Major Factors In The Development Of Human Behavior In Euripides's Medea

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

Sigmund Freud’s psychoanalytical theory of personality argues that human behavior is the result of the interactions among three component parts of the mind: the id, ego, and superego. The Id (Anger), is concerned with satisfaction of basic and physical needs and urges.

Freud proposed the psychological structure of personality to include three systems called the id, the ego, and the superego. At birth, the id is the original system of personality and is ruled by the pleasure principle. It is driven towards satisfying instinctual needs. The ego can be described as a mediator between ones instincts and their surrounding environment. The ego is ruled by the reality principle, using realistic and logical thinking to formulate action plans for satisfying needs. The superego includes a person’s moral code and strives for perfection, not pleasure. Psychic energy is distributed between these three systems creating dynamics of personality. This psychic energy is what determines behavior (Day, 2008).

Freud primarily subscribed to the idea that there are two energies that drive human behavior. These two energies are sex – the pleasure principle and aggression. The human mind is comprised of the conscious, preconscious, and unconscious. Within the realms of the mind, the human personality is controlled by the id, the ego, and the superego. The id is driven by the pleasure principle. The superego is the instinctual moral good, which aims to please the ego ideal, or the magnified moral values. The ego interacts with both the id and the superego and aims to please both components (Connors).

The unconscious contains the instincts, those driving force for all human behavior. In Freud’s later writing he revised the conscious- unconscious distinction and came up with the id, ego and superego. The id is the unconscious, the least accessible part of the personality. The id includes the sex and aggressive instincts. Freud wrote, “We call it…a cauldron full of seething excitations. [The id] knows no judgments of value, no good and evil, no morality” (Freud, 1933, p 74). The id seeks immediate satisfaction without regard for the circumstances of reality. The id operates under the pleasure-seeking principal. For example, a newborn’s mind consists only of the id, which is responsible for the satisfaction of physical desires. The id, represents a human being’s most primitive desires, and a person ruled only by the id would do everything strictly for his or her own pleasure, breaking societal norms in the process and risking punishment. (SparkNotes, 2007)

During the time of Euripides, approximately the second half of the fifth century B.C., it was a period of immense cultural crisis and political convulsion (Arrowsmith 350). Euripides, like many other of his contemporaries, used the whole machinery of the theater as a way of thinking about their world (Arrowsmith 349). His interest in particular was the analysis of culture and relationship between culture and the individual. Euripides used his characters as a function to shape the ideas of the play (Arrowsmith 359).

Euripides created a two-headed character in this classical tragedy. Medea begins her marriage as the ideal loving wife who sacrificed much for her husband's safety. At the peak of the reading, she becomes a murderous villain that demands respect and even some sympathy. By the end, the husband and wife are left devoid of love and purpose as the tragedy closes.

It is essential to assess human psyche or personality as an identity or the totality of a person, with an approach from “Sigmund Freud of psychoanalysis theory, the id, ego and super-ego” which develops at every stages of human’s life, irrespective of age, sex and status. Those three structures motivate a person’s actions, a spontaneous reaction, an voluntary or involuntary action, all these can be termed to what Sigmund referred to as; two instinctual drives: he called the first one the “Eros” which is originated from Greek mythology and it means, the sex drive, how it unconscious motive leads to life

It was evident that Addie wasn’t like typical nurturing and loving mother and that Anse, appeared the father, focused on everything apart from his family. Negligence is undisputedly present in the Bundren household. Rendering to Sigmund Freud’s psychoanalytic theory of personality, our personality develops from the interactions among what he proposed as the three fundamental structures of the human mind: the id, ego, and superego; the id, which is one of the most primitive of the three structures, concerning with instant fulfillment of essential physical needs and urges. It operates exclusively unconsciously (outside of conscious thought). The motivating force for the id is the libido, which represents the body's pleasure-seeking (often sexual pleasure) force.

Marriage – the union of two imperfect souls to form an affectionate and beautiful relationship – is exceptionally intricate and delicate. Two different people with different insights come together to form a harmonious bond. Power, or control, is a chief concept that can “make or break” the affiliation. Distribution of the ruling is frequently divided into males versus females. This partition leads to many conflicts and tribulations. In the catastrophic Greek play Medea, by Euripides, the liaison between Medea and Jason demonstrates how both males and females assert power in the relationship and how incorrect usage of this supremacy leads to dilemmas.

Love and hate, two emotions that are extremely powerful enough to be deadly. The story of Medea by Euripides tells the tale of how far a stranger to the land of Corinth went to follow her heroic code and exact revenge on the one who dishonored her. Jason, a Corinthian warrior, sails off to Colchis on the Black Sea to retrieve the Golden Fleece, but along his journey he meets and manages to seduce Medea. Medea is the granddaughter of Helios, god of the sun, whom possesses magical powers that can either benefit or curse male heroes. Ultimately, Medea falls in love with Jason and assists him in his journey to retrieve the Golden Fleece. Out of love, Medea betrays her own family, whom are the rulers of Colchis and guardians of the Fleece,

The notion of the ideal man presented in the play Medea, by Euripides, is an exceptionally important one in the context of 5th Century Athens, a culture based very much upon the importance of the man both in his household and the general society. In Greece during the time of the play, the ideal man showed strong attributes of physical skill and aesthetics, intelligence and wisdom, and courage and bravery, especially in the face of adversity. This representation is shown in many ways throughout the play, and in some aspects, it is greatly challenged, causing the audience to question his or her own morals and societal views. Although these representations are still important to today’s society, the effect they would have had on the Athenian

In Medea an essential character is the chorus of Corinthian women. They help obtain Euripides' truly genius paradox of achieving empathy from the readers for a mother who sheds her own children's blood. One of the major turning points in the play is when Medea asks for the chorus of women's silence as she contrives an evil plot to gain revenge. They agree immediately and are henceforth wrapped up in the play and the malicious plot. "This I promise. You are right, Medea, / In paying your husband back. I am not surprised at you / For being sad" (265 - 266). Through stasimons throughout the play they embody everywoman and represent the feelings of the female Greek world.

All of these minor characters encourage sympathy from the audience. The Chorus portrays their compassion towards Medea as they say, “I heard her voice, I heard that unhappy woman from Colchis” (p.21), they chiefly portray the extreme sadness and discontent which Medea experiences and the extent of passion she has towards Jason. Similarly, when the Nurse indirectly introduces Medea she first describes her by saying:

    In Civilization and Its Discontents, Freud postulates that the chief source of conflict within the human psyche is between the id, ego, and superego. The id contains all of the primal urges of a person, such as rage, sex, or violence, and these drives are projected onto the ego, which is the source of rational thought. Hence, many of our conscious thoughts are affected by these urges. Since in a civilized society, many of these compulsions, such as the tendency towards violence and casual mating, are unacceptable, a mechanism is needed to keep these thoughts in check. The superego serves this function by restraining the ego, and it accomplishes this by reversing these primal drives