Essay/Term paper: Medea's revenge

Essay, term paper, research paper:  Greek Mythology

Medea, a play by the Greek playwright Euripides, explores the
Greek-barbarian dichotomy through the character of Medea, a princess
from the "barbarian", or non-Greek, land of Colchis. Throughout the
play, it becomes evident to the reader that Medea is no ordinary woman
by Greek standards. Central to the whole plot is Medea"s barbarian
origins and how they are related to her actions. In this paper, I am
attempting to answer questions such as how Medea behaves like a female,
how she acts heroically from a male point of view, why she killed her
children, if she could have achieved her goal without killing them, if
the murder was motivated by her barbarian origins, and how she deals
with the pain of killing her children.
As an introduction to the play, the status of women in Greek society
should be briefly discussed. In general, women had very few rights. In
the eyes of men, the main purposes of women in Greek society were to do
housework such as cooking and cleaning, and bear children. They could
not vote, own property, or choose a husband, and had to be represented
by men in all legal proceedings. In some ways, these Greek women were
almost like slaves. There is a definite relationship between this
subordination of women and what transpires in the play. Jason decides
that he wants to divorce Medea and marry the princess of Corinth,
casting Medea aside as if they had never been married. This sort of
activity was acceptable by Greek standards, and shows the subordinate
status of the woman, who had no say in any matter like this.
Even though some of Medea"s actions were not typical of the average
Greek woman, she still had attitudes and emotions common among women.
For instance, Medea speaks out against women"s status in society,
proclaiming that they have no choice of whom to marry, and that a man
can rid themselves of a woman to get another whenever he wants, but a
woman always has to "keep [her] eyes on one alone." (231-247) Though it
is improbable that women went around openly saying things of this
nature, it is likely that this attitude was shared by most or all Greek
women. Later in the play, Medea debates with herself over whether or
not to kill her children: "Poor heart, let them go, have pity upon the
children." (1057). This shows Medea"s motherly instincts in that she
cares about her children. She struggles to decide if she can accomplish
her goal of revenge against Jason without killing her children because
she cares for them and knows they had no part in what their father did.
Unfortunately, Medea"s desire to exact revenge on Jason is greater than
her love for her children, and at the end of the play she kills them.
Medea was also a faithful wife to Jason. She talks about how she helped
Jason in his quest for the Golden Fleece, then helped him escape, even
killing her own brother. (476-483). The fact that she was willing to
betray her own family to be with Jason shows her loyalty to him.
Therefore, her anger at Jason over him divorcing her is understandable.
On the other hand, Medea shows some heroic qualities that were not
common among Greek women. For example, Medea is willing to kill her own
brother to be with Jason. In classical Greece, women and killing were
probably not commonly linked. When she kills her brother, she shows
that she is willing to do what is necessary to "get the job done", in
this case, to be with Jason. Secondly, she shows the courage to stand
up to Jason. She believes that she has been cheated and betrayed by
him. By planning ways to get back at him for cheating on her, she is
standing up for what she believes, which in this case is that she was
wronged by Jason, but in a larger sense, she is speaking out against the
inferior status of women, which effectively allows Jason to discard
Medea at will. Third, she shows that she is clever and resourceful.
Rather than use physical force to accomplish her plans, she uses her
mind instead: "it is best to...make away with them by poison."
(384-385) While physical strength can be considered a heroic quality,
cleverness can be as well. She does in fact poison the princess and the
king of Corinth; interestingly, however, she does not poison them
directly. "I will send the children with gifts...to the bride...and if
she wears them upon her skin...she will die." (784-788) This shows her
cleverness because she is trying to keep from being linked to the crime,
though everyone is able to figure out that she was responsible anyway.
In a way, though, she is almost anti-heroic because she is not doing the
"dirty work" herself, which makes her appear somewhat cowardly.
Finally, there is the revenge factor. Many times heroes were out for
revenge against someone who did them or a friend wrong, and in this case
Medea is no exception, since she wants to have revenge against Jason for
divorcing her without just cause.
There are two main reasons why Medea decides to kill her children. The
first, and more obvious one, is that she feels that it is a perfect way
to complement the death of the princess in getting revenge on Jason.
