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Women's roles in greek mythology
Theme of feminism in media
Assess the character of media in euripides tragedy
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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 …show more content…
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 …show more content…
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
In Medea, the society is similar when it comes to men versus women. Barlow states that the “[h]usband have complete physical control of their wives,” which is similar to the society in Bacchae (Barlow 159). Medea is mistreated by almost all the men that she encounters within the play. Jason betrays her and leaves her to marry Creon’s daughter. Creon wants to banish Medea and her two sons from his land (Medea 272-273). When Creon is banishing Medea from his land he has no h...
Personal Development, one of the core values at Saint Leo University, plays an important role in students’ daily lives. From the moment you step foot on campus to the day you graduate, you automatically become a different person. As a first year student, you are entering a new life and not knowing what to expect. Once you are in college, it is the start of a new chapter. You will become more mature and all the obstacles that you will go through will make you a different person. In order to have a successful Undergraduate experience, it is crucial to have a balance between personal life and school. Your personal development will strengthen your academics and the community. The Campus Life Handbook states, “Saint Leo University stresses the development of every person’s mind, spirit, and body for a balanced life. All members of the Saint Leo University community must demonstrate their commitment to personal development to help strengthen the character of our community” (Saint Leo 1). Based on the Saint Leo core values, personal development, responsible stewardship, integrity, respect, and community exemplifies Medea’s character as a Hero devolving throughout the play.
In the play "Medea", Medea faces the harsh reality of infidelity. Her husband Jason has left her for a princess. Medea, like any normal woman today would want revenge. The difference between them is that the normal woman would not commit the crime, while in fact Medea does. After what feels like an eternity of planning and vowing revenge she devises a plan to murder the woman who has stolen her husband as well as her husband and their two children. She feels betrayed and has every right to. Imagine in that time that it was a crime to commit adultery, but because Jason had left his wife for a princess it was plausible which left Medea livid.
Medea's most valuable argument for her innocence, was her psychiatric condition. An example of her situation happened many times in the past and continue to happen to this day. 1994 Susan Smith drowned her two children in a lake. 1998 Kathleen Folbigg suffocated her only child. Many things come to mind when hearing about these horrible acts. What sane mother would do such a thing to her own children. But that’s just it, no sane mother would kill her own child. If looked closely both Susan and Kathleen had psychological issues that led them to committee these dull acts. Susan Smith was rejected by her husband, Kathleen Folbigg’s father murdered her mother in front of her. Medea suffered most of those acts, she was not only rejected by her lover, but she also had her pride taken away from her. Revenge considered one of the most ancient and brutal human impulses. When a person is threatened by another, the fist thought that comes to one’s mind is revenge. But its when these thoughts become reality that society
The very creation of women was set as a punishment to man because Prometheus, son of Iapetos, tried to trick Zeus into eating bones and then, with the tube of a fennel, steals fire to give to mankind. Zeus then proclaimed, "To set against the fire I shall give them an affliction in which they will all delight as they embrace their own misfortune." Out of Zeus' anger came Pandora, the first woman. Zeus ordered Hephaestus to mold women from the earth and water, Athene to dress and adorn her, Temptation to give her necklaces of gold, and Hermes to implant a bitch's mind and a thief's temper. Hesiod describes women as a "precipitous trap, more than mankind can manage." Hesiod states, "even so as a bane for mortal men has high-thundering Zeus created women, conspirators in causing difficulty." And thus the first woman was named Pandora, Allgift,-"a calamity for men who live by bread." And so Pandora and all the evils of the world, except Hope, were released into the world by a punishing Zeus. Hesiod explains how formerly the tribes of men lived "remote from ills, without harsh toil and the grievous sickness that are deadly to men." From Pandora descended the female sex, "a great affliction to mortals as they dwell with their husbands- no fit partners for accursed Poverty, but only for Plenty." An analogy is then used to compare women to drones who, according to Hesiod, feed off hard-working bees all day. Hesiod immed...
The two contemporary productions of Medea were selected for this essay in an effort to contrast the ancient Greek version of the play with two modernized versions, which would demonstrate a wide distinction between the styles of production. Furthermore, both modernized versions of the play add their own innovation to the production, making for an even broader dissimilarity among the plays. Moreover, both recent productions are fashioned within cultures which have borrowed their political, social, and moral ways of life from Ancient Greek society, specifically, South Africa¹ (British Colonies), and The United States².
