Medea lines 1-130:
So far Medea is about a woman and her husband. It starts by discussing Medea's husband Jason and his voyages at sea looking for the legendary golden fleece. Medea helped Jason With her magic in order to find the fleece. They then both went back to Lolcus which is where Jason lived. They had two boys and earned "citizens 'welcome" (line 12). This was a big deal in that culture. In the story, this is an honor that is conveyed with great pride and joy. Later, unfortunately, Jason leaves his wife and kids to go marry the daughter of Ceon. he wanted to play the system for a possibility of becoming the king. Greed is a huge theme so far in the story. Medea goes into a great depression and wants to curse her kids and family. She is only doing this out of spite and greed. Throughout this whole time of despair Medea has only one person who is really sticking with her; the nurse. What do you think about the nurse? What about her loyalty to Medea? What do you think about Jason's decision to leave Medea?
Medea lines 130-447:
ReplyDeleteHey Myah! First off I want to answer your question about the nurse although, she is a slave she is Medea’s confidant and she is practically raising Medea’s children for her. In the last lines of your first portion the nurse is giving a soliloquy in response to the reveal of Medea’s true anger towards her children for their father, Jason, leaving her. I think the nurse serves as sane voice in this play, she expresses disgust in Medea’s desire to harm her children for their father’s mistake but, she also provides a logical reason to why Medea takes such a strong stance on this issue.
Now for my section I want to shine the spotlight on another voice or rather voices of reason, the chorus. In Medea, the chorus is composed of a group of Corinthian women, in line 130 they try to reason with Medea that her desired path of suicide would be a foolish choice. They say that the loss of a husband’s love happens to many women and that she should move past it and forget about it. The chorus in this play serves as a commentator and sometimes as a fellow character. In this scene, they act as a voice of dissent, they believe that any extreme action would be harmful to her family and foolish on her part. What do you think about the chorus’ view towards philandering husbands? Do you think it would have been better for Medea if she heeded their advice?
Hi Julia! To answer your question, the chorus pretty much mostly just hangs out, and show disapproval of the terrible things that are going on. The only time we see them actually try and do something is at the beginning of the play when they attempt to lift Medea. They advise her,¨If your husband has gone to adore
ReplyDeleteA new bride in his bed, why, this
Has often happened before.
Do not harrow your soul. For Zeus
Will succor your cause. What use
To lessen your life with grief
For a lost lord? (25)
Although, the Chorus's arguments have no effect on Medea. In fact, she ends up pulling the chorus to her side, by getting to them by saying she is a women imprisoned in a world of men. By the time Medea's done with them, they're singing about feminism. The ladies of the chorus sing, ¨ Back to their fountains
the sacred rivers are falling;
The cosmos and all morality
turning to chaos.
The mind of a man is nothing but a fraud
[…]
One day the story will change:
then shall the glory
or women resound,
And reverence will come to the race of woman,
Reversing at last the sad reputation of ladies. (58)
Julia, what do you think about about how all this went down? How do you think all this reveals Medea´s personality?
Hi Myah! I think Medea has a very twisted and devious personality, for starters she uses her sorcerous powers for her own benefit, she kills, and manipulates for herself and Jason. Medea and Jason were living in Corinth (the setting of this play) because she tricked the daughters of their rival (Pelias) into killing their father (Shout out to Mrs. Myers 10th grade Greek mythology course). With Medea’s treacherous past this greatly shapes my view of her in this play, manipulation and scheming come easily to Medea, and she uses this to her advantage throughout the duration of the play.
ReplyDeleteNow onto my next section of the play, in lines 660 and following Medea learns that she will have asylum in the city of Athens because she gave the king, Aegeus a cure for his infertility. Now that Medea has a place of refuge she reveals her revenge plans to the audience. She plans on using her two children as pawns in her evil plot, she wants to poison her husband’s new wife with a poison laced dress and corset. Then lastly in her final act of revenge she wants to kill her own children in order to inflict more suffering upon Jason. Medea says: "Yes, I can endure guilt, however horrible; the laughter of my enemies I will not endure" (796-797). The previous quote is quite horrifyingly chilling, she can stand the loss of her own flesh and blood at her hands yet, the thing she can’t endure is the simple mockery from her rivals. Do you think we can definitely say that Medea is clinically insane or do you think there is something else driving her in this direction?
Hi Julia! To answer your question, I think that Medea is clinically insane. I think that she has been through a lot and that is the root of her insanity. Her husband leaving her under bad circumstances and how she reacted to that was very dark. Medea has a twisted personality that causes her to be insane. Her plan involving killing her own children is very upsetting. The chorus and other characters also show major disapproval of her plan. But of course those influences will not stop Medea's insanity.In my section the chorus talks sadly about the foreseen death of Medea's children. They discuss how Jason's wife will not be able to turn down Medea's gift of the dress, which was perfect for her. Medea knew this and that is what makes her plan work flawlessly. Medea says, "Oh what misery...cursed sons and a mother for cursing!Death take you all-- and your father". This goes to show the seriousness of Medea's plan. What do you think about how her plan will take action? Do you think that Medea will drive herself mad? maybe even to the point of death?
