Medea
Medea is a shocking tale about adultery and revenge that ends in four murders. The play was very likely anti-woman when it was originally written in ancient Greece, but can be seen as more pro-woman from a modern standpoint. Because plays in ancient Greece were written and performed solely for an audience of men, it is very possible that this play was a warning towards husbands about the consequences of not staying faithful to their wives. Today's view on feminism, however, sheds a different light on the rather gruesome events that take place in this work of literature. While Medea was a Greek horror story at the time it was written, major concepts of the play now appeal to modern feminist ideas. Medea addresses some important topics …show more content…
Honor is another important theme in Euripides' play. Medea feels that her husband
Jason has humiliated and stolen her honor her by marrying a younger woman. Given that she was also once a princess of a foreign land, her pride drives her anger Jason and his new bride.
Because of their fame in Greece as a couple, Medea feels the intense shame of her husband publicly casting her aside for a young, rich princess. She feels that the way she has been treated is greatly unjust because she not only provided Jason with that fame, but she also gave birth to two sons. She is willing to give up her children that she claims to love deeply in order to restore the honor that she feels was taken from her by her husband's affair. She plans to destroy the enemies she fears are laughing at her behind her back. She maps out her murderous plot to the chorus of Greek women by vowing, "I shall see my enemies punished as they deserve...I can endure the guilt, however horrible...The laughter of my enemies I shall not endure" (Euripides, p.41). Greek mothers who gave their husbands sons were respected for fulfilling their duties. From a Greek point of view, Medea is letting her need for revenge get …show more content…
The main objectives in a Greek woman's life were to get married and raise strong legitimate babies, preferably sons. So the act of Medea killing her own children would have been extremely horrific for a Greek audience. Even the characters in the play were outraged. Upon hearing Medea's plans for her sons' murders, the chorus of women begged her to spare them and questioned her emotional capacity as a mother, "..to kill your own children! Can you steel your heart?" (Euripides, p.42). Though the idea of a mother killing her children is still shocking today, the filicide in the play can symbolize the separation of womanhood and motherhood for modern feminists. She is no longer trapped in a mothering role to children that look like her cheating husband. As harsh and cold as it sounds, mothers killing or abandoning their children is a common theme in past and present works of feminist