to change a difficult situation. This concept portrays a system which lacks in authority which leads to doubt that surrounds the idea of ‘wild justice.’ The gods have a small role which plays in the part of revenge as a wild justice. It was always the goddess of love who obtained Medea’s help on Jason’s behalf. The Chorus had always believed that her actions were due her nature for loving Jason and sympathised her emotions as she was only a woman. “We were born women – useless for honest purposes, But in all kinds of evil skilled practitioners.” This ideally would have additionally been a reason for Medea to pursue a reason of right for women, which could have been a valid reason for a wild justice.

In act three, the audience sees an entirely different side of Ill; he is in the final stages of his cathartic journey. He has comes to terms with fact that he will not live much longer, and it is because of what he has done in his past. In the final act, the Teacher makes an attempt to save Ill’s life and make the townspeople see the error of their ways, and after the failed attempt when the Teacher asks why Ill does not want to be helped, Ill replies: “ I turned Clara into what she is, and myself into what I am, a grimy, petty shopkeeper.” (84) Despite the fact that someone was making an attempt to save his life, his convictions lead him to the idea that he deserves to die for what he has done. Although modern law would dictate that lying does not seem befitting of capital punishment, he believes that by ruining Claire’s life he guilty for the suffering of everyone else within the town. His death is most directly impacted by this idea because this persistent nature of being truthful at the most inopportune moments ultimately leads to him allowing the townspeople to murder him. Even the way Ill’s execution is planned is indicative of his emphatic view that he should expose the truth. When Ill goes to the mayor’s office before his trial, the mayor wants to cajole Ill into committing suicide saying that it is his duty as a man of honor, to which Ill replies: “For me it will be justice; I don’t what it will be for you.” (90) Proving, just as before that he feels deserving of the death penalty, but also something else—that he has some essence of a moral code. The entire play is spent on how he is a degenerate, and only acted in his self interest, but towards his end this insistence on being truthful is almost shocking. He specifically wanted his death to be

The Greece play Medea is about a wife from a foreign land that is abandoned by her husband. She chooses to take revenge against him by killing his new bride, his father-in-law, and his two kids. For Medea, trying to punish him was not justified for the circumstance that she was in. This was mainly for two reasons. Starting off, she was a foreigner who married and became a queen in a land, so there were different rights and customs that she could not ignore.

She exists in a time when women are already given their roles and taught how to think in a singular manner (with no room for individuality) such as is displayed by her “finished” daughter as she (Elizabeth - Claire’s daughter) incessantly echoes the term “all the girls” (Glaspell, 1921, p. 24) as though the fact that she thinks in the same manner as the rest of her peers is something to be celebrated. Claire ceaselessly attempts to break away from this tradition but is unendingly held down by the various attachments in her life which forces her down a forlorn path. Claire shows the increasingly unsettling signs of insanity as the play progresses. She constantly has unfinished thoughts and is shown as displeased with everything from the knowledge that her dead son’s curiosity might have been snuffed out by the society – had he lived – to the failure of her daughter to be more than what society has ordained and to her own failure to properly break away from restraints on

While tragic heroes traditionally are the victim or pawn in a fate that they do not have much control over, Medea, in this case, does not fit the script. She seeks her own revenge while using powers that she already has. It does not seem that very many outside forces effect her, and if they do, Medea seems to willingly succumb. Despite these peculiarities, she does possess one characteristic that is similar to a tragic hero. Tragic heroes almost always know what it means to suffer. Medea knows what it means to suffer, and this, despite her lacking a few tragic hero characteristics, is what ultimately allow her to play the role of a tragic hero.

The play Medea is about a woman who murders her children to get revenge on her husband who betrayed her. Medea is the Princess of Colchis who leaves her home when she falls in love with Jason, the Prince of Pelias. After she gives birth to their children, Jason betrays her by marrying Glauce, the daughter of the King of Corinth, Creon. When she vows revenge on Jason, Creon banishes her from Corinth. In the beginning of Medea, the nurse of Medea says, “But now, there’s only hatred.

