Idea In SophoclesMedea And Oedipus The King

Euripides is sympathetic to the plight of women in Greece. In Medea most of the characters are women. The male characters in the play do not seem to portray as much depth as the women featured. Jason, Medea’s husband, is leaving her for the king’s daughter. He shows himself as well versed in rhetoric and very self-serving. Creon is the king who openly admits that he is afraid of Medea and her clever ways. Even Medea’s sons seem to serve the purpose of pawns in Medea’s master plan of revenge.

Both Fifth century B.C. playwright Euripides and Roman poet and dramatist Ovid tell the story of Jason ditching Medea for another woman; however, they do not always share a perspective on the female matron's traits, behavior, and purpose. Euripides portrays a woman who reacts to injustice by beginning a crusade to avenge all who harmed her which she is prepared to see through even if it means resorting to the most contemptible methods. Ovid, on the other hand, tells of a much less extreme figure whose humble goal is only to persuade Jason to return. Despite these differences, both Medeas create trouble by acting with emotions instead of with reason, and as a result, put

The play, Oedipus the King by Sophocles presents a grim hamartia caused from a terrible deed of long ago. Oedipus the protagonist is the powerful King of Thebes and held of high estate by the people of Thebes. As the terrible deed of Oedipus’s becomes apparent to both Oedipus and the City of Thebes his tragic flaw is slowly realized. The play will show “tragic power resides in human failing, hamartia, constantly underpinning any sense of the inevitable” (Walton). The play will show the author’s view of a tragic hero as seen in the play Oedipus the King does exemplifies Aristotle’s definition of a tragic hero.

Euripides infanticidal re-imagining of the Medea myth continues to arouse controversy more than a millennia since it was penned in the fifth century BC. A key reason it does so is because of the way in which Euripides challenges and offends what are still, even in the 21st century, traditional notions of motherhood. As such, Euripides infuses his work with a great deal of ambiguity about Medea’s tragic downfall. Medea finds herself with extraordinary amounts of power coming about from not tolerating others and therefore dominating those around her. Medea dominates others to be in a position of power, when that position of power is taken away from her she reverts to harming anyone who opposed her. Medea’s cunning and cleverness, that leads her to dominate others and making people do what she wants. Medeas control of situations comes from a

Medea’s strength is portrayed as her madness as she takes control and decides the fate of her enemies. She is a strong character and Euripides allows Medea to have a voice by allowing the audience to witness her break from the norm of what a woman of her time is expected to do. After giving up her family and former life to be with her husband, Jason, he decides to marry a younger princess while still married to Medea. Medea realizes that women are left to face the most miserable situations and says, “We women are the most unfortunate creatures” (229). Jason feels that Medea is to be grateful for what he is doing by marrying into royalty as it will afford all of them a better life. The representation of Medea by Euripides is powerful, manipulative, and extremely smart, yet because she is a woman she has limited social power.

Many people believe that fate has planned out their lives and despite efforts on their part what was meant to happen, will eventually happen. This belief has been handed down over the centuries from some of the first civilizations, such as the Greeks. However, not all Greek citizens wanted destiny to take control of their lives. Some decided to choose freewill over the will of the gods. In Oedipus the King, Sophocles writes a cautionary tale meant to warn the doubters in Greek society that regardless of their beliefs in gods and prophecies, it is necessary to heed their warnings. Oedipus, Jocasta, and Laius are Sophocles’ characters that prove that escaping one’s fate is not possible, as each of their predicted fates is realized despite extensive efforts to thwart them.

Making Medea plot against the king represents the female group as rebellious and unsubmissive to authority. She vows to kill her children and this causes the chorus to be afraid of her. That was a big thing. The Chorus in Greek theater “represented with wonderful truth the Greek inquisitive crowd, and was essentially Athenian in conduct and in spirit” (Lauchlan 13-17). So to have the Chorus afraid of this “evil” woman portrays the general public’s feelings towards Medea. Therefore, the fear of the other characters due to Medea’s immense desire and actions for bloodshed and revenge shows how women are portrayed as crazy and murderous with no sense of empathy. Now, the killing of her children is an interesting strategy that Euripides used to show his misogynistic values. By adding this to the plot and making Medea come up with this plan all by herself shows how Euripides “constructed his character in such a way that the audience will be encouraged to perceive female sexuality and language as… a threat to male offspring” (Rabinowitz 126). This is a genius ultimate blow to feminism seeing that women, through Medea, are portrayed as a threat to not only men but to their offspring.

Commonly considered one of Euripides greatest pieces, Medea is an insightful depiction of how a woman’s love for her husband, churns into a gruesome revenge scheme against him. This tragedy illustrates a tale of a woman who challenges Greek societal norms. In the era that the story takes place; women are often seen in submissive roles. However, the play’s main character, Medea, challenges their customs through her actions against the Kingdom of Corinth and Jason.

