Medea Rhetorical Analysis

In the Greek tragedy, Medea, by Euripides, most readers would characterize Medea as being selfish, cruel, and a cold-blooded murderer. This characterization is due to the extreme actions she took to seek revenge on her husband for betraying her and their children. As the story opens with the nurse telling of the betrayal towards Medea and her children by her husband, Jason, it is very easy to feel sympathy towards Medea. She betrayed her family and followed her true love to an unknown land, and now she has been deceived by him. Medea’s words, early in the story, strongly express her broken heart. “Aaaah! Oh, horrible, horrible, all that I suffer, my unhappy struggles. I wish I could die” (105-106). She feels shamed by Jason. He allowed his desire to marry into royalty cause him to betray a loving, faithful wife. Even though the betrayal of her husband has caused her great heartache and to act emotionally unstable, readers can also portray Medea as being passionate, intelligent, and caring.

All based on the same myth of Jason and Medea, Euripides' Medea, Apollonius of Rhodes' the Argonautika, and Ovid's Metamorphoses each describe a unique version of the same character. The initial characterization of Medea in Euripides' play serves as the basis in which both Apollonius and Ovid base their interpretation of Medea. Although each, in its own defining events, shape a similar Medea who overcomes similar difficulties, the execution of each calls for a different interpretation of the woman by the reader.

The review of the Britches and Hose Theater Company of ‘Euripides’ Medea’ this production focuses more on Medea’s misery made by her husband betrayal. In this review it mentions, Medea in the beginning of the play she is portrayed as a hurt women that is broken in despair. This production wants the audience to first to engage in Medea’s pain and to see her as a victim not a sorceress. Compare to the O’kane Theater it’s opening had Medea crying of despair and the nurse fearing that Medea will want revenge. There’s a huge difference in the two productions, in the O’kane Theater they focus more on displaying that women all over the world not mattering the race can experience betrayal. The Britches and Hose Theater Company play focus on Medea character as a woman who has been betrayed and is painfully suffering from that.

In Medea’s monologue where she ponders what to do with her children, the translations differ in how Medea exhibits her endearment for them. The Johnston and Kovacs translations are more effective than Svarlien’s by portraying Medea’s guilt towards the future tragedy. Therefore, Medea’s embedded guilt clearly emphasizes Euripides purpose to stimulate pity for Medea.

The protagonist of the Greek drama is Medea – a barbarian princess, a powerful witch, and a foreigner in her husband’s hometown of Corinth. A female lead in a drama written during a misogynist era should be the first indication that Medea is not an orthodox piece. Medea’s high and noble birth almost becomes irrelevant as the setting of the drama turns her royal status into that of an outsider. When her Medea’s husband, Jason, betrays her for the princess of Corinth in order to obtain a higher status, it becomes obvious that Medea’s birthright had diminished. The exposition of the play reveals Medea’s egocentric nature as she “lies, fasting, surrendering her

Medea is quite often called Euripides's magnum opus for a multitude of reasons, and the fleshing out of Medea is one of the most prominent. He created a juxtaposition portraying Medea as both a victim of society and a cold, cunning, manipulative killer. This brought the issues of slavery, women’s rights and equality to light in ancient Greece. Euripides’s masterpiece drama builds on Medea’s important role in Jason and the Argonauts. Now, however, Medea is Jason’s antagonist, murdering his new wife, children and father in law. Medea does this through careful manipulation and scheming, using her intelligence, cleverness and cunning to create plots deadly to those around Jason in order to exact her revenge. Unfortunately for Medea, that same

Through the interactive orals, I gained a better understanding of Euripides’ Medea, finally able to better comprehend why the work has survived over 2000 years. I can now appreciate how Euripides modified the original myth, humanizing Medea as a much more likeable character with justifiable actions. Euripides’ version made Jason out to be much more of a villain than the Greeks were used to. Through his adjustments, I can recognize how unique of a female character Medea was for her time, and in many ways, how groundbreaking she was. Medea was aggressive and strong, constantly willing to speak up for herself. She was one of the few three-dimensional human women in Greek writings, and Medea displayed her multifaceted nature in many ways.

