Work: The Medea by Euripides
uripides, a contemporary of Sophocles and author of many famous Greek tragedies, was found to concentrate on the portrayal of human frailties in his dramas, often identifying with victims of oppression, namely slaves and women. The Medea involves a mother of two sons, jilted by her husband Jason. Jason marries the young princess of Corinth, and Medea, the protagonist of the play, exacts her revenge by killing his new wife, father-in-law, and Medea's own sons begot by Jason. The chorus believes that Medea will be doomed by the killing of her sons, but the story never suggests any future punishment is in store for her. Jason accuses Medea of being wicked, she claims he is treacherous. Both accuse each other of being ultimately responsible for the deaths in the play, and though Medea has done all the killing, her argument for Jason's blame is more compelling to readers.Medea is indeed wicked; wickedness is defined as a tendency to cause trouble, pain or harm, a term describing a state of morality. Medea has already proved herself a wicked woman to Jason by killing her own brother and father just for him. So, in accurate definition of the word, Medea is evil in her ways, but not necessarily unjust or unprovoked. Wickedness seems to be inherent of all females in Euripides play, as the main female characters are all quite secretive and not at all preventive of disaster. A prime example of this would be the lack of help the chorus offers to the boys even as they are being killed. The chorus points out that it is female; it is a conscience for Medea that steps aside conveniently at the moment she murders her sons. The lack of help the chorus offers and the willingness of the nurse not to tell Jason of Medea's murderous plots demonstrates the wickedness of Euripides women.
Jason is equally as treacherous as Medea is wicked. He has violated the allegiance he has made to her in marriage, dishonored marriage vows and unjustly abandoned his family for another woman. Jason claims he is marrying into royalty to gain his sons royal relations, but his own faltering attempt to convince his new wife to appeal for the boys without Medea's bribing gifts indicates that he had little control over the relationship. Obviously, the young bride did not intend to accept the boys into her family, and when this is related to Medea, it only confirms her reasons for distrusting Jason.
Medea must murder her sons because she is the powerless, oppressed wife who must show how strong she can be against her treacherous, blameless husband. She is the metaphorical struggle of womanhood against manhood (who can legally abandon her, but she cannot abandon him). The only way Medea can scar Jason is not just to leave and let him have his way, but to take away all he has, and make him endure the same suffering that she will. If she left with her sons, he would soon forget them, preferring offspring from his new marriage. Medea would suffer alone if her sons stayed, and they may well be outcast later anyway. If Medea were to accept her position and stay in Corinth, she would have no respect, nor would her sons - her sons will never have respect in the eyes of the new wife. There will not be kinship between them and any royal brothers, because royalty wants to protect its right of inheritance too much.
Medea is most likely also wishing to purge herself of all family ties at this point, as she is aware of her own treachery to her brother and father. She may wish to rid herself of her sons as an attempt to destroy everything related to her marriage to Jason. Medea may also see the death of her sons, dear as they are to her, as a sort of atonement (or sacrificial offering, similar to that of Iphegeneia in Agamemnon) for her murder of her brother and father. She may believe that, since she killed her own parent out of blind desire for Jason, she must pay with her sons' lives - deaths that would cause her much anguish as well as avenge her broken marriage. This possibility of the repentant intent of Medea may explain why the gods seem to be on her side at the end of the play, as she triumphantly rides off in a dragon-drawn carriage. This scene appears more like a classic deus ex machina than magic, although dragons are more magically related that celestial. Jason calls curses upon her, but nothing happens to her, for he has already offended the god Justice (whom he is now invoking) by repaying Medea's help and love with treachery.
Medea's request that her sons deliver the garments that eventually kill the new bride is the action which determines whether the sons should die. The boys are now involved in the death of the princess and the King, and will probably be blamed for knowingly bringing the poisoned dress and coronet to the palace. The sons will now be sentenced to death by Corinth, so they are sure to die soon. Medea has sent them on this errand to condemn them later, so that her decision to murder them cannot really be reversed when her resolve weakens. They can die innocent sons of Jason and Medea, or as suppliants to the murder of the princess and the King.
Euripides' Medea is the embodiment of the classic woman's frustration with male infidelity. A woman can have but only one husband; a husband can marry many wives. Medea has sacrificed everything to be with Jason, yet he cannot be satisfied with his current family. The women in play are all tied together by their emotional and "wicked" qualities, and though the chorus and nurse did not favor the plans Medea makes, none of the women have the courage to intervene. Jason's concern for his former wife and sons is delivered almost comically, and does not appear sincere. His offer to Medea only angers her, for he seems to think that she cannot manage life without his help. Her denial of him only serves to strengthen her resolve to exact revenge upon him. Medea's murder of her sons is the only way that she can truly injure Jason, for now he has no heirs to carry on his family name, and the murder of his new bride leaves him no wife with which to procreate. Medea has succeeded in her revenge, and this sacrifice may also represent her own punishment for killing her brother and father. In any case, Medea has appealed to Justice and her plan was carried out fully.
Mary Ellen Snodgrass, Greek Classics Notes, Lincoln, Nebraska, Cliffs Notes, Inc., 1988, p. 148.