Themes of Medea

The power of manipulation can easily be misused to aid the person who uses it. Overusing it can harm the people who are targets to its belongings. If it is left in the hands of the villain, a large group of people can be restrained by a solitary person. Manipulation in this play is used very dangerously and ones actions can lead to another. Some characters take their actions too far to the point where they begin manipulating themselves during the process. Observant and manipulative describes the kind of woman Medea had depicted. Medea set her mind on getting revenge on a man whom she gave up everything to be with. She fled her own country and killed her brother just to be with a man she fell in love with. Only to find out that the one she had loved betrayed her, used her for greed, and left her to be with a princess. The main reason for her manipulation was only to justify her revenge on her husband, Jason. However, people stand in the way of her revenge plan, and the only way she can do what she needs to do is by manipulating others to be on her side. She does this in a way where she connects with others on a more personal level so they can feel just as bad as her. In “Vicarious Dishonesty:

Euripides’ Medea and Seneca’s Medea are the two surviving ancient tragedies of Medea. Both versions are drastically different and contrast in several aspects. Euripides portrays Medea as more human. She is the epitome of the oppressed housewife and only after her suffering is she capable of the crimes she committed. Seneca’s Medea is even more vengeful than Euripides’ and she is angry from the very beginning. Seneca’s version also portrays Medea as a vengeful sorceress whereas in Euripides’ version, though she is known to be a witch and have remarkable skill in poisons and potions, that aspect is not as crucial and significant as in Seneca’s Medea. The two poets offer contrasting depictions and characterizations of Medea, the most

Not only should one examine the internal conflicts within Medea that drive her to execute her plan, but they should also look into how she is able to mentally function while killing her offspring. A defense mechanism is an unconscious function that reduces anxiety within an individual. While deconstructing Medea, one can find many mechanisms that were used. One of the main defense mechanisms that Medea used was displacement. Displacement is diverting sexual and aggressive impulses towards an object that is more acceptable. In this case, that “object” is the princess. Insert proof of displacement Medea also used rationalization to help ease her thoughts with self-justification and sacrificing her children to the cause. Insert

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.

Superficially, Medea is a critique of relations between men and women, the struggle between Jason and Medea; then the struggle between Creon and Medea. However at the deeper level, Medea is a critique of the quality and state of the contemporary culture of Euripides (Arrowsmith 361). The unique symbolism is that

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.

Medea questions the firmly held belief in Greek society that women are weak and passive. Wanting revenge on Jason for his betrayal of her, Medea must take control of the situation, a stereotypical masculine quality. Though she cannot become a man or take power like a man, she perceives her

Retribution is a monster of appetite, eternally bloodthirsty and never filled. Rage, resentment and envy does not change the heart of others. A massive success is the best revenge for a woman. It is the only way to get back at someone for a pain they have caused. In Euripides’ Medea and Ovid’s’ Metamorphoses, Medea and Juno exhibit vengeance to defend their dignity.

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.

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

She helped him in every way possible in his quest for the Golden Fleece, “Her heart on fire with passionate love for Jason... But now there’s hatred everywhere. Love is diseased.” (1) However, in a tragedy, the hero is supposed to make a single mistake which ultimately leads to their downfall. In this case, Medea is not a heroic character as she is a sorceress, murders her brother, and her own children. The hamartia is intended to bring down a character of high morality, but Medea can be viewed as a wholly evil character who is not guided by any moral principles. She is also manipulative and deceptive in the way that she treats the men around her, Creon, Aegeus, and Jason, while involving them in her plan for revenge. Euripides has shown this aspect of her personality through lines such as “Do you think that I would have fawned on that man unless I had some end to gain or profit in it?” (12) and “by a trick I may kill the king’s daughter” (25)

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

In the Greek tragedy of Medea there are many twists and turns throughout the story causing many to question who is more of the victim of the story. This essay will discuss who is the bigger victim of the story. Medea was the victim because she killed her children even though she didn’t want to & she also when she was under the spell of Aphrodite killed her brother so her love was able to get what he wanted and then disowned her family these things proved that Medea was the victim.

Medea, a classic play by the Greek writer Euripides explores the Greek-Barbarian dichotomy through the character of Medea, a barbarian princess from the land of Colchis. As the story progresses, it becomes noticeable to the reader that Medea is not a traditional woman by Greek standards, this comes as no surprise as she is not native to the region. Central to the play’s plot are Medea’s barbarian origins and characteristics. These are related to and may indirectly influence her to perform acts such as misleading the King of Corinth, Creon and murdering her own sons. Despite these terrible acts, Medea still behaves heroically, as she breaks traditional and cultural barriers thus freeing herself from a doomed and lonely life.

Soon after this, Medea is able to manipulate Creon as well. When Creon banishes her, she tells him of her great concern for her children and eventually convinces him to allow her to stay in Corinth for one more day. This allows Medea to continue with her plan to take out revenge on Jason. Medea acts and speaks like a Homeric Greek warrior, but tricks Jason by acting submissively like the ideal Greek woman Jason wished her to be. Medea approaches Jason with gifts for his new wife, apologizes, and tells him that she realized he was right. This move allowed Medea to remove all skepticism from Jason's mind, and he willingly took the poisoned dress to his bride. In the course of a few hours, Medea's ultimate manipulation skills enable her to exploit four individuals who are crucial to her murder plot.