Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
Role of women during greek literature
Role of women during greek literature
Misogyny in euripides
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: Role of women during greek literature
The act of feminism can often be perceived as unpleasant, due to the insufficient understanding of the affiliation's purpose. Euripides and Aeschylus both created female characters who defined the basic laws of gender persona. Medea and Agamemnon portray strong, but rash women, who do not settle for injustices related to them. The epistemology of Euripides and Aeschylus works can be further understood when a feminist standpoint is considered. The women, Medea and Clytemnestra, show the importance of not treating a female as less, although, most women today do not kill those who are unjust, they do strike back against the wrongful act. At the start of Medea, a play by Euripides, Medea is a mess. Her husband, the no good Jason, has married King Medea is a female figure who does not passively sit back and accept the injustice of what has been dealt to her. She stands up for herself, maybe a tad bit rashly, and gets her revenge as she so thinks she deserves. Being presented as a weak female figure is something that Medea rather not portray. Medea is cunning, strong, and not silent in the fact of patriarchal injustice, which leads her to have the upper hand. She swore that Jason and the royal family would pay, and she did not disappoint. Medea, though seeming heartless and rash, did care about her family, but she cared about Jason meeting justice more. “[Medea]: What will I do? My heart is not in it, women, when I look at the gleaming eyes of my children. I could not do it (Euripides 26).” The tender side of a harsh character is often overlooked, especially with a character such as Medea. Knowing that Jason would ache for his sons forever, Medea killed them both as the harshest punishment she could create. In most plays, the female characters tend to sit back as minor roles, but this is one act that cannot be considered minor. Though Medea was a strong female lead in such a tragic way, she stood firmly for what she believed in and let nothing deter
Medea is a tragedy written by acclaimed Greek playwright Euripides.fortunately, had the opportunity to view last night's performance. Euripides cleverly uncovers the reality of Ancient Greek society, shining a light on the treatment of women and the emotions and thoughts that provoked during their time in society. As they were voiceless, Euripides acted as a voice. The scene is set during a male- dominated society, Medea the protagonist challenges the views and chooses to ignore the normality of civilisation. Treated as an outsider her passion for revenge conquers the motherly instincts she possesses, provoking a deep hatred and sparking revenge towards her once loved family.
The tragic play Medea is a struggle between reason and violence. Medea is deliberately portrayed as not a ‘normal woman’, but excessive in her passions. Medea is a torment to herself and to others; that is why Euripides shows her blazing her way through life leaving wreckage behind her. Euripides has presented Medea as a figure previously thought of exclusively as a male- hero. Her balance of character is a combination of the outstanding qualities of Achilles and Odysseus.
In Medea, a play by Euripides, Jason possesses many traits that lead to his downfall. After Medea assists Jason in his quest to get the Golden Fleece, killing her brother and disgracing her father and her native land in the process, Jason finds a new bride despite swearing an oath of fidelity to Medea. Medea is devastated when she finds out that Jason left her for another woman after two children and now wants to banish her. Medea plots revenge on Jason after he gives her one day to leave. Medea later acts peculiarly as a subservient woman to Jason who is oblivious to the evil that will be unleashed and lets the children remain in Corinth. The children later deliver a poisoned gown to Jason’s new bride that also kills the King of Corinth. Medea then kills the children. Later, she refuses to let Jason bury the bodies or say goodbye to the dead children he now loves so dearly. Jason is cursed with many catastrophic flaws that lead to his downfall and that of others around him.
Because of Medea’s strange way of thinking, the reader is able to identify with her. Although she wishes harm on Jason, Medea does not care who else gets hurt along the way. “Ah, lost in my sufferings, I wish, I wish I might die,” (pg. 692, line 97-8). She is able to convince the reader with her first line that her suffering has been so awful, that there is no longer any point in living. Before truly understanding what is going on in the play, Medea is able to get many people on her side. At the very least, she is able to make most people feel sorry for her right away, and recognize her as a pitiful character.
Euripedes tugs and pulls at our emotions from every angle throughout The Medea. He compels us to feel sympathy for the characters abused by Medea, yet still feel sympathy for Medea as well. These conflicting feelings build a sense of confusion and anxiety about the unfolding plot. In the beginning, the Nurse reveals the recent background events that have caused Medea so much torment: "She herself helped Jason in every way" (13) and now he "has taken a royal wife to his bed" (18). Right away we are angry with Jason for breaking his wedding vows, and we are building up sympathy for Medea as the Nurse describes her acts of suffering. When we first see Medea, she speaks passionately to the women of Corinth and convinces them to side with her. She evokes their sympathy by drawing further attention to her suffering and speaking in terms that bring them all to common ground. Aegeus becomes Medea’s first victim when he, unknowingly, provides the final building block in her plan for revenge against Jason. We sympathize for Aegeus in his ignorance. Medea now has confidence in her plan, so she reveals it to the women of Corinth. She is going to send her children to Jason’s bride with a poisoned dress that will make her die in agony. We are still compelled to sympathize with Medea at this point because she has justified her reasons for seeking revenge. However, the princess is oblivious to Medea’s plot; she will accept the gift for its beauty then meet an unexpected, agonized death. The image of pain and agony elicits our sympathy as well. Medea presents her most perverse speech when she explains how she will kill her own children then flee Corinth. Alone, these acts provoke pure disgust, but Euripides has developed Medea’s character as a coercive force; we still sympathize with her for her plight, yet we also hate her for her decisions. The women of Corinth try to persuade her away from this morbid choice, but their arguments are ineffective. Euripides employs stichomythia in the exchange between the women and Medea to show Medea breaking down boundaries between self and other, which prevent sympathy (811-819). Euripedes focuses on suffering, ignorance, and rhetoric to leave us torn in our sympathy for every character.
