Literature: Different Ways of Tragedy in Greek Drama - Essay Example

 Medea: The Lament of Tragedy Introduction Since the middle of the 20th century, Greek drama has been of great interest to theatre practitioners. The characters which Greek dramatists sought to create were bright, interesting and deep. For this reason, modern playwrights continue applying to the basic principles of Greek drama, to make the audience think over the most difficult questions of life. Hamlet, Oedipus, King Lear, Macbeth, and Willy Loman are the characters which professionals and scholars in literature often discuss in the context of tragedy. Critics argue on whether the classic tragedy must include "fall of princes," as defined by Aristotle, or whether modern plays deserve the right to be called modern tragedies. Euripides’s Medea is an excellent subject of interpretation and analysis. Numerous authors, including Heiner Muller and Franz Grillparzer tried to reconsider the hidden meanings of the play. Modern literary scholars consider Euripides’s plays too unusual for the conservative American society (Dykstal 104). In his famous play Medea, Euripides presents his own perspective of what it takes to create a tragedy. Euripides’s Medea is the bright example of classical tragedy in the sense that it involves human sacrifice, personal fate and deities, turns the tragic flaw in the human character into the basic source of tragic complexities and, finally, results in the sudden reversal of action. Understanding the meaning of Medea as a tragedy is impossible without offering a brief insight into what a tragedy is and how it works in literature. It is difficult not to agree to Dykstal in that Greek tragedy has already become a valuable source of knowledge and characters, which neoclassical playwrights use to meet the literary needs of modern audience (107). The basic tenets of Greek tragedy are extremely useful in that they add a share of classicism to modern writings and create an atmosphere of experiment, which continues to dominate the modern and postmodern state of literature. However, Greek tragedy in its primary form does not lose its importance and, as always, stirs the minds and hearts of numerous modern readers. Lima provides an interesting description of what Greek tragedy is and how it works; his article will serve the foundation in the subsequent analysis of Medea through the prism of tragedy. Lima is correct in that Greek dramatists operated in conditions which they believed to be important and which were usual for their times. As a result, a conventional view of Greek tragedy included several essential elements: (a) the tragoidia, or the sacrifice; (b) Olympian deities and their complex intervention with human affairs; (c) the voice of chorus which accompanies the tragic hero from the very beginning to the very end of his (her) tragic journey; (d) the tragic flaw in the character of protagonist; and (e) the sudden reversal of the situation (Lima 559-560). For a piece of writing to be a tragedy, it should include all these elements, regardless of their order or primacy. In Euripides’s Medea, these elements create a complex web of meanings and relationships. Medea is the central element of the tragic story and is the driver of the most tragic events during the play. She is equally driven by fate and her own character flaws. She pursues the need to reserve the events of her life and is constantly accompanied by chorus, which adds a sense of tragedy to everything she does or thinks. Needless to say, Medea is the central object of tragedy and the basic tragic hero in her own story of the triumph and fall. Medea exemplifies a tragedy of vengeance and envy, and her own inability to cope with the events of life. Medea represents a natural human weakness in trying to withstand the pressure of passions and desires. She is willing to sacrifice the lives of numerous people simply not to become an object of mockery in her own society. In Euripides’s story, Medea is everything and everyone at once: she is the victim of her own feelings, she is the object of sacrifice, she is the subject of deities, and, simultaneously, a character who, due to a serious flaw, falls to the bottom of morality and ethics. That Euripides’s Medea is a classic tragedy is clear as soon as Medea begins discussing her sacrifice. Sacrifice, according to Lima (559) is one of the basic elements of Greek tragedy. Actually, it is the nurse who tells the story of Medea and what she did to her brother, in order to be with Jason, but Medea supports this story and shows the signs of regret about everything she did to herself, to Jason, and to other people for the sake of her marriage. Euripides uses the nurse to describe Medea as a poor lady who had to learn from tragic experience how good it is not to leave her native land: “She gave pleasure to the people of her land of exile, and she herself helped Jason in every way” (Euripides 690). Medea herself regrets having murdered her own brother – the greatest and, probably, the most tragic sacrifice she ever made to be with Jason: “In what dishonor I left you, killing my own brother for it” (Euripides 694). Actually, the discussion of Medea’s sacrifice, on the one hand, sets the stage for the development of other events and, simultaneously, adds its share of tragedy to the current Medea’s situation. She realizes that every man, including her former husband, cares more for himself than for his neighbors and the members of his own family. This is the tragedy of the human nature and human loneliness, which leads people to unbelievable acts and decisions which they would have been unable to perform, should they be happier and content with their life situation. “Ah, me!! A wretched suffering woman I!” – cries Medea upon her grief (Euripides). He feels the cannot accept Jason’s decision to marry another woman because she had to lose too much to be with him. The role of fate in Euripides’s Medea is no less important: it would be fair to say that fate in Medea plays one of the dominant roles and is one of the most critical elements of classical tragedy, to which Euripides applies. That Jason leaves Medea to be with Creon’s daughter is, certainly, the rule of fate, and Medea has a feeling which does not let her reconcile with the new situation. She cannot reduce her children’s sufferings which are the direct result of her being a divorced woman now: “I hate you, children of a