Medea Feminist

Why are different perspectives crucial in literature? A variety of viewpoints are essential to the understanding of the events being foretold in different works. A perspective that is generally misrepresented and marginalized, not only in literature but also in history, is that of women. The lack of the female perspective is most prevalent in civilizations where very few women were literate. Men in these cultures were inclined to create mostly male protagonists because they were writing to a male audience from a male perspective. One of the most prevalent works of literature written with the female perspective in mind is Medea. The three major female perspectives represented in the text are from the chorus, the princess Glause, and Medea;

Although the princess does not physically make many appearances in this novel, her one major appearance sets the tone for her entire character. What we do know about her character is that she chose to marry Jason, although Glause knew that her marriage to Jason would be at a huge disadvantage to Medea and would essentially ruin her life. The princess chose to go continue their engagement regardless of the fact that it would disadvantage another woman for her own personal profit. The reason that the princess is so vilified as a female figure is because she is an intelligent and obviously well off women who is trying to ruin another woman of equal rank in a male dominated society. Women in this novel are presented as depicted as more intelligent than the men in their novels, this is shown by when Glause does not trust allowing the children to stay on the island. Glause wants to marry Jason without any outside influence of his former wife; she is completely aware that both her and Medea cannot reside on the island while married to Jason. The fact that Medea is a very vengeful woman is not noticed by Jason and he even mentions, “I wanted to save you, and give our children royal brothers”(619-620). Jason attempts to have Medea agree with staying on the island with him while he marries another

She abandons her family and supports her husband through thick and thin; Jason has no logical reason whatsoever to leave her, especially because Medea does produce two heirs for Jason. Medea’s only fault, in the eyes of the patriarchy, is her intelligence. In a patriarchal society women must always be sub-ordinate to the men in their lives; Medea and Jason’s marriage is not balanced in Jason’s favor, which is the real reason he chooses to marry the princess. Although Glause is also a powerful and intelligent woman, she does not posses the gift of magic and is therefore unable to be actively independent like Medea. Medea is justified in wanting revenge on Jason, although the constant suppression of her talents and her abilities along with the abandonment from Jason both play into the finale of the story. The princess is born into an upper-class household, with the resources and ability to become a great ruler herself. Instead of using her opportunities to become queen herself, she decides to pursue the social acceptably action by helping a man achieve power, and deriving parts of that power rather than having her own. Leeching power from her husband would have been one of the only ways a woman in her society would even be allowed to have the amount of power that she possessed in this novel. The actions of Jason show just how easy it is for women, like Medea, who have worked