Though Medea has been repeatedly referred to as a 'witch' with magical powers, she being the niece of Circe, she is, first and foremost, a woman. She is as much a human being as anybody else, and at the same time, she is in the possession of Divine powers, and this is what helps her get out of Greece and out of her husband's life. (Theater Reviews) Medea has been compared and likened to Achilles, in that she helps her friends, like Aegeus, and harms her enemies, like Pelias. She is in fact likened to a Homeric Hero, and even a step further than that, because she in fact was responsible for the death of her closest friends, her children, when she murdered them in order to spite and wreak revenge upon her husband. Though Medea assumes monstrous proportions towards the end of the play, nowhere is it stated that she is in fact a monster. Whatever she did becomes understandable, and in later years, Medea became a veritable symbol of the ways in which a fascist or an imperial power may be overthrown...
(Theater Reviews)
Medea also uses her children by having them deliver poison in the disguise of gifts, as no one would expect the children to have ill intentions. The children present the gifts as a request to let them avoid banishment, but in reality the gifts have been sent not to aid the children's situation at all. Throughout the play Medea acts like a puppet-master using the children to get her
This double standard is prominent in Medea, for example when Jason admits that it is normal for women to get very angry when their husband is being unfaithful, yet he expects Medea to forget about it. (Euripides, ln 908-910) This is yet another way in which Medea parallels the position of women in our society today who are also expected to keep their feelings hidden. Medea has an inclination towards
The children are their mother's power in a very real sense. When Medea must appeal to the best intentions of Creon, she presents the case of her poor unfortunate children that are no deserving of any punishment. It is through his pity for the children that Medea is able to remain for a time long enough to fulfill her plans to get revenge. Again, her children assist her when
Although appearing to act in cold blood, Medea is obviously driven by the irrational forces of her subconscious when he murders her children. On the one hand her act is a reaction towards the threat that a hostile society poses against her identity. On the other hand, he murder is a revenge against her husband's infidelity. The fact that Jason tries to lessen his own deed and make it
play entitled Medea Euripides wished to make a political statement, which was that marriage could be used to forge political ties. He also wished to reveal the disadvantages that marriage to a barbarian brought upon an individual in ancient Greece. Barbarians were foreigners whom ancient Greeks were condescending towards because they considered them to be uncivilized. The character Medea was labeled a barbarian as Jason stated, "first, thou dwellest
Medea relates a story about the power of love, which induces sacrifice as well as jealousy and feelings of revenge aroused by betrayal. Medea, the principal character, is a woman, who is so smitten by her love for Jason that she forsakes her family, country and people to live in "...the land of Corinth with her husband and children, where her exile found favour with the citizens to whose land
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