Women in Society (Medea- Euripedes)

Toby Egbuna

Blog Post 1- Medea

            In his tragedy Medea, Euripedes calls attention to several overarching themes in the work. Some of these themes include: betrayal, love, and forgiveness. However, in relation to literature, themes are ideas that are be applied to reality, while the point of a work is strictly to the fictional story. Throughout the work, Medea makes several speeches about the small role women play in society. Her ideas are supported by the plot, as she has little to no control over her exile or the fate of her children, despite the fact that Jason is the one responsible for her troubles. These components of the play have led me to the conclusion that the point of the play is to portray the insignificant role that women play in society.

            Medea is characterized by monologues made by different characters. The one I found most significant is in lines 230-240:

Of all things with life and understanding,                                          
      we women are the most unfortunate.
      First, we need a husband, someone we get
      for an excessive price. He then becomes
      the ruler of our bodies. And this misfortune
      adds still more troubles to the grief we have.
      Then comes the crucial struggle: this husband
      we've selected, is he good or bad?                                             
      For a divorce loses women all respect,
      yet we can't refuse to take a husband.
      Then, when she goes into her husband's home,
      with its new rules and different customs,
      she needs a prophet's skill to sort out the man
      whose bed she shares.

In this passage, Medea is expressing her anger towards the lack of power that women have in Greek society. Regardless of what Medea has done in her past (killing her brother and King Pelias before the story begins), Jason did not respect her enough to tell her she was leaving her for Glauce. She is angry because no one shares her negative feelings towards Jason. Everyone agrees with Jason’s reasoning for leaving her—marrying a royal woman could eventually help raise the standard of living for his new and old families—which makes Medea even angrier and spurs her aggression for taking revenge against Jason. The highlighted words emphasize Medea and other female’s battle for respect from men. They show that during their relations with men they aren’t given any sort of authority, yet they are respected to honor their men completely.

When I first got an idea of the plot of the play, I predicted that Medea’s plans for revenge would backfire and she would only end up hurting herself. The point of the play would then be that one must be able to forgive and forget, because seeking out revenge only comes back to haunt you. Instead, her plans are entirely successful, and Jason is left to suffer with the loss of his own two children and the thought that he will never be able to have children again because Glauce is also dead. My idea of the point changed after analyzing Medea’s rants about her lack of power because I developed an understanding of how she felt. The audience sympathizes with Medea after she has been betrayed by her husband and is basically left alone, further supporting the plight of women portrayed in the story. Medea stood up for herself, and although she obviously took it too far by killing Glauce and her own two children, she was willing to take a stand and be more than the “trophy” that women typically are.