Medea Response- Laura Glucksman
The Greek play Medea by Euripides focuses on the main character Medea, and the struggles she endures throughout the play.
The plot focuses on Medea’s revenge on her husband, Jason who left her to marry Creon’s daughter. The hatred in Medea makes her do some awful things like kill Creon’s daughter and her own two children. She also ends up killing Creon because he tries to save his daughter, and consequently, Corinth does not have a ruler. Everything in Corinth is in turmoil because they are leaderless. The hatred makes Medea do some unthinkable things to exact revenge on the people Jason loved.
Medea is extremely manipulative throughout the play to get her way, because she is an extremely unhappy lady. She convinces Aegeus to keep her safe in Athens even though he may have to die trying to keep her safe. She also convinces Creon to postpone her exile, and this ends up leading to his death. Medea’s unhappiness leads to the downfall of Corinth.
There are only a few characters in Medea, which lets the audience focus on the feud between Medea and Jason. Jason is an interesting character because his self-pride is the reason for the whole play. However, he has very few lines in the play. The audience feels bad for Jason because he has humane qualities throughout the play, unlike Medea. He cares for his two children. However he did a selfish thing in leaving his wife without both of their approval. Euripides does not give the whole backstory for Jason. He is just shown as a man seeking as much power as he can get.
The costumes in Medea appear to be good representations of what powerful people in ancient Greece wore. Medea’s dress is purple, and that demonstrates wealth. The elaborate men’s costumes of Creon and Jason show power. The nurse’s costume is old and plain. This shows the wealth discrimination in the play.
I also noticed that the play has a feminist angle to it. Medea, a woman, controlled the men throughout the play. She controlled how the men, including Jason, behaved in the play. For example, when Jason asked to see his sons she did not obey at first. He had to beg, and she knew she could use them as power against him.
The message that Euripides wants to convey through Medea is that happiness is best found in your current life, not in seeking to be more powerful or wealthy. The play is very effective in doing this.