Sophocles was well-known as a master of tragedy. Sophocles was born at Colonus, not far from Athens. Sophocles wrote over 100 different dramatic stories. “Oedipus the King” is one of his great stories that has a mix of heroics to it and yet, we feel sorry for Oedipus and his fate. We ask ourselves after reading “Oedipus the King” who was this man and why did he think he could run from his destiny of fate? Was Oedipus responsible for his final fate and could he have changed his fate? We are going to talk about Oedipus and how his life unfolds from his birth. Then you, the reader will decide if you feel empathy for Oedipus if this story was about a tragic hero.

‘Although we may sympathise with Medea’s’ plight, Jason is worthy of nothing more than our contempt’ Do you agree? Euripides Greek tragedy, Medea follows the feud of the relationship between the protagonist Medea, and the antagonist, her disloyal husband Jason. Although Jason’s actions are unforgiveable, his decisions to leave Medea did not authorise the actions of revenge that Medea took to guarantee Jason’s complete downfall. Medea’s situation of exile that she has been placed in is a result of her lover Jason’s decision to leave her and marry a younger female, as a result of this it helps the reader sympathise and have remorse with Medea, but does not lead us to approve of her actions of revenge, anger and vengeance. From a readers perspective Jason deserves absolutely little to no sympathy for his actions against Medea.

Still today, we see many unfaithful marriages, but murder is not an option. A spouse who murders his cheating wife is more wrong than the wife who cheated in the first place, and killing his children to get revenge would be an unspeakable deed. A reader from today can't relate to the thought process of Medea, which lends a slim margin to any sympathy for the character. Euripides, however, does create slight sympathy for her when she mentions her lack of family and friends due to betraying them to be with Jason, who in turn betrays her. This piece of Euripides' story, though, is too miniscule to counteract the menacing thoughts of Medea. This same small mention is brought about in Ovid's version, but it also is just a brief point without much depth. The Argonautika takes a much more sympathetic route by describing Medea as a much younger, innocent girl. The fact that the second story shows the beginning more in depth leads the reader to see the hardships that may have led her to become the bitter woman Euripides depicts. Neither Euripides nor Ovid include the hateful image of Medea's father, which gives an immediate understanding to the reader as to why Medea can never go back to her homeland. Her betrayal to her father was too great. The readers of the time, knowing the outcome of the story, would have been shown why Medea plotted against Jason the way she did because the hardships she faces to help Jason are explained. Not only was her

Medea is the tragic story of a woman desperate for revenge upon her husband, after he betrayed her for another woman’s bed. It was written by Euripides, a Greek playwright, in 431 B.C. Throughout the play each character shows us their inconsistent and contradicting personalities, in particular, Jason and Medea. The play opens with the Nurse expressing her anxiety about Jason betraying and leaving Medea for another, wealthier, woman. Our initial reaction is to feel empathetic towards Medea, who has been abandoned so conveniently. But towards the end of the play, when Medea takes revenge on

Typically, throughout history a tragedy has been defined by containing a male hero who goes from happiness to misery. Medea is just one example of an Ancient Greek play which actively rejects this trope. Written in 431 BC by Euripides, Medea is based on the Greek myth of Jason and Medea wherein Medea is rejected by her husband and resorts to killing their children in an act of vengeance. It can be argued whether her actions were justified or whether she was acting out of passion as a ‘fickle’, emotional woman. Worthen argues that woman are seen as “creatures of passion” whereas men represent the “organizing principles of the Greek state: Reason, the law and legitimate society.” This argument is based on the idea that passion and emotion are

Over two thousand years ago in 400 B.C. Sophocles, a Greek dreamer, wrote the story, “Oedipus the King”. One might think that a story that old may be boring or poorly written, but in fact it is very descriptive and entertaining. Sophocles even employs different literary devices to enhance the themes throughout the story. Some of these techniques includes: metaphor, personification, imagery, symbolism, tone, meter, setting, and diction.

To a Greek audience in 431 BC, Medea might not have seemed unordinary at first. In the time of Medea, women followed the orders of men. When Jason leaves Medea, she is supposed to quietly accept that he does not want her. Instead, Medea exacts revenge on Jason, killing their two children, Jason’s new princess, and the princess’ father. She can easily be seen as wild with passion and vengeance, driven to murderous and filicidal deeds. However, Euripides not only makes Medea a cruel, murderous character, but also one of much love and strength. He defies the attitude Greeks had of women. In her article over Greek culture’s influence in Medea, Susanna Federici-Nebbiosi described Medea as