Medea Flashcards
Characterisation of Medea
Emotional- is first shown to be wailing because Jason left her
Uncontrollable- no one could stop her from taking revenge on Jason
Un-Greek- she doesn’t act as a Greek wife would as she does not accept that Jason is leaving her, acts excessively and emotionally because of this
Intelligent- she is able to poison the dress and crown while convincing King Creon to let her stay one more day in Corinth
Extreme/ Excessive/ Manic- very emotional and murders Creon, Glauce and her children in order to take revenge on Jason leaving her
Characterisation of Jason
Typical Greek hero- tried to give Medea financial help with her exile, marries a Greek Princess to continue having Greek sons, went on adventures
Selfish- he only wants to keep his sons so that he can raise them alongside fully Greek sones he would have with Glauce so that they can continue his legacy
Ignorant- does not take into account everything he has put Medea through when leaving her and the consequences she would face being a divorced foreign woman
Ungrateful- blames Medea for her own suffering and does not thank her for everything she sacrificed for him e.g. she killed her brother to help Jason and left her homeland to marry him
Characterisation of the Chorus
15 Corinthian women
In favour of Medea taking revenge on Jason
Sympathise with her situation
Hate Jason
Are against Medea’s decision to murder
Represent the opinions/viewpoints of women to the audience
Characterisation of Glauce
Young- ‘girlish moodiness’ ‘couldn’t resist the finery’
Modest- ‘pulled her veil over her eyes’
Innocent- was only killed because it would hurt Jason
How does Euripides characterise women in Medea differently from other Greek plays?
He shows the grievances of women in a male-dominated society through the character of Medea in the first episode.
He has a female chorus of 15 Corinthian women instead of having men
What happens in the prologue?
Medea’s Nurse says how Jason left Medea for the Princess of Corinth and how Medea fell in love with Jason and sacrificed many things to be with him. She expresses her concern for Medea’s excessive emotion
The tutor arrives and announces the exile of Medea and her children to which Medea can be heard crying off stage
What happens in the Parados?
The Chorus are introduced and ask the nurse to get Medea out of the house
What happens in the First Episode?
Medea comes on stage and bewails about the difficulties of being a woman, her situation as a foreign divorced wife and starts to think of a way she can get revenge on Jason
King Creon enters and tells Medea to leave as he is fearful that she will do something harmful out of spite as she is semi-divine and can use poisons and spells.
Medea convinced him to let her stay one more day
Medea tells of her plan to kill Creon and Glauce to the Chorus and swears by Hecate that the new marriage will have a bitter ending
What happens in the first choral ode?
The Chorus are:
Sympathetic to Medea
Lament the moral crisis in Greece of men’s faithfulness
What happens in the Second Episode?
Jason comes to confront Medea about her threats to the royal family and offers money to help her in exile
Medea lists everything she has done for him and says he betrayed her
Jason ignores this and says he owes it to Aphrodite and says that bringing Medea here helped her more than him and marrying the Princess will help Medea and the children and she should be grateful
What happens in the second choral ode?
The Chorus sympathise with Medea but pray never to be in her situation
What happens in the third episode?
Aegeus the king of Athens enters and tells Medea how he has seen an Oracle about how he has no children and Medea offers to help if he lets her stay in Athens.
Medea reveals her plan to the Chorus pretend to be happy about the marriage, send to her sons to the palace with a poison crow and dress to give to Glauce that will kill her and then kill her sons
What happens in the third choral ode?
The Chorus hope that Medea doesn’t kill her children and that Athens is a sacred place and Medea being a murderer would pollute it
What happens in the fourth episode?
Jason comes in and Medea acts as a submissive wife and asks Jason to take the boys with the poisoned gifts to the palace to see if they can stay with him and not be exiled
Jason agrees
What happens in the fourth choral ode?
The Chorus have lost hope in trying to persuade Medea to not kill anyone and say that Jason has brought destruction to himself
What happens in the fifth episode?
The tutor returns with the boys and tells Medea that the Princess has the gifts and the boys can stay
Medea begins to feel conflict about killing her children but she is consumed by the need for revenge so continues with her plan
What happens in the choral interlude?
The chorus discuss the good and bad of having children and how a child’s death is the worst thing to happen to a parent
What happens in the sixth episode?
Messenger comes in with the news of the death of King Creon and Glauce
Medea convinced herself to kill the boys and thinks it is the only way
What happens in the fifth choral ode?
The Chorus appeal to Earth and Light to prevent the murder
The boys screams are heard
The Chorus reference Ino
What happens in the Exodos?
Jason comes to save the boys but it’s too late
Medea is on Helios’ chariot above
Jason shouts at her
Medea is convinced she has the god’s support and tells Jason’s death
She says where she plans on burying the boys (Hera’s sanctuary)
When Medea leaves Jason asks the gods to witness her guilt
How is Medea different to Greek women?
She acts excessively
She doesn’t listen to her husband/ act submissively
She murders her children
She’s foreign so she is seen as exotic
How woulda Greek audience view Medea?
They may be shocked by her actions as she doesn’t conform to the usual Greek expectations of women
They would see her as barbarian
The female audience may sympathise more with her
The male audience would dislike her as she destroyed a man’s legacy and lineage
