The Tragedy of Medea - Essay Example

In spite of being rational, human beings always face with irrational feeling problems, which sometimes cannot be solved, because of impossibility to control some manifestations of human nature, thus people have to deal with the kinds of problems, which seem to be totally unsolvable for a person. Dealing with rage, jealousy, fear makes people absolutely incapable of controlling themselves, so they become being able to make horrible actions, which alienate them from a moral human being. The tragedy “Medea” by ancient Greek poet Euripides describes the gap of civilized morality of the women, who is impassionate with her love to the man, and the man, that, pursuing his material self interested aims, loses everything and becomes a victim of his own decisions. There is a myth about the hero Jason, leader of the Argonauts. He was the king of Iolcos city, but the imperious Pelias overthrew Jason’s reign in the city, and to bring his rule back Jason had to perform the feat: to swim with his friends (Argonauts) on the ship "Argo" to the eastern edge of the earth and in the country of Colchis to obtain the sacred Golden Fleece, guarded by dragon. The tragedy “Medea” depicts life of the daughter of the king of Colchis. Because of her strong love she helped Jason to get the Golden Fleece by killing her own father and brother. She marries Jason and they escape to another city Corinth, where Jason breaks us up with Medea to marry with the daughter of the king of Corinth to get the Corinthian wealth. He did so, because the marriage was just a result of the self interested arrangement with Medea (that he will marry her if she helps him to get the Golden Fleece). Being jealous, Medea decides to revenge Jason and kills his new wife and her own children to cease Jason’s genus. In the tragedy Euripides shows a storm of passion in Medea’s soul, related to the decision of her to kill her own children. The main conflict is between the heroine’s love to her children and her uncontrollable jealousy towards her husband Jason - conflict between passion and the sense of duty. Without any embellishing Euripides reveals the soul of the woman, pained by internal struggle between her humanity and uncontrollable passion and shows that in real life passion frequently takes precedence over the duty. The provocative force and the reason of the conflict, which eventually turned into a great tragedy, was Jason. In the dialogue between him and Medea Jason shows himself as weak and mercantile, he justifies his mean actions by speculating in his and Medea’s children’s happiness and wealth. He says that all he does is for their sake. And even after Medea’s accusatory speech about how much she gave him, how strong she loved him, and which huge sacrifices she made for him, Jason doesn’t accept the claims of his wife and says: “Now, I believe, since thou wilt exaggerate thy favours, that to Cypri, alone of gods or men I owe the safety of my voyage. Thou hast a subtle wit enough; yet were it a hateful thing for me to say that the Love-god constrained thee by his resistless shaft to save my life. However, I will not reckon this too nicely; twas kindly done, however thou didst serve me. Yet for my safety hast thou received more than ever thou gavest.”(Euripides) Jason’s betrayal makes Medea totally obsessed with her idea of revenge and she promises to do whatever she can to take her revenge. In the dialogue Medea’s limitless love to Jason becomes apparent, because the words of the despair and rage reveal how strong her feelings to him are and how his betrayal hurts her soul, which shows that Medea is the kind of women, whose feelings can be overwhelming and uncontrollable, because they are too strong to calm them down. It is important to consider that fact that Medea was not a typical Greek woman, because Colchis, the place where she was raised in, was not that civilized as Greece, thus Jason considered her as a savage. Medea characterized by Euripides as savage woman in contrast to ordinary Greek woman, and even living among the Greeks with Jason has not changed her temper: she is passionate, emotional, driven by feelings and instincts, proud, acrid, unrestrained and boundless in expressing of her love, hate and revenge. But simultaneously she is prudent, logical and consistent in her plans and thoughts: “Now, though I have many ways to compass their death, I am not sure, friends, which I am to try first. Shall I set fire to the bridal mansion, or plunge the whetted sword through their hearts, softly stealing into the chamber where their couch is spread? One thing stands in my way…” (Euripides). Planning the murder she consistently considers all the details that may appear on her way to revenge, but finally she finds the best method – poisoning. Considering the fact that among the people she was going to kill were her own children, means that she has quite atypical value priorities. Despite having doubts, she finally puts revenge before her children. The original legend about Medea tells that it was not Medea, who killed the children, but the Greeks, who were angry with Medea, because she poisoned their king. But the legend was changed by Euripides: in his interpretation Medea murders the children herself. What does this change mean? Obviously that this very last murder of her is the most symbolic one, because it describes the magnitude of her feelings to the man, which even overwhelm her maternity instincts. But the most noteworthy and symbolic is the end of the story, where Medea appears in a chariot with dragons sent by Helios, because with this episode author shows that if gods decided to save her, it means that she is not guilty, her jealousy actions are justified by her love, which means that the only one guilty is Jason. Euripides’s story is based on that part of the myth where Medea makes the most difficult and dreadful decision, but at the end he acquits her, emphasizing on the origins of the decision – Jason’s actions and her love to him. With this consecution Euripides shows his admiration of Medea’s strong personality and says that end justifies the means. The thesis that end justifies the means is the main point of Euripides’s “Medea”. Everything in the story points at the conclusion: a typical character of selfish man, passionate Medea, the actions of the characters and their consequences and the strength of the main heroine’s personality. In other words, Medea couldn’t have decided otherwise. The tragedy brings a feeling of absurdity of this life: there is no justice in the world; there is no boundary between good and evil, no measure of truth and no truth itself. Medea casts doubt on the highest values like maternity, social debt and allows herself to decide according to those factors that have more influence on her personality, even though it is inacceptable for everybody else. Medea is an example of that kind of woman that deserves both respect and aversion: she is stubborn and proud, and will not stop even in face of murder of her own children, which is simultaneously frightening and exciting. Works Cited: Euripides. Medea.The Internet Classics Archive. 26 Apr. 2014. Read More