“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.
Hey Megan,
ReplyDeleteI agree with every single theme you've analyzed throughout the play "Medea". Starting with infidelity in marriage, I believe this is supposed to be the main reason as to why Medea acted out of revenge towards Jason. Her agenda to take revenge on Jason does get out of control, like you've stated, specifically citing her poisoning the princess and murdering her own children. I guess at the end of the day, Medea being an outsider only made her anger grow stronger. You've mentioned that she was treated like an outsider and referred to as "a drag queen", which probably only pushed her to pursue her murderous acts. One thing I would like to comment on is that I do not believe Medea chose to be an outsider, like you've said. We learned in the play that Medea murdered her own family in the past and fled her homeland with Jason to start a new life in Corinth. I think this is important because Corinth provided Jason and Medea a new start, but sadly, Jason's infidelity only led to Medea being isolated and allowed for her to become truly alone in an unfamiliar land. Medea definitely did stir the pot when it comes to Gender Roles within Corinth and Ancient Greek times in general. I do like the quote you used by Jason to describe his ex-lover, "No Greek woman would have behaved as she has done" but, I feel as if he is referring to her murderous acts here and not so much the gender roles within their society. We do see the significance of gender roles in this society though just through Jason's choice to leave Medea and marry the princess. We do see that it is a man's world during this time as they hold all the power, the power to take a woman's hand in marriage (with the woman having no real say), and the power to leave a woman alone with nothing but shame from society for getting a divorce. At the end of it all, Medea truly showed that she has no respect for a mother's relationship with her children because she murdered her own children to make Jason feel more pain. I agree that no one in their right mind would kill their own children and I believe this could come from Medea's past of never having a real relationship with her own mother.
-Mike Paskitti
Megan, your interpretation of Medea seems to be very close in comparison with how I feel as well. The fact of Jason's infidelity seemed to be what drove Medea to act out in a rage seeking revenge at such great lengths in the grand scheme of things. The only point in reasoning we seem to think differently about is being an outsidadult r Ina foreign land. AlthOugh in this play it seemed as though Medea was somewhat familiar with Corinth, she was cast out due to her original betrayal of her own family in order to be with Jason, and then finally officially coasted out for good when Jason left her, and she seemed to be all alone. I personally believe that being an outsider Ina foreign land can be overwhelming and scary, t all in all in our society today during our era, b Ina an outsider is more common and accepte d among the people within the land they call home. Mi believe that the era they were in, Ancient Greece, was not consider d a big factor within looking at gender roles within this play. As we all know gender roles just recently started to come abOut to be more accepted in this urgent ra and society we have. This would leave Medea's behavior as strong, and acting out of a fit of rage and seeking revenge to be irrelevant to her being a woman. I think your insight on the relationship a mother holds with her children is spot on to how I reacted. During this play, Medea speaks of how she loves her children, but is so blinded by rage, and revenge that she believe that murdering her own children will go enter the ultimate feeling of revenge on Jason. This is so unbelievable that I think everyone in our current day society can easily say that no ther could bring herself to do this with her own children no matter the betrayal she has endured as mothers are supposed to share a special bond with their children.
ReplyDeleteI noticed that several readers feel sympathy with Medea over Jason's infidelity but then have trouble justifying her reaction to the infidelity by murdering four people including her two sons. We seem to go from sympathy to horror in our outlook on her. What about Jason? Before we actually meet him in the play, we get quite a bit of information on all of the horrible things he's done toward Medea. Do you feel more sympathy toward him by the end of the play? Is there any logic in his argument in defense of his infidelity? What about how he ends up? Her revenge does NOT include killing him--she destroys everything and everyone around him who could have contributed to his legacy--his children as the inheritors of his wealth, title, land, etc.; his new father-in-law from whom he would inherit a new title, power, wealth; and his new bride with whom he could have new sons to carry on his name and influence. Medea deprives him of all that--he ends up totally alone, perhaps just like she has been and has felt: alone and abandoned. It's a cold revenge that she serves him--also, she prophecies his death which involves him getting crushed by a falling beam on a ship--an ironic ending for the hero who had a ship, the ARGO, built for a great journey and quest. Do you think Jason could be the tragic hero of the play? Medea? Both?
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