The Role Of Women In Medea
...Eruipides was the
first Greek poet to suffer the fate of so many of the great
modern writers: rejected by most of his contemporaries (he
rarely won first prize and was the favorite target for the
scurrilous humor of the comic poets), he was universally admired
and revered by the Greeks of the centuries that followed his
death(“Norton Anthology”). Euripides showed his interest in
psychology in his many understanding portraits of women (“World
Book”). Euripides choice of women support characters such as the
nurse and the chorus is imperative to the magnification of
Medea’s emotions. The very fact that the nurse and chorus are
female deepens Medea’s sadness, impassions her anger, and makes
the crime of killing her own children all the more heinous.
Medea’s state of mind in the beginning of the play is that
of hopelessness and self pity. Medea is both woman and
foreigner; that is to say, in terms of the audience’s prejudice
and practice she is a representative of the two free born groups
in Athenian society that had almost no rights at all (“Norton
Anthology” 739). Euripides could not have chosen a more
downtrodden role for Medea. Here is this woman who has stood by
her man through thick and thin. She has turned her back on her
family and killed her own brother while helping Jason capture the
Golden Fleece.
“Oh my father! Oh, my country! In what dishonor
I left you, killing my own brother for it.”
(Medea 164-165)
Despite all of her devotion to her husband he has fallen in love
with someone new, Glauke. The Nurse and the Chorus understand
and sympathize with Medea as only other women could. Euripides
develops the heart of Medea’s character by the sympathetical
approach of the Nurse.
“...calling...
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