ReplyDeleteHi Myah! First, to answer your last question I believe that Medea may drive herself to death if it will help her revenge plot. I think she is so engrossed in her revenge plot that she will do anything to make it happen. Also, I think Medea is clearly already mad, or rather insane. I think this is clearly evident from her revenge plot that involves sacrificing her own children to get revenge on her ex-husband.
ReplyDeleteOkay, now I want to discuss on how Medea carries out her evil plan. She starts her plan off with an appeal to her ex-husband, she even breaks down in fake tears of remorse to get him to believe her story that she over reacted to his decision to divorce her and remarry. We truly see Medea’s cunning and her intelligence shine through when she is actually carrying out her plan. She makes a strong statement in this play, she is a strong willed, intelligent, and vengeful woman. Euripides made a very strong statement when he used Medea, a woman, as this symbol. She is the woman trapped in a world dominated by men, a world where they are free to walk all over their wives as demonstrated by her own ex-husband, Jason. Euripides created a strong symbol of the ability of female intellect in this play, especially in a time where women were not revered for their intelligence and cunning. Medea’s planning and manipulation are no match for her enemies and she easily out smarts them. Do you think that Euripides was intentional when he created the character of Medea? What statement do you think he was trying to make?
ReplyDeleteI do think that Euripides was intentional when they created the charcter of Medea. Every Greek trajedy needs to have the person who goes insane. I have never read or heard of a Greek trajedy that deveates from that plot line. The story is twisted but the charcter of Medea gives it extra spice and embelishes it. Also, it seems necessary to have the lead female chracter, in these circumstances, to go crazy. To answer your other quesion, I think that Euripides was trying to make the statements that norelationship is perfect, and that no individual is compleatly sound or normal. Jason and Medea's relationship is very messed up and how they both handle the split is also extreamly imperfect.
For my portion of the play, it begins when the messenger enters and warning Medea to escape the city at the soonest moment. When Medea asks him why, he tells her that she has been accused as being the murderer of Creon. Medea accepts the news with and is pleased and asks for the details of their deaths. The gift is given to Jason's bride and she puts it on. It slowly startes to kill her. It was said that she looked like, "a ghastly wrestling match" (line 1214). The themes of revenge are very present. Every charcter wants revenge, exspecially Medea. What do you think about the revenge taking place in the play? How do you think this will affect the outcome of the play?
Hey Myah! I think the revenge that took place in this play was very well crafted, Medea is a schemer who took pleasure in plotting her revenge on Jason. I do think that her revenge will affect the outcome of the play as well as the rest of her life and even the whole kingdom that it took place in.
ReplyDeleteThe play concludes with Jason’s wife dying from the devouring poison laced into her dress, Medea kills her two children, and she decides not to kill Jason but, rather let him live with the torment of grief. Medea flees to Athens where she will have asylum but not before wishing Jason a "unheroic death" (line 1388), Jason grieves the events of the day, and the play ends with the chorus signing it out by saying that the gods always bring about surprising ending to every situation. Okay, now that I’ve analyzed the character of Medea for the last three entries I want to take a look at the reason behind all of Medea’s actions, her ex-hubby Jason. In the start of the play we find out that Jason abandoned his wife and children to marry the princess of Corinth, and this is the reason why Medea seeks her revenge. Jason is characterized by a haughty, power hungry, oblivious, and complacent. He vastly underestimates his ex-wife even after she killed for him in the start of their relationship. Jason is a rather flat character, his whole purpose in life is to raise his position, he cares little for his wife or his own children. But, the part that truly irked me about this character was his utter lack of character development in the conclusion of the play. He never shoulders any of the guilt for the murder of his own sons, he simply puts it all off on his ex-wife’s madness (something he only discovers after she murders his wife and her own children). Anyways, I would have enjoyed a little more development on the part of Jason but, what can you do.
At least he's sad about his kids' death, right? I am especially intrigued by your assessment of Medea's "madness." You also at one point call her plan "evil." My question is this: does one have to go crazy in order to do evil, or could Medea be perfectly sane and still driven by her anger to do evil? I think Myah said every Greek tragedy has someone go crazy--really? Who goes crazy in Antigone? Are you saying none of the characters would commit suicide unless they were insane? Do these characters have medical/mental problems or moral ones? If Medea has "gone crazy" then do we ultimately blame Medea for committing murder or Jason for making her go crazy? Is there any blame if the "evil" actions happen because of insanity? Very interesting questions brought up by you two. Good job remembering to avoid simple summary in your analysis.
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