The chorus’s perspective of justice works differently in Euripides’ Medea and Aeschylus’ The Libation Bearers. In both The Libation Bearers and Medea, the driving force of vengeance links the chorus to each of the play’s protagonists. For both plays, the choruses begin with a strong support of their heroes with a belief that the course of action that those characters are pursuing for the sake of avenging the wrongs done to them or their families is just and right. The chorus of Medea, however, moves away from that original conviction in the moral justification of revenge. Over the course of The Libation Bearers, the chorus also begins to express doubt in the validity of the true value in the cycle of deaths that the system of revenge necessitates. Both plays offer proof of a gradual rejection of the law of retribution in favor of balanced justice.
Retribution drives the plot of both plays. The chorus cites Jason’s “disregarding [of] right and loyalty” (Medea 47) as the reason that Medea needs to take revenge on Jason, and also as a reasonable justification for her original grief. Here, the women of Corinth who make up the chorus of Medea find a point of sympathy, the victimization of a wife or any other woman, which allows them to understand Medea’s anger towards Jason. The women of the chorus see her as “that unhappy woman from Colchis” (21), and their “own heart suffers” (21) for her pain at her husband’s betrayal. They “do not wonder that [she] take[s] such wrongs to heart” (25), and they also say that “to punish Jason will be just” (25). In Medea, the chorus’s identity as women gives them a predetermined inclination towards a belief in Medea’s idea of justice for Jason. The chorus of The Libation Bearers also cons...
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...f the need to “pay the enemy back in kind” (183), and avenge what they term “the outrage” (197) of Agamemnon’s death. Working in the opposite way as Medea, Orestes retains the goodwill of the chorus, even after committing a terrible crime. Unlike Medea, he is unable to escape his curse, and the Furies pursue him into a sort of madness.
The choruses in both plays indirectly express the sentiment that there is something fundamentally wrong with a society that requires the deaths of more people to atone for an earlier death. The Libation Bearers, which is followed by The Eumenides, moves closer to a resolution to that issue, with justice being served by an objective trial. Medea ends with a lament for Jason’s children, showing the extent of the injustice of a system where a mother will kill her own children. Both plays clearly present flawed views of justice.
A twenty-first century reading of the Iliad and the Odyssey will highlight a seeming lack of justice: hundreds of men die because of an adulteress, the most honorable characters are killed, the cowards survive, and everyone eventually goes to hell. Due to the difference in the time period, culture, prominent religions and values, the modern idea of justice is much different than that of Greece around 750 B.C. The idea of justice in Virgil’s the Aeneid is easier for us to recognize. As in our own culture, “justice” in the epic is based on a system of punishment for wrongs and rewards for honorable acts. Time and time again, Virgil provides his readers with examples of justice in the lives of his characters. Interestingly, the meaning of justice in the Aeneid transforms when applied to Fate and the actions of the gods. Unlike our modern (American) idea of blind, immutable Justice, the meanings and effects of justice shift, depending on whether its subject is mortal or immortal.
While Clytemnestra’s crime would be violent and shocking to the Argive men and to the Greek audience, her motivations for murdering her husband are not completely incomprehensible and are not without some roots in justice. After stabbing the king, Clytemnestra draws the chorus’ attention back to the other murder witnessed earlier in the play: the...
While both women do wrong by the law of man, and Medea against the law of the gods, they do it for different reasons. In the beginning Medea kills many people and monsters with little or no concern of the consequence. When the story deals with modern times Medea kills out of pure revenge and spite for Jason. She plots for weeks to kill Jason’s new bride and poisons her, and then before she leaves the country she murders her two sons, she had with Jason, before she rides off in her bright white chariot.
The workings of justice and what falls under it have been debated for a very long time, ever since men started to interact with one another. Some say justice is based on what is fair, lawful, or moral, but that only depends on what someone sees as fair, lawful, or moral. During the time of Aeschylus, justice was all three of them as well as none of them. Justice in itself was contradictory, and was subject to follow the whims of both man and god. This is seen especially in Agamemnon, The Libation Bearers, and The Furies, where from story to story someone’s views on justice were different than that of the person before them. However, they all did have one key component that they followed. This component was an edited version of Hammurabi’s code of an eye for an eye, and focused on vengeance and retribution as the primary reasons pushing for justice. In Agamemnon, The Libation Bearers, and The Furies, justice is an arbitrary term that is used to give reasoning to someone’s actions of vengeance and punishment of others.
