The Importance Of Womanhood In Medea

When Medea finds herself left by her husband alone in a foreign city, she takes matters into her own hands as she plans her revenge on her disloyal husband. In her opinion, the Greek community sees little to no value in a divorced woman and thus she has no means by which she can mitigate for her ill fate. Because Medea feels that she, as a woman in a deeply patriarchal Greek society, has virtually no power to prevent the wrongs done unto her, Medea asserts that the domestic life of a wife is far more destructive and dangerous than a life of war. The dangers of womanhood, according to Medea, begin when a woman gives her husband-to-be a large dowry, and in exchange the husband has complete control over her body. Because a married woman must

Without control over how she wishes to spend her money or how she wishes her body to be treated, a woman has no right to make decisions independent of her husband. Instead of leaving her audience to connect the dots of how destructive such conduct is, Medea reveals the most dangerous manifestation of this lack of control by implying how such forms of complete subordination frequently leave women vulnerable to rape by their husbands. The basis of this reasoning stems from Medea’s contention that in marrying a man, a woman now has “a master for [her] body.” Her use of the word “master” hints at an idea of ownership in which men physically rule the bodies of their wives. In a typical master-servant relationship, the servants have no will of their own except to please their masters lest they face a set of dire consequences. Thus, Medea’s metaphor suggests

According to Medea, when women can satisfy the wants and needs of their husbands, their “lives are admired.” This could mean that others literally admire the happenings of their lives—that they find their lives to be a wonderful way to live—or to mean that others see their lives as valuable in their serving of their husbands. Thus, women’s lives are only valuable when their husbands are satisfied. This occurs partially because a woman has no companions beyond her husband. While the husband “has friends, companions of his own age,” the wife only has the husband for company. Thus, when a woman’s husband leaves her, she’s left alone to face the cruelty of a society that has deserted her. With a world of people looking down upon her for not having satisfied her husband, a woman thus has no reason to live a lonely life of misery. Perhaps this is why Medea believes “it’s best [for a woman] to die” than to face the repercussions of having her husband leave her. Unfortunately, Medea believes that such problems exist even if the wife leaves the husband. Now, consider this in context. Women sell themselves through a dowry in order to get married, their husbands have complete control over them and can manipulate them, but women have no