Medea by Euripides and Gender Roles - Essay Example

?Medea – Gender Roles Medea, a very famous play written by Euripides, is a tale of retribution; a woman, going to extreme ends to inflict sorrow on her beloved husband who had wronged her by abandoning her in order to marry someone else. The play is set in Corinth, the place where Media and Jason had taken refuge after stealing the “Golden Fleece”. The play opens with a nurse lamenting on the sad state of her mistress, Medea. Jason had abandoned his two children and Medea to marry Glauce, a much younger, very beautiful princess of Corinth. Medea is consumed with rage and wants to take revenge. In order to accomplish this, she kills Glauce, Creon (the king of Corinth and father of Glauce) and in order to inflict the final and the most painful blow, she stabs her own children to death. (Bloom, 65-68) In Euripides’s Medea, deviation from the general perception about the two genders can be seen, especially so in case of female. Medea, the lead of the play, shows both masculine and feminine traits. Medea’s introductory lines present her as a grief stricken woman, full of self pity and wanting to die in order to put an end to her ordeal, showcasing her feminine traits. “Ah, me! a wretched suffering woman I! O would that I could die!” (Euripides, 294) But as the play progresses, many shades can be seen in her character. She soon gives up on her self-pity and decides to take revenge on her husband and devices a plan accordingly. The image of a woman planning to take revenge is very much contradictory to the general notion about a woman, who is always thought to be weak and submissive. Here Medea shows more of masculine nature than feminine one. In order to fulfill her plan of revenge, she, like women are generally thought to do, takes shelter in deceit. She pleads in front of Creon, asking for a day before she leaves for her exile. When, at first Creon seems unyielding, she cleverly utilizes a casual reference by Creon about the great love he has for his daughter and pleads on behalf of her children and succeeds in getting the one day grace before her exile. Here, Medea evolves as a clever, determined female. She clearly is a deviation from the general perception of a woman in distress. “Then pity them; thou too hast children of thine own; thou needs must have a kindly heart. For my own lot I care naught, though I an exile am, but for those babes I weep, that they should learn what sorrow means.” (Euripides) Medea expresses her feminine thoughts in many portions of the play. She emphasizes on the alienated status of women in the society. She claims in front of the chorus that in this society it is the woman who suffers if a marriage goes badly, the husband simply escapes their responsibilities and finds themselves a company in another woman. She points out that a woman makes many sacrifices while taking a husband. They have no security i.e. they can be easily discarded in marriage, they bear the pains of childbirth and they do not have any public life i.e. friends or entertainment. Eventually, if the choice of husband made by them proves to be a wrong then they are left with no other option but to die. But Medea soon changes her grief-stricken self into a lady who can take revenge on her wrong doers. She is not the silent sufferer. She is a lady with a proud nature. An incidence which shows Medea as a proud person is when she refuses to accept help from Jason. The scene where Jason and Medea are having an argument clearly portrays Medea as a strong female and Jason as weak male. Jason’s arguments carry no weights at all when he claims that he married his present wife because he wanted to secure Medea’s and his children’s future. He even blames Medea for the exile that was imposed on her. He makes an offer saying that he could find Medea and the children a house to live in, but Medea refuses the help realizing that this offer of help must have been the outcome of Jason’s guilt and she did not want him to get rid of his guilt. “I will have naught to do with friends of thine, naught will I receive of thee, offer it not to me; a villain's gifts can bring no blessing.” (Euripides) Another instance that highlights Medea as a proud woman is when Medea, in order to salvage her pride and have her revenge is willing to even suffer the greatest grief of all. It is a common notion that a woman can sacrifice anything for her children and can never hurt them. But Medea seems to be above it all. She plans to kill her own children in order to hurt Jason even though it will be painful for her. She justifies her action saying that it would be better for her to suffer than see her enemies smile. She refuses to be reduced to a laughing-stock. Finally, the choice to kill a person is something that can rarely be associated with a female. Generally, women are the ones who give life and Medea emerges as a life taker. This facet of her nature is also contradictory to the traditional views about a woman. She remains guiltless regarding the killing of Glauce and Creon. But what shocks most is her killing of her own children. Medea emerges as a “tragic heroine” in this play. She is definitely not a “model heroine” but she emerges out as an extraordinary character. She is not someone who silently suffers, like women generally do. She takes a stand, plans revenge and carries it out without faltering, even though it required the greatest sacrifice from her. The gender roles in Medea are much entwined. Medea herself portrays both feminine and masculine natures. On one hand she is grief-stricken, jealous and hurt but on the other hand she is cunning, revengeful, proud and above all a murderess. Jason on the other hand comes across as a very weak man who does not take responsibilities for his actions, is selfish and an opportunist. References 1) Bloom, H. Euripides: comprehensive research and study guide, New York: Infobase Publishing, 2002 2) Euripides. Medea, CLASSICS, Oct 1,2011 from: http://classics.mit.edu/Euripides/medea.html Read More