The exchange that takes place between Medea and the Chorus serves several purposes in Euripides' tragedy, The Medea. It allows us to sympathize with Medea in spite of her tragic flaws. It also foreshadows the tragic events that will come to pass. Finally, it contrasts rationality against vengeance and excess. The Chorus offers the sane view of the world to the somewhat insane characters of Medea, Jason, and Creon. As the passage begins on page 176, the leader of the Chorus reveals that she has high regards for Medea despite the fact that she is "savage still." She acknowledges Medea as a foreigner and an outsider and yet is sympathetic towards her. This alliance is apparently based on female bonds rather than on any kind of national loyalty. Medea wastes no time before she begins lamenting and cursing those who "dared wrong me without cause." The Chorus tries to comfort Medea, hoping that this might "lessen her fierce rage / And her frenzy of spirit." They show real concern for her well-being, as well as for the well-being of her loved ones. This unselfish attitude is in stark contrast to the attitudes of the main characters in the tragedy, who all seem to be extremely self-serving. So in just a few short lines, it's already become apparent that while the chorus doesn't necessarily agree with the way that Medea is handling her situation, they are sticking by her and supporting her. This idea supports one of the important themes of the play: the battle of the sexes. Medea now has a chance to get a few things off her chest. She addresses the "Women of Corinth," reminding them that of "all things that live upon the earth and have intelligence we women are certainly the most wretched." She discusses the sad lot that women must deal with in marriage and again stresses the fact that she is an outsider, "alone, without / a city. Her speech is clever and compelling.
In Euripides Medea, readers are introduced to a woman overtaken by the desire to seek revenge against her husband. To best appreciate Medea, one must take note of how the play reflects a variety of elements seen in Aristotelian tragedy. In Aristotle’s Poetics, he introduces tragedy as, “the imitation of an action that is serious, complete, and of a certain magnitude… through pity and fear effecting the proper purification of these emotions” (1153). He also indicates that
Aeschylus, was a master dramatist - he liked to portray conflict between persons, human or divine, or between principles.1 His trilogy of plays, the Oresteia, develops many conflicts that must be resolved during the action of the Eumenides, the concluding play of the trilogy. The central theme of the Oresteia is justice (dike) and in dealing with questions of justice, Aeschylus at every stage involves the gods.2 The Oresteia's climactic conflict in the Eumenides revolves around justice and the gods - opposing conceptions of justice and conflicting classes of gods. This essay will describe and discuss these conflicts and, more importantly, the manner in which they are resolved so that the play, and indeed the entire trilogy, might reach a satisfactory conclusion.
The problem set at the beginning of the play is that Jason has decided to marry another wife, Glauce. Medea is angered and will not let Jason off without punishment. The loss of Jason is not only a matter of passion; Medea has been completely humiliated by Jason's decision to take a new bride. Her pride shows again when she refuses Jason's aid. Though her situation is difficult, she would rather destroy all than accept help from one who has wronged her so horribly. Living as a barbarian among Greeks has made her more defensive, more full of hurt pride. To punish Jason, Medea had her children deliver poisoned gifts to the new bride, to kill her children, Glauce, and Creon. . Medea is not without feeling, nor is she a sociopath. She comprehends the difference between right and wrong, but chooses to follow the dictates of rage.
The group of characters named as Chorus in both Sophocles' Antigone and Aeschylus' Prometheus Bound witness the rebellion of the titular characters against their respective authorities. In both plays, the Choruses (heretofore distinguished as Chorus A for Antigone and Chorus P for Prometheus Bound) recognize the ruling powers as both dangerous and tyrannical and are sympathetic to the plights of Antigone and Prometheus. However, the similarities between the two groups end at this point. While the actions of Chorus A are understandable given that their maturity has made them keenly aware of their own mortality, they appear mundane and self-serving in comparison to the noble selflessness of the youthful Chorus P.
There is a major conflict in this play and it starts when Jason cheats on his wife, Medea. Medea takes this very hard especially since Jason left her for fame and riches. Medea was very passionate about Jason and thought that their love was infinite. She was so distraught that this pain led her to be obsessive and violent towards everyone she loved. Medea eventually starts plotting for revenge
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.
Orestes’ father, Agamemnon, is suffered for the truth of the prophecy, the child is the price: if he kills his child, his country will win the war. Due to this prophecy, Agamemnon is tortured and agonizing between his two important roles: father of his family and father of the country. If he chooses his family and doesn’t kill his child, they will lose the war.
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.
"Chorus in Greek Theater." Encyclopedia of Ancient Literature, Second Edition. Facts On File, 2014. Ancient and Medieval History Online. Web. 16 Nov. 2015. A typical chorus is a group of singers usually performing with an orchestra, and is refer to by most people in modern day time as a choir. In Ancient Greek a chorus is usually consist of a group of men who would sang and danced. According to Facts On File “s Greek theater had its origins in religious liturgy, the chorus also sprang from associated ritual occasions and participated in both tragic and comic performances.” Greek theater can be compared the most to opera because of the characteristic that it holds. The choral parts were chanted then followed by danced with either half or the
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...