The play Medea starts off with the nurse affirming to the degree of emotional shock by Jason’s betrayal. And Medea goes on to feel saddened by this fact of betrayal, and expresses her “suicidal helplessness” (Line

Circumstances are what cause people to seem like good or bad people. Similarly, the character, Medea, in the play, Medea, by Euripides had evolved into a villain over a period of time due to situations she was put in. Euripides outlines throughout the play he various actions hat Medea had done and the things that she had said in defence of women rights. Although this was a more heroic act of Medea, her negative actions overpower to cause the audience to conclude that she is an evil character. Medea has spent so much effort on her vengeance and revenge toward Jason that she had lost all her love, and planned torturous death for her enemies, including her children.

The thought of revenge instructs an individual to seek for ‘an eye for an eye’ to punish their offender. Revenge comes with a price since instead of helping oneself to move on with their life. Thus, it leaves the person dwelling on their situation and remaining unhappy. As this portrays in the play, Medea decides to take revenge on Jason. At first, she seeks revenge from King Creon and his daughter Glauce. She says in the play, “From his new bride he never Shall breed a son; she by my poison, wretched girl, Must die a hideous death” (42). Medea decides to kill Jason’s new bride by poisoning her. While trying to save Princess Glauce King Creon dies as well. The betrayed Medea feeling tricked and abandoned grew hatred towards her own children.

Title: How rules, attributes, and Creed of Moo Duk Kwan relate to attributes of ancient Greece and Greek myths.

The play The Visit, written by Friedrich Dürrenmatt, is set in the small, impoverished town. The play begins with the wealthy and powerful Claire Zachanassian returning to her hometown with the plan to donate a million dollars in exchange for the life of the man who wronged and jilted her in her youth, Alfred Ill. While the impoverished town at first refuses her offer, they ultimately give into their need for money and murder Ill. Throughout the play, the author uses the characterizations of Claire to construct an allusion to the three fates from Greek mythology. The Greek fates are influential, immortal women in charge of controlling the lives and deaths of mortals. Through Claire’s characterization Friedrich Dürrenmatt constructs an

The theme of betrayal in the play Medea first makes an appearance when the Nurse informs the audience that “Jason has betrayed his sons and [Medea], and takes to bed a royal bride.”

Because he possesses many tragic characteristics, the audience can classify Jason as the tragic hero of the play. For example, the misjudgment of his action to leave Medea and abandon his oath of marriage to her resulted in a devastating sequence of events for Jason. Jason exhibits a role of nobility, but it is his desire to secure that nobility by marrying King Creon’s daughter and leaving Medea that causes his suffering in the end. He was presented with the decision to stay with Medea or pursue his want for prestige and power. In addition to the presence of a tragic hero, Medea reveals tragic circumstances throughout by mentioning Jason and Medea’s past filled with betrayal and the murder of Medea’s brother as well as the death of King Pelias. These tragic events continued with Medea’s successful murder of Glause and in turn King Creon, and it concluded with the murder of her own sons. The many murders are irretrievable, another category that classifies this play as a tragedy. Lastly, because Jason somewhat accepts responsibility of the tragic circumstances enforced by Medea, the play exhibits tragic verse, and there is a reveal of the effect of the tragedy, the play Medea is true to be classified as a traditional

Society establishes a set of expectations by which males and females are expected to conduct themselves. For example, a mother is expected to nurture her child, stay at home to take care of her children, be patient, be kind, love unconditionally and to never get angry. If a mother does not live up to these expectations established by society, then that mother is deemed a “bad mother.” Since a mother gives birth to her children and nurtures them, a mother who kills her children is considered to be unredeemably bad. Medea, in the play of the same name, kills her two sons and by societal standards, she would be deemed a bad mother. Contrary to society’s expectations of mothers, I will argue that Medea is not a bad mother. I will do this by proving that: Medea defies the social conventions of motherhood in three ways; she kills her children in order to protect them; and, that she rebels against her husband’s control and male domination by depriving him of his “immortality” by killing his sons and ending his bloodline.