Medea Feminism Essay

What is feminism? The definition is often argued over by feminists and anti-feminists. Feminists believe that the expectations for women are far too high to be attainable for most—they are expected to be the perfect weight, the perfect height, the perfect everything in the eyes of society in order to be seen as worth anything. Feminists believe that women are seen by society as less powerful, less smart, simply less than men. Feminists also believe that feminism promotes gender equality, not misandry. They aim to fix this. Anti-feminists, on the other hand believe that feminism is women being obnoxious and putting themselves above men. They think feminism in 2015 in unnecessary. Women already have the right to vote, what more could they possibly want? This oppression is just one reason why feminism exists and—in my opinion—is extremely important in today’s world.

First, we will look at the motive in this case. What could have possible motivated Medea to murder her children? Medea has been scorned by her husband, Jason, who left her for another woman (Puchner 529). You see, Creon has arranged for Jason to marry his daughter (Puchner 529). Jason, believing this would be the best decision he could make for his children, accepted Creon’s offer (Puchner 543). Medea could be heard wailing and crying out in rage from this betrayal (Puchner 532). So, Medea decides to break her husband’s heart, as he had broken hers, by killing their sons (Puchner 548). She could have easily left, after being exiled by Creon, and started a new life for herself and her children (Puchner 535). In a time where Medea could have

Medea’s conflict with Jason proves to be the main conflict in the play, which really sheds light into the fact that Euripides created this play to challenge the notion of feminism. After Jason’s betrayal, Medea decides to take control. It is evident in the way she manipulates other characters within the play, and how she handles situations she is in, that she is quite intelligent. Her motivation and will to accomplish her own goals, portrays Medea as the complete opposite of a typical patriarchal woman who embodies the norms of patriarchy in Greek society. In the play, Jason says, “I married you, chose hatred and murder for my wife – no woman, but a tiger…” (1. 1343-44) This quote shows the misogyny with Jason, because he is saying that him and the society have made Medea this way. But maybe Medea started acting

In Euripides' Medea, the protagonist abandoned the gender roles of ancient Greek society. Medea defied perceptions of gender by exhibiting both "male" and "female" tendencies. She was able to detach herself from her "womanly" emotions at times and perform acts that society did not see women capable of doing. However, Medea did not fully abandon her role as a woman and did express many female emotions throughout the play.

When women are degraded, they are deprived of their value and reduced to a lesser status than what they actually are. Degrading women show misogyny because it devalues women based on hostile and prejudiced beliefs. This is evident in the text such as when Medea complains to the Chorus of Corinthian Women, "We were born women - useless for honest purposes but in all kinds of evil skilled practitioners." (29) This quote reduces women to only cunning and malevolent artists who have no other value in society, showing inferiority. Women are useless and essentially have no other purpose other than fulfilling evil tasks. By having Medea make this comment, it shows her consciousness of women's place in Euripides' own society. Medea's entire first Women of Corinth speech is a primary indicator of the misogyny. In his own society, he is free to express his own views and have it taken as fact. Additionally, misogynistic views are furthered developed when Jason, a strong symbol of patriarchal beliefs, complains to Medea, "If women didn't exist, human life would be rid of all its miseries." (34) This quote makes women culpable for all calamities in society. Life would be purged of impurity and men would reign supreme without any worry of misfortune if women were gone. By doing this, Euripides paints women as the problem maker of society. This hateful view towards women discourages

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.

In Euripedes’ play Medea, he depicts Medea as a woman who is consumed with vengeance and hatred after being betrayed by her husband Jason. This betrayal sparks a series of “unholy, horrible” murders. Medea’s actions can be justified through justice and revenge. Medea was motivated by Jason’s actions to pursue her own actions against Jason. Medea wanted revenge toward her husband for leaving her after she fully dedicated herself to Jason - and she also wanted to seek justice for the pain that he caused her. However, Medea went too far by killing her two children who were innocent in this matter. Ultimately, Medea’s final deeds are justifiable and outweigh Jason’s betrayal of his family.

The three heroines of the plays have reasons for their actions and doing what they do, so it can be explained why they are in the right. Their crimes in Greek culture include Medea killing her children, Antigone burying her brother while disobeying a ruler, and Lysistrata condemning sex from men in war of their wives. Medea is the wife of Jason, who she has supported all through her life by killing her brother, betraying her father, and making her own homeland hate her. All of this for the benefit of her husband, giving him fame and success.

The definition of feminism is very elusive. Maybe because of its ever-changing historical meaning, it’s not for certain whether there is any coherence to the term feminism or if there is a definition that will live up to the movement’s variety of adherents and ideas. In the book “No Turning Back,” author Estelle Freedman gives an accurate four-part definition of the very active movement: “Feminism is a belief that women and men are inherently part of equal worth. Because most societies privilege men as a group, social movements are necessary to achieve equality between women and men, with the understanding that gender always intersects with other social hierarchies” (Freedman 7).

Charlotte Bronte once said, “Women are supposed to be very calm generally, but women feel just as men feel. They need exercise for their faculties, and a field for their efforts as much as their brothers do. They suffer from too rigid a restraint, too absolute a stagnation, precisely as men would suffer; and it is narrow minded in their more privileged fellow creatures to say that they ought to confine themselves to making puddings and knitting stockings, to playing on the piano and embroidering bags”. In the play Medea, Euripides diverged from the traditional role of Greek women through Medea’s characteristics and response to her plight. In delineating the role of women, Medea was unlike any other Greek character. Medea was portrayed

As a mother, Medea on the surface is not the best, as she eventually kills her children, ignoring their pleas for mercy ("Mother, don't kill us"). However, we must not ignore the heartache and pain that Medea endures in killing them. It takes incredible conviction to carry it out ("parted from you, my life will be all pain and

Feminism is a body of social theory and political movement primarily based on and motivated by the experiences of women. While generally providing a critique of social relations, many proponents of feminism also focus on analyzing gender inequality and the promotion of women's rights, interests, and issues.

She feels that if she left her children with Jason they would not be treated properly and mocked since they are part barbaric. Medea is a woman of pride and does not want to give her enemies a reason to mock or laugh at her in any circumstances (781-782). She would rather not leave them with Jason as she feels he would still have someone around him he loves and she feels like there is no place for barbarian children in the Greek city: “Children, there is none who can give you safety” (793). Since she needs to move quickly to Athens after she commits the murders of the royal house she decides it would be difficult to take them with her as they will slow her down and endanger her escape. For these reasons, Medea sees it fit to best kill her children to get revenge on Jason.

The language in this piece is very evident that it’s from the classical period which was known as the golden age of literature. This period was known for art, philosophy, architecture, literature and monuments. Socrates was the main philosopher known in that time due to his teachings to his student Plato that consist of dialogues. In the work, whether Euripides was trying to show women that they did have a voice and go against Ancient Greek culture or not, his piece showed women that they control their own body, and actions. The work doesn’t mention Medea and Jason’s children but maybe a couple times, but the children represented what was once a loving relationship between Medea and Jason. That is why Medea took revenge on Jason by killing them to satisfy herself for what he had done to her. Medea’s character plays a strong feminine role that shows a women standing up for herself and making her own choices even though some of them may have been wrong. At first she is portrayed as a sad lady who just got her heart broken because her husband left. Then she becomes a strong lady who takes charge of the situation and fights back for what she believed would heal her broken heart. Jason’s character can be considered evil, because even though he showed weakness, he was the one who abandoned his wife to marry a princess, so he basically started the whole situation even though Medea took her revenge too far. All in all, even though Medea killed her own children it was a