“Medea” Blog
Due Feb.21st
World Literature
Megan Braine • • • •
Medea the daughter of Aietes, was a rather disturbing mythical character. In this play, Medea finds out that her partner Jason was secretly married. He married the daughter of Kreon, King of Corinth. With this being found out, Medea wanted revenge. The play addresses infidelity in marriage by showing that Jason “cheated”, and left his wife. It also shows the effect of infidelity which is revenge and karma. In the play it is shown to us the horrific acts Medea took action on because of Jason, “...she uses poisonous drugs to kill the princess, causing the king’s death as well. Finally she kills with her own hand the two sons she bore to Jason.” (Blondell, pg. 152) As we can see the act of infidelity made her act in crazed way. She poisened the princess killing her and kills her two sons as well. Hoping that will make Jason guilty, in which it did. This play shows that infidelity is wrong and the effect of it can be outradges. In the mythical sense, murder on princesses, kings, and children took place. In the real world today similar actions can occur, maybe not as extreme. Jason broke the Greek ethical norms of trust and honesty!
•• Being in a strange land (being an outsider) ••
As I expressed in my previous journal, being an outsider can mean two different things. One being that a person isn’t excepted by society and is ignored. And two being that a person choices to be different and wants to be an outsider. In this case, the character Medea falls under the second reason. Medea is considered different by her peers theres no doubt about that. They describe her to be, “...an orientalized drag queen in a red and black kimono, with vivid make-up, tattoos, nipple- and nose-rings, and long black leather boots, and holding a whip.” (Blondell, pg.154) We can see this is a huge judgement but that actions she took and the roles of gender during Greek time, it could be true. Medea was considered a barbarian. Also, she didn’t do what normal Greek women did. Medea was left by her husband, killed many people, including her children, and was left alone. At the end of the play, she flees alone on a dragon. All in all, Medea was an outsider. She was not a typical Greek women and she did some disturbing acts.
•• Gender roles ••
Just like today, the role of women during Greek times were downgraded significantly. Explained to us is, “Chief among these negative female stereotypes are duplicity, emotionalism, and lustfulness.” (Blondell, pg.154) During this time, women were expected to marry right away, contray to men having to train for the frontiers. The character Medea was considered to be a barbarian, an exotic barbarian. “No Greek woman would have behaved as she has done.” (Blondell, pg.153) This was expressed by Jason in the play. This statement expresses that in mythical times, no women would do such acts as Medea did. It is explain to us that Medea stirred the pot with gender roles during this time, leaving a fear in men. Medea did not act as normal women did according to Greek knowledge and morals.
•• A mother's relationship with her children ••
From reading Medea and learning about what she did to her children, it leaves me extremely baffled. A mother’s relationship with her child is supposed to be pure, loving, and nuturing. Medea was the exact opposite of that. In the play, she murders her two children in order to get revenge on her exhusband/partner Jason. From the reading it states, “One suggests that Medea killed them accidentally in the temple of Hera Akraia while trying to render them immortal, and was banished by Jason for this reason.” (Blondell, pg.152) But in Euripides’version, she killed them souly out of revenge on Jason. From experience, I can tell you know one out of their right mind would kill their own children. Medea was considered to be different then other women during this time, and to be a barbarian. With that, we can conclude that she had no mother instincts, or morals of protecting her children.