hateful mother. I curse you and your father” (Euripides 693). This is the fate Medea’s children have to recognize and accept with sympathy and humility. However, not always is fate the dominant tragic thread in Euripides’s story. More often than not, Medea will seek to go against this fate and build the life of her own. She asks Kreon to give her one more day and not to leave the city: “Allow me to remain here just for this one day” (Euripides 697). She decides to take revenge on her husband and to kill her children. She realizes that she cannot tolerate the humiliation and mockery of her society and must develop a sophisticated plan. In everything Medea does or says, she is being accompanied by the chorus – an essential element of Greek tragedy according to Lima (559). The chorus is both the reflection of Medea’s tragic soul and her adviser: “Will she come into our presence? Will she listen when we are speaking To the words we say?” (Euripides 694). Very often, Chorus adds the sense of tragedy to everything Medea does and shows the woman in the utmost pain and suffering: “Oh unfortunate one! Oh, cruel! Where will you turn? Who will help you?” (Euripides 698). At times, Chorus turns into an invisible tragic force which does not change the direction of the plot but makes the ideas and acts of Medea clearer and understandable to the audience. In either case, chorus is the essential component of classic Greek tragedy and in this sense, Medea is nothing but the example of classical tragic literary creation. Euripides applies all the drama techniques to make spectators experience different feelings and move from sympathy towards Medea to condemnation (Mullin 56). Like any other tragic hero Medea suffers a lot: “ah, wretch! Ah, lost in my sufferings, I wish I might die…Ah, I have suffered What should be wept for bitterly. I hate you, Children of a hateful mother. I curse you ask your father. Let the whole house crash” (Euripides 692-693). The interesting element of the play that makes it differ from other Greek tragedies is impunity of Medea. Unlike other tragic heroes of Ancient Greek myths, Medea did not consider herself to be guilty and managed to avoid punishment. While other women usually feel guilty in any situation, she insisted on Jason’s guilt: “I shall never accept the favors of friends of yours, Nor take a thing from you, so you need not offer it. There is no benefit in the gifts of a bad man” (Euripides 703). Although sacrifice, fate, and the chorus are the determining features of classic Greek tragedy, they can hardly overweigh the importance of the tragic flaw in character and the role of sudden reversals of action in Greek tragedy (Lima 559-560). That Medea exemplifies a tragic flaw in character is difficult to deny: her passions and the desire of revenge make her fall to the bottom of morality and ethics. She is willing to kill her children, her husband, and her enemies simply not to become the object of mockery for her society: “What town will receive me? What friend will offer me a refuge in his land […] there is none […] in craft and silence I will set about this murder” (Euripides 698). The tragedy of Medea is in that revenge and the desire of blood blind her and do not let her see the flaw in her character and, simultaneously, the possibility of other, more harmonious solutions. With these thoughts about revenge, Medea constantly pleads deities and godlike forces to reverse the events of her life, turning the reversal of events into another definitive feature of classic Greek tragedy. In her story, Medea asks for two impossible things: to restore her country and to reverse the birth of her children, so that they never suffer the humiliation of abandonment on the side of their father (Campbell 90). All these elements turn Euripides’s Medea into a classic example of Greek tragedy, which comprises the elements of deity, sacrifice, the chorus, the reversal of events and the flaw of the character which, in case of Medea, reflects through her moral blindness and her persistent search for revenge: “Now, friends, has come the time of my triumph over my enemies, and now my foot is on the road. Now I am confident they will pay the penalty” (Euripides 706). Her actions and her inability to reconcile with the new conditions of life turn Medea into the object of sympathy which readily turns into another essential characteristic of real tragedy (Will 511). Conclusion Medea is the bright example of classic Greek tragedy. The flaw of the character, sacrifice, the chorus, fate, and the reversal of events intertwine and create a complex web of meanings. The character is very impressive as Medea is the embodiment of all the women struggling with their destiny; the language is poetic and Euripides applies all the drama techniques to make spectators experience different feelings and move from sympathy towards Medea to condemnation. However, one element is absent: Medea does not feel any guilt and avoid punishment. This makes the tragedy unusual for conservative Athenian society that was considered to be democratic, but still oppressed its women. Euripides let his female hero, who committed many crimes avoid punishment in order to state that women should not be abused so cruelly and they also have a right to struggle for happiness. Jason also committed a terrible crime: he betrayed his wife and wanted to take the children from her using his power. In other tragedy he would remain unpunished and Medea would be considered as guilty. In his play “Medea” Euripides presented a new perspective on tragedy that lets a woman struggle against unfairness. Works Cited Campbell, Peter A. “Muller Medea as Material: Heiner, Myth, and Text”. Modern Drama, 51.1 (2008): pp. 84-103. Print. Dykstal, Timothy. “Provoking the Ancients: Classical Learning and Imitation in Fielding and Collier.” College Literature, 31.3 (2004): pp. 102-122. Print. Euripides. “Medea.” Translated by E.P. Coleridge. Web. 06 July 2010. Lima, Robert. “Jose Triana and the Tragic Mode: Three plays”.  Neophilologus, 88. 4 (2004): pp. 559-568. Print. Mullin, Donald C. “Myth, religion, and meaning in Greek tragedy.” Quarterly Journal of Speech, 56.1 (1970): pp. 54-60. Print. Sweeney, Gerald M. “The Medea Howells Saw.” American Literature, 42.1 (1970): pp. 83-89. Print. Will, Frederick. “The Knowing of Greek Tragedy.” The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, 16.4 (1958): pp.510-518. Print. Read More