Medea: Blog Post #1

 

The point of Medea is to address the social issues of men and women.  Medea pushes the social roles of men and women during this time period by exhibiting more masculine traits.  Medea is constantly described as clever from her nurse, Creon, and husband.  She even kills her brother and saves Jason's life when he was aboard the Argo.  In comparison, Jason, Medea's husband, is characterized by his cowardly behavior.  Jason goes behind Media's back and marries another women without telling Medea.  He does not have the courage to tell Medea to her face.  He claims this is because he knows she will overreact because the whole "love thing got in the way".   In reality, his dishonesty can be seen as an example of his inability to face up to the truth.  Jason even goes so far as to tell Medea that she was not the one responsible for saving his life, even though she was.  This blatant denial of the truth is the character trait of someone who is too immature to admit when they are wrong.  The contrast of the clever, strong-willed women as compared to the weak, cowardly man pushed the social roles during this time.  Many saw women as weak and unable to take care of themselves.  Men were seen as the ones who came in to save the day or the fate of others.  In this play, Medea goes so far as to not only be the one with a strong character, but also the power to affect the fate of everyone in the play.  She used her power to change Jason’s fate.  Then, when he broke her heart, she used her power once more to kill everyone he loved.  The lines I choose to demonstrate this point were:

“On your side for all of this!” A distinguished husband

I have-for breaking promises.  When in misery

I am cast out of the land and go in exile,

Quite without friends and all alone with my children,

That will be a fine shame for the new-wedded groom

For his children to wander as beggars and she who saved him.

O God, you have given mortals a sure method

Of telling the God that is pure from the counterfeit;

Why is there no mark engraved on men’s bodies,

By which we could know the true ones from the false ones?”

I choose this passage because this demonstrates how during this time period women, no matter how strong willed, would still always rely on a man.  It is important to note that while Medea does take the fate of others into her own hands, this is all done for her undying love for Jason.  All of Medea’s actions, though strong, were done to effect Jason, thus during this time, everything still comes back to the male.  Even though Medea was offered a place to stay she still felt that she was lost and had nowhere to go because her husband abandoned her.  I think this passage emphasizes that while the point is to push the gender roles in this novel, those gender roles will still always be firmly established whether Medea likes it or not.  No matter what she does she cannot control how others feel, and thus this drives her mad.     

So in conclusion, I think it is important to question why this play seems to be demonstrating the downfall of an empowered women?  Why did Medea feel the need to do everything to effect her "man" when she could have perfectly happy living her life the way it was?  Is it impossible to be an empowered women and not abuse that power?