Medea’s Revenge Essay, Research Paper

Medea’s Revenge

Medea, a play by the Greek playwright Euripides, explores the Greek-

barbarian dichotomy through the character of Medea, a princess from the

“barbarian”, or non-Greek, land of Colchis. Throughout the play, it becomes

evident to the reader that Medea is no ordinary woman by Greek standards.

Central to the whole plot is Medea’s barbarian origins and how they are related

to her actions. In this paper, I am attempting to answer questions such as how

Medea behaves like a female, how she acts heroically from a male point of view,

why she killed her children, if she could have achieved her goal without killing

them, if the murder was motivated by her barbarian origins, and how she deals

with the pain of killing her children.

As an introduction to the play, the status of women in Greek society

should be briefly discussed. In general, women had very few rights. In the

eyes of men, the main purposes of women in Greek society were to do housework

such as cooking and cleaning, and bear children. They could not vote, own

property, or choose a husband, and had to be represented by men in all legal

proceedings. In some ways, these Greek women were almost like slaves. There is

a definite relationship between this subordination of women and what transpires

in the play. Jason decides that he wants to divorce Medea and marry the

princess of Corinth, casting Medea aside as if they had never been married.

This sort of activity was acceptable by Greek standards, and shows the

subordinate status of the woman, who had no say in any matter like this.

Even though some of Medea’s actions were not typical of the average

Greek woman, she still had attitudes and emotions common among women. For

instance, Medea speaks out against women’s status in society, proclaiming that

they have no choice of whom to marry, and that a man can rid themselves of a

woman to get another whenever he wants, but a woman always has to “keep [her]

eyes on one alone.” (231-247) Though it is improbable that women went around

openly saying things of this nature, it is likely that this attitude was shared

by most or all Greek women. Later in the play, Medea debates with herself over

whether or not to kill her children: “Poor heart, let them go, have pity upon

the children.” (1057). This shows Medea’s motherly instincts in that she cares

about her children. She struggles to decide if she can accomplish her goal of

revenge against Jason without killing her children because she cares for them

and knows they had no part in what their father did. Unfortunately, Medea’s

desire to exact revenge on Jason is greater than her love for her children, and

at the end of the play she kills them. Medea was also a faithful wife to Jason.

She talks about how she helped Jason in his quest for the Golden Fleece, then

helped him escape, even killing her own brother. (476-483). The fact that she

was willing to betray her own family to be with Jason shows her loyalty to him.

Therefore, her anger at Jason over him divorcing her is understandable.

On the other hand, Medea shows some heroic qualities that were not

common among Greek women. For example, Medea is willing to kill her own brother

to be with Jason. In classical Greece, women and killing were probably not

commonly linked. When she kills her brother, she shows that she is willing to

do what is necessary to “get the job done”, in this case, to be with Jason.

Secondly, she shows the courage to stand up to Jason. She believes that she has

been cheated and betrayed by him. By planning ways to get back at him for

cheating on her, she is standing up for what she believes, which in this case is

that she was wronged by Jason, but in a larger sense, she is speaking out

against the inferior status of women, which effectively allows Jason to discard

Medea at will. Third, she shows that she is clever and resourceful. Rather

than use physical force to accomplish her plans, she uses her mind instead: “it

is best to…make away with them by poison.” (384-385) While physical strength

can be considered a heroic quality, cleverness can be as well. She does in fact

poison the princess and the king of Corinth; interestingly, however, she does

not poison them directly. “I will send the children with gifts…to the

bride…and if she wears them upon her skin…she will die.” (784-788) This

shows her cleverness because she is trying to keep from being linked to the

crime, though everyone is able to figure out that she was responsible anyway.

In a way, though, she is almost anti-heroic because she is not doing the “dirty

work” herself, which makes her appear somewhat cowardly. Finally, there is the

revenge factor. Many times heroes were out for revenge against someone who did

them or a friend wrong, and in this case Medea is no exception, since she wants

to have revenge against Jason for divorcing her without just cause.

There are two main reasons why Medea decides to kill her children. The

first, and more obvious one, is that she feels that it is a perfect way to

complement the death of the princess in getting revenge on Jason. When she

tells the chorus of the plans to kill the children, they wonder if she has the

heart to kill her children, to which she replies, “[y]es, for this is the best

way to wound my husband.” (817). This shows that she believes that by killing

her children, she will basically ruin Jason’s life, effectively getting her

revenge. The second reason for Medea killing her children has nothing to do

with revenge. If she left her children with Jason, they would be living in a

society that would look down upon them since they have partly barbarian origins.

She did not want her children to have to suffer through that. Also, if her

children are mocked for being outsiders, then this reflects badly on Medea, and

she said that she does not want to give her enemies any reason to laugh at her.

(781-782) Since she does not want to leave her children with Jason, they really

have no place else to where they could go, being barbarians in a Greek city:

“[m]y children, there is none who can give them safety.” (793) For these two

reasons, Medea decides that killing her children is the best way to accomplish

her plan: getting revenge and keeping her children away from Jason.

Whether or not Medea could have accomplished her goal without killing

her children is debatable. On one hand, if we look at Medea’s objective only as

seeking revenge against Jason, then she could have accomplished that without

killing her children. Killing the princess, Jason’s new wife, would cause

enough grief for Jason so that her goal would be accomplished. We can infer

that the death of Jason’s wife would be more damaging to him than the deaths of

his children because Jason was going to let Medea take the children with her

into exile and did not try to keep them for himself. Therefore, once the

princess was dead, killing the children, while it causes additional grief for

Jason, really is not necessary. Even though Medea does not seem to believe it,

killing her children probably causes more pain for