Medea is a cunning woman with enormous power, the granddaughter of a god, her obsessive nature driving the elaborate plan. In her passionate grievance, Medea sees her children “with a bulls eye”, the animal imagery portraying her as an absolutely ruthless animal, lusting for revenge and unable to control her anger. The Nurse recognises that “there’s something that she means to do”, foreshadowing Medea’s intention to murder her children, she is ready to sacrifice everything to right the wrongs committed against her. However, Medea’s motivation to murder the children becomes paradoxical, as she intends to protect them from the counter-revenge of her enemies but also to deal Jason “the deepest wound”, condemning herself to a life of guilt. The chorus women are subject to Medea’s manipulation, becoming complicit willing to “do as you ask” thinking that “to punish Jason will be just”. By appearing to understand their situation as women, “we all have it hard”, that woman have to stand by each other “we are all in this together”, Medea gains the chorus’ sympathy, the repetitive use of ‘we’ appeals to the women

Medea is ancient tragedy tale that is the work of a famous Greek playwright known as Euripides. The plot of the story revolves around Medea as she seeks revenge on her husband Jason for leaving her to marry another woman, a Greek princess from Corinth. Feeling betrayed and greatly wronged Medea embarks on a vengeful mission that in the end sees her killing his husband’s new wife together with her two children. It is clear that at the heart of Euripides’s tragedy lies a string of extreme sacrifices that stem from a passionate love affair. Medea is a woman of extreme emotion and behavior.

Medea: A Motivated Woman Characters in Greek tragedies are usually pawns in the gods and goddesses’ games. However, Euripides elucidates the role that human beings play in creating and changing their fate. Their actions can either help them triumph against foes (both internal and external) or lead to their descent into madness, despair, and malevolence. In his play, Medea, the titular character represents man’s active role in shaping their destiny through the delineation of Medea’s motivations, the destructive role of revenge in the overall schema of the story, and the dialogue between Medea and Jason.

Throughout literature, main characters are used to generate the action of a story, and engage the reader's interest and empathy. In majority of literature, there is always a protagonist and antagonist, in which the protagonist is the hero or heroine. In the play Medea by Euripides, it can be said that Medea is the heroine of the story, but her foul acts cannot justify her as a genuine heroine. Her evil-minded deeds can be compared to that of Jason who is considered to be the antagonist of the play. The cruel acts committed by both Medea and Jason make it difficult for the reader to have a clear distinction as to who is the true protagonist and antagonist, but they provide insight to the view of humanity portrayed by Euripides in Medea.

Medea is able to transcend cultural and temporal boundaries by telling the story of difficult romantic relationships and the making of painful decisions. These elements of Greek theatre are relevant throughout the play as the audience is shown the complicated relationship between Medea and Jason and the difficult decisions made by this relationship. Medea and Jason are a prime example of a difficult romantic relationship; Jason has left Medea and their two children for another woman, leaving her alone to mourn her lost love. Medea is enraged by Jason’s

Though a standard plot structure for a Greek tragedy encompassing revenge and inner conflict, Euripides’ Medea addresses the themes of female righteousness and the morals of justified retribution. By separating himself from the general rhythms of such plays to show shifts in tone and character, Euripides develops a narrative subtly expressing the flaws in the human condition in which, unbeknownst to the innocent, the power to kill and destroy is present. The utilization of pithy phrases in conjunction with passionate lyrical meter illuminates the contradicting thoughts of Medea’s and how this ultimately leads to her fatal maturation. Naturally, upon acquiring the knowledge of her husband’s plan to marry another woman, Medea fell into a

In the drama "Medea" by Euripides, it a great movie has discussed about the love, passion, fear, and the most important is revenge in life. It makes the reader and the audience have a feeling of sadness, disappoint, angry, contradictory, betray about the unhappiness power of love with the impassioned turned into the furious hatred in life and society. Throughout the drama, the revenge is necessity for all the women in the Ancient Greece. So all the women in Ancient Greece were treated as weak and they did not have any chance to express their opinion or even to choose what is better for them in life. Besides that, the main character Medea was begins her marriage being an ideal wife for Jason, and she sacrifices herself to him, she leaves her

When Medea kills her children, audiences react with shock and horror. Any sympathy viewers have built for the woman is, in the words of Elizabeth Vandiver, “undercut” by this act (15). Since Medea is the protagonist, we question why Euripides chose to make her a child murderer. Most scholars agree that he invented this part of the myth. He also lessened her role as witch by drawing attention to her human qualities. This only highlights the infanticide (14) because we cannot excuse her ruthless act as monstrous and non-human. However, Medea remains very human until after she kills her sons. Appearing at the end of the play in the deus ex machina, she takes over not only the position but also the