*Although Medea is arguably the most intelligent character in Euripides’s piece, shown in her dialogue with Creon, she has become ridiculed, and viewed as barbarous and less desirable following her separation from Jason. She is no longer a wife to a Greek man. She is simply an outsider, and a burden on a prosperous
Medea has been exiled for three times: from her home country near the Black Sea, from Jason's homeland Iolchos, and now from the city of Corinth. We would naturally think that a woman like Medea, being exiled for many times, is the most vulnerable and most powerless woman. She has got no friend and no citizenship. At the time of Euripides, being an exile is not an interesting position that a person wants to be in. It is like a suicide. Most people at that time in Greece view strangers as barbarians with no intelligence at all. In addition, Medea is going to be an exile with two children. She is supposed to be in lots of trouble. On the other hand, Jason has won the princess of Corinth's love. He is going to be Creon's son-in-law. Jason abandon's Medea after all she has done for him. Jason doesn't fear Medea at all because he has support from Creon, king of Corinth. Jason is supposed to be more powerful than Medea. Jason is the son-in-law of the king and Medea is an exile. But, as Euripides suggests, what the audience expects doesn't come true at all.
Even in today’s society, gender roles play a part in how people view the world. Although more important than the gender roles are the emotions that antagonize the psyche of the human. Medea shows how jealousy can lead to revenge and influence bad decisions and ruin or even end lives. Ironically, the decisions she makes to kill her children, leaves Jason helpless much like a Greek wife during this time. She removes the opportunity for him to voice his opinions, needs, and desires. This flip of traditional gender roles shows how gender roles are not a reliable way to view a society.
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.
One of the things she does to help their cause is bring about the death of her own brother. Certainly this is a woman who would sacrifice anything for her husband. Weigel records the fierceness of Medea's passion in his critique: "As a woman of passion, Medea is wholly committed to Jason as the object of her emotional life, whether in love or hate. When she loved Jason she did not hesitate to kill her brother, betray her father and country, or instigate Pelias' murder for Jason's sake" (Weigel 1391).
When Jason left Medea to marry Glauce, Medea was plagued with sadness and then with anger. The man she loved, the man that she gave up her life for, had betrayed her. In the patriarchal society that Medea lived in, it was not acceptable for a woman to protest any decision made by her husband. Medea went against all social standards and took revenge on Jason for the wrongs that he had committed. She was willing to take any chance and sacrifice even her most valued possessions. Medea knew that the best way to avenge the wrongs of Jason was to kill Glauce and the children. It was a huge sacrifice for Medea to kill the children that she loved, but she allowed herself to look past that love and only see her hate and contempt for Jason. Medea was willing to go against every rule that society set, so that her husband wouldn't get away with leaving her for political reasons.
Medea’s illegitimate marriage and the betrayal of Jason drive Medea to extreme revenge. Medea chooses to act with her immortal self and commit inhumane acts of murder rather than rationalize the outcomes of her actions. Medea see’s this option as her only resort as she has been banished and has nowhere to go, “stripped of her place”. To create sympathy for Medea, Euripides plays down Medea’s supernatural powers until the end of the play. Throughout the play Medea represents all characteristics found in individual women put together, including; love, passion, betrayal and revenge. Medea’s portrayal of human flaws creates empathetic emotions from the audience. The audience commiserates with Medea’s human flaws as they recognize them in themselves. Medea plays the major role in this play as she demonstrates many behavioral and psychological patterns unlike any of the other Greek women in the play; this draws the audience’s attention to Medea for sympathy and respect.
This mutual suffering between Medea and the Chorus raises issues such as the treatment of women at the time when this play was written. When Medea married Jason, she married herself to him for life. She was expected to be totally obedient and to accept whatever her husband willed. For her to look upon another man other than her husband would have been totally unacceptable. Whereas Jason marries another woman while he...
Medea's plan was set into motion. She has nothing to loose. She is even angrier because she betrayed her own father and her people for him. She even bears the burden of having Pelias killed by his daughters for Jason. She decides to take revenge out on Jason's bride and poisons her. She also doesn't want Jason to take the children from her. She decides to kill them, but agonizes over this decision before killing them. Some critics view this as a pathetic attempt at motherhood. I know there is a certain bond between mother and child. She just wants to hurt Jason as much as she has been hurt. "She first secures a place of refuge, and seems almost on the point of bespeaking a new connection. Medea abandoned by the entire world, was still sufficient for herself." (blackmask).
Although Medea killed and did things that people felt were wrong it is evident that through out the play that along with her other characteristics, she was a caring and loving person. The first time we are shown this is when we discover everything she did for Jason. If she did not love him she would not have done those things. We are also shown that Medea can be a caring person by the love that she had for her children. Although she killed them in the end during the play she was a mother to her children, she showed affection to them, and she did think twice before she killed them. It is because Medea was a caring and loving person that she did what she did. Her feelings were hurt and her heart was broken; and she did what she felt she had to do to hurt Jason for hurting her.