Nicholas Archer Archer
Medea, the Outsider
Medea is a rather well known character in the ancient world. Many play writers have tried to portray in different ways in order to evoke different emotions out of their audiences. She is a victim in a classic Greek tragedy; however some play writes have twisted this idea of her and changed it into something entirely different, sometimes sometimes completely unepected. !uripides" Medea starts Medea starts out with our protagonist Medea as a victim #ut as the play goes on, her character develops into something that may not have #een deemed culturally normal. $y eamining !uripides" portrayal of Medea, her character and its development will #e followed and ela#orated on. A note on the cultural norm of women in Greek society in those times will #e made in order to show the difference #etween what Medea was doing and what was epected epec ted of her. A conclusion will then #e drawn on what !uripides was trying to accomplish with his radical image of Medea. Medea was a terri#le victim of circumstance. %n the #eginning of the play, we are immediately told that she is weeping not only over the current state of her romantic life #ut o f the things she had done previously all for &ason"s sake '!uripides () * (+. -hen Medea is finally #rought in, she is in a state of suicidal despair, despair, wishing death upon herself ')/ * 0. %t is here she is shown as the very stereotypical female character, weak, vulnera#le, almost pitiful in her state of mind. She weeps a#out the state of her relationship with &ason; another common thing that female characters were shown doing in Greek drama. !uripides #arely mentions that that she is in a fact a powerful user of magic; it is only indirectly stated in passing. 1aving #etrayed and killed her family, eiled from her homeland and &ason"s, &ason"s, she is an outsider put into a land where she is fre2uently referred to as 3#ar#arian4. -ith her family and home gone, what she had left was her marriage and relationship with &ason. As a foreign woman in Greek society, this was the only thing, other than her children, that identified her. !ven then, her children were seen as
Nicholas Archer
Medea, the Outsider
#elonging to their father in that time. -hen he marriage fell apart, so too did her identification as a woman in Greek society '5elenak 67. %n those times, women were normally only seen as overly erotici8ed, emotional, child #earers '5elenak 67. %n Medea, &ason says a few things that directly relate to wo men #eing erotici8ed. 9or eample, he states that she only committed her crimes for the sake of pleasure in #ed '!uripides :+: * +). %t was essential in this kind of tragedy for the erotici8ed female to #e victimi8ed and suffer. %t was easier for an audience to #elieve the emotions of a female character or a character that had #een femini8ed simply #ecause people associated that kind of #ehavior with women '5elenak 67. Medea was first placed in this light, only to #e chang ed later on. Medea"s character development ties in with the loss of her identity as a female character. he turning point, where her suicidal despair turns into sadistic fury, is first evidenced when the chorus comes into the play '!uripides /0 * +) and later completed post
Nicholas Archer
Medea, the Outsider
what>was assumed to #e the most universal womanly value * the maternal instinct. ?ather than protect her children, she #utchers them4 '5enelak 76. 1er #ehavior, her righteous #ut completely uncontained fury, is all she had left after losing her identity. She acts accordingly to what people see her as, a @#ar#arian". She is portrayed as some natural disaster, to which moral categories like good and evil are irrelevant '5elenak 76. Seeing as Medea was not only a woman not playing her correct role #ut also an outsider she was a#le to ascend the idea of a female character do all the things she did. 3%t was #ecause she was not Greek>that she is a#le to strike #ack and pursue her revenge on a heroic scale. She is marginali8ed socially, culturally, and politically. %n many ways, she is the ultimate outsider4 '5enelak 7. &ason himself says that no Greek wo man could do what she had done '!uripides :+) * +0. he final scene even has her completely get away with it. &ason is helpless as he tries to plead with her to let him #ury his children. 1owever, Medea is literally and figuratively a#ove him and his pleas and refuses. %t is also similar to Medea"s scene with Aegeus. 1e knows of Medea"s reputation, only in this case it is helpful to her. 1e shares 3words to wise for human understanding4 with her '/7 * /76. 1e is wise and recogni8es Medea #eing in a higher position of actual power . %n the play, Aegeus seems to #e the only one who sympathi8es with Medea and offers a place once she has #een eiled. %t seems that
Nicholas Archer
Medea, the Outsider
elements of feminism and show what happened when, with the right female, i.e. a witch, what could happen if you took away everything that defined her.
Bibliography
The Medea, !uripides, ?icher ?esources Bu#lication Gender and Politics in Greek Tragedy, Michael C. 5elenak, ++/ Beter Dang Bu#lishing, %nc. Language and the Tragic Hero, !ssay #y .1. %rwin, BA EE , DE, +//