In the classical age, women were expected to be meek and powerless creatures, and when they were not they were usually considered to be hysterical. Medea’s strength is portrayed as her madness as she takes control and decides the fate of her enemies. Medea breaks that rule in the manifestation of the madness that poisons her mind. Medea has left everything to be with Jason, she has even gone as far as forsaking her father and murdering her brother in order to leave with Jason, “Oh, my father! Oh my country! In what dishonor / I left you, killing my own brother for it” (164-65). This perhaps should have been a red flag for Jason in realizing how she killed her own flesh and blood and should have been an indicator for the evil that resided within her. Medea is in Jason’s turf and here she is considered a foreigner, she now defines herself via her marriage to Jason. Ultimately, when she loses him to a younger bride, she also loses her ability to be rational in her thinking. Euripides allows Medea to have a voice, and thus, gives insight into how what is happening affects her psyche.
She was the daughter of King Aeetes and the former wife of Jason, until he decided to abandon his family and duties as the head of the household by marrying Glauce, the Princess of Corinth. In the beginning, when Medea and Jason ran away to Corinth, she tried to play the part of the good wife and conform to the ancient Greek societal values regarding gender roles. As a woman, her purpose in society was to get married, have children, and raise them. Medea tried to comply and obey those norms that had been long engrained in society. However, due to Jason’s betrayal and the renouncement of her and their children, the catalyst for full-fledged murder arose and unraveled the stagnant and deeply inbred issue of gender inequality, especially in terms of marriage. Medea even said, “For separations bring disgrace on the woman and it is not possible to renounce one 's husband” (42). While getting divorced was an easy procedure for men, it was extremely difficult for women to accomplish separation successfully from their husband. Men were not only able to freely and easily divorce their wife without any issues, but also did not experience any reparations for their actions. Whereas,
... know, and does not cause commotion outside of her home. On the other hand, it is quite clear that Medea is far from the depiction of the “ideal” woman because of her vengeful spirit, her uproar causing ways, and the fact that she actually ended up hurting her children, regardless of the amount of pain or sorrow she went through beforehand, not to mention that she also killed her brother, according to many of the stories about her.
…First, we must buy our husband at a high price and take a master over our bodies, an even more painful evil than the other. Here the stakes are the highest: do we take a bad man or a good one? A woman can’t get divorced and keep her good reputation, as she has no right to refuse her husband…” (Euripides, 2007, p. 21).
Ironically, Medea’s actions are similar to a man when she takes charge of her marriage, living situation, and family life when she devices a plan to engulf her husband with grief. With this in mind, Medea had accepts her place in a man’s world unti...
Charlotte Bronte once said, “Women are supposed to be very calm generally, but women feel just as men feel. They need exercise for their faculties, and a field for their efforts as much as their brothers do. They suffer from too rigid a restraint, too absolute a stagnation, precisely as men would suffer; and it is narrow minded in their more privileged fellow creatures to say that they ought to confine themselves to making puddings and knitting stockings, to playing on the piano and embroidering bags” (Bronte). In the play Medea, Euripides diverged from the traditional role of Greek women through Medea’s characteristics and response to her plight. In delineating the role of women, Medea was unlike any other Greek character. Medea was portrayed as capable and resilient woman who would refuse to back down no matter the obstacles. Nevertheless, women in the Greek culture had very few rights. Housework and bearing children were their main obligations. They were basically no better than slaves. In the ancient Greek society, Medea would not fit well among fellow Greek women. Her role as a woman in the play was downtrodden. However, her determination and courage caused people to fear her. She was a woman who turned her back on her family and killed her own brother in order to help her husband.
Medea and Lysistrata are two Greek literatures that depict the power which women are driven to achieve in an aim to defy gender inequality. In The Medea, Medea is battling against her husband Jason whom she hates. On the other hand, in Aristophanes' Lysistrata, the protagonist Lysistrata plotted to convince and organize the female gender to protest against the stubbornness of men. In terms of defining the purpose of these two literatures, it is apparent that Euripedes and Aristophanes created characters that demonstrate resistance against the domination of men in the society.
Women’s lives are represented by the roles they either choose or have imposed on them. This is evident in the play Medea by Euripides through the characters of Medea and the nurse. During the time period which Medea is set women have very limited social power and no political power at all, although a women’s maternal and domestic power was respected in the privacy of the home, “Our lives depend on how his lordship feels”. The limited power these women were given is different to modern society yet roles are still imposed on women to conform and be a dutiful wife.
Internal conflicts within Medea shed light on her true character and her difficulties to make decisions. Throughout the play, there are many cases of Medea contemplating her decisions and this is done so the readers can see that Medea thinks for herself, and doesn’t let any male control her life. In the play, Medea states, “I had rather stand three times in the front line than bear one child” (1. 249-50). This shows that her internal conflict with not wanting to go through childbirth again is proof that her character is a little bit of a “masculine” woman. In the quote she is saying she’d rather battle than give birth. In a way, it is an example of Medea’ rejection of the foundation of the typical role of woman. Another example of Medea having an