Thursday 17 March 2011

The character of Medea

Medea is a character from Greek mythology who features in the story of Jason and the Golden Fleece. In the play by Euripides we come across Medea some time after she has married Jason and has moved with him to Corinth where she has borne him two sons. We know already from tales set before this time that Medea is capable of murderous acts. She was complicit in the murder of her own brother in an act which would help Jason escape with the Golden Fleece.

Medea was in fact a well established character in Greek mythology and so her background, personality and previous activities may well have been known by the audience. She is a citizen of Colchis who moves to Corinth where she is viewed as an outsider. Medea is a story of moral decline, though it could be argued that since she had previously been involved in the murder of her brother and others then this decline had already begun before the start of the play.

Our introduction to Medea in this play is given by her children’s nurse and tutor. Here were are presented with the tale of a woman who has been wronged by her husband. This opening section serves to fill us with sympathy for Medea and the position she now finds herself in. “…to come here with this man who now spurns and insults her.”, “Poor woman! Has she not stopped crying yet?”. Medea herself, as yet unseen, reinforces the hopelessness of her position through her wailings from indoors, ”Come, flame from the sky, pierce through my head! What do I gain from living any longer?”. We are presented initially with the image of a woman who is distraught.

When Medea first appears on stage however, she seems far from the wretch we have imagined, “She is not shaken with weeping, but cool and self-possessed.”, and gives a considered speech to her audience. We now see a woman who is very much in control and is capable of manipulating Creon to allow her to stay another day in Corinth. It is after Creon departs that we see the turning point and the first signs of plotting in Medea, “Come! Lay your plan, Medea; scheme with all your skill.”  And it is after she has secured her future with Aegeus that we learn the full horror of her plots, “I will kill my sons.” At this stage we feel a marked change in our view of Medea. Gone is the pity we felt when she was scorned by her husband. Now we are seeing a woman who is prepared to take the lives of her own children to satisfy her need for revenge.

Though she rationalises the murder of her children as the only way to truly punish Jason, it is still not an act which comes easy to her. She is filled with doubt, “Women, my courage is all gone. Their young, bright faces – I can’t do it.” , but, on learning of the death of the princess and her father, her resolve is clear, “…come, take the sword; take it, and forward to your frontier of despair.”

If it is possible to come away with a view of Medea as anything other than a murderer, then it would be a hugely ambitious woman who would stop at nothing to satisfy her own selfish desires. The character we are left with at the end of the play is very far removed from the broken woman we met at the start. She has secured her own future with Aegeus yet by her own act ensured there would be no future for her own sons. In the same way she had previously ensured a future for herself and Jason which had involved the death of family members.

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