When she tells the chorus of the plans to kill the children, they wonder
if she has the heart to kill her children, to which she replies, "[y]es,
for this is the best way to wound my husband." (817). This shows that
she believes that by killing her children, she will basically ruin
Jason"s life, effectively getting her revenge. The second reason for
Medea killing her children has nothing to do with revenge. If she left
her children with Jason, they would be living in a society that would
look down upon them since they have partly barbarian origins. She did
not want her children to have to suffer through that. Also, if her
children are mocked for being outsiders, then this reflects badly on
Medea, and she said that she does not want to give her enemies any
reason to laugh at her. (781-782) Since she does not want to leave her
children with Jason, they really have no place else to where they could
go, being barbarians in a Greek city: "[m]y children, there is none who
can give them safety." (793) For these two reasons, Medea decides that
killing her children is the best way to accomplish her plan: getting
revenge and keeping her children away from Jason.
Whether or not Medea could have accomplished her goal without killing
her children is debatable. On one hand, if we look at Medea"s objective
only as seeking revenge against Jason, then she could have accomplished
that without killing her children. Killing the princess, Jason"s new
wife, would cause enough grief for Jason so that her goal would be
accomplished. We can infer that the death of Jason"s wife would be more
damaging to him than the deaths of his children because Jason was going
to let Medea take the children with her into exile and did not try to
keep them for himself. Therefore, once the princess was dead, killing
the children, while it causes additional grief for Jason, really is not
necessary. Even though Medea does not seem to believe it, killing her
children probably causes more pain for her than Jason. She just does
not see it because she is so bent on revenge against Jason. On the
other hand, if we define Medea"s objective in two parts, one being
revenge, and the other to keep the children away, then it is possible
that she had to kill her children. As for the revenge part, it was not
necessary that she kill her children for the reasons just discussed.
However, she may have needed to kill them to keep Jason from getting
them. If Jason decided he wanted his children, there is not much Medea
could do about it, other than kill them. Also, it is possible that she
did not want to take them with her into exile because they could make it
more difficult for her to reach Athens. For whatever the reason,
however, it is probable that she needed to kill her children to carry
out her plan, since she accomplished two different goals through their
deaths.
The murder of Medea"s children is certainly caused in part by her
barbarian origins. The main reason that Jason decides to divorce Medea
to marry the princess is that he will have a higher status and more
material wealth being married to the king"s daughter. (553-554) In
other words, Jason believes that Medea"s barbarian origins are a burden
to him, because there is a stigma attached to that. In his mind, having
the chance to be rich outweighs the love of a barbarian wife. Medea"s
barbarian status is a burden to herself as well. Once separated from
Jason, she becomes an outsider with no place to go, because the
barbarians were not thought too highly of in Greek society. Had Medea
not been a barbarian, it is likely that Jason would not have divorced
her, and therefore, she would not have had to kill her children. But
since she is a barbarian, this sets in motion the events of the play,
and in her mind the best course of action is to kill her children. Just
because she is non-Greek does not necessarily mean that her way of
thinking would be different from the Greeks; in other words, her way of
thinking did not necessarily cause her to kill her children.
Medea deals with the pain that the deaths of her children cause her
quite well. She does this by convincing herself that her revenge
against her husband was worth the price of her children"s death. When
asked about killing her children, she replies, "So it must be. No
compromise is possible." (819) This shows that she is bent on revenge,
and that she is justifying their deaths to get her revenge. However,
she does struggle with her decision to kill them. She is sad that she
must take their lives, but also tells herself that it is in their best
interests, as evidenced by what she says to her children: "I wish you
happiness, but not in this world." (1073) She does not seem to have a
problem with killing her children once it comes time to actually carry
out the act. But her motherly instincts will not allow her to totally
abandon her children after they are dead, as she decides to hold a
yearly feast and sacrifice at their burial site. (1383-1384) But in
the end, we can see that she dealt with the pain surprisingly well.
Two main themes are present in Medea: Medea"s barbarian origins, and
her desire for revenge against Jason. Her barbarian status is really
what starts the actions of the play. It is what makes her a less
desirable wife to Jason than the princess, and causes him to leave her.
This then leads to her thoughts of revenge against Jason, and her
decision to kill her children as a way to exact that revenge. As far as
revenge goes, Medea is heroic in that she is standing up against an evil
done to her. Throughout most of the play, she spends her time plotting
her revenge against Jason, waiting until the right moment to unleash her
plan. She uses her cleverness to trick Jason and the others into
believing that she was not upset with him. In the end, we can see that
Medea"s barbarian origins were a major factor in the play, and that
Medea was no ordinary woman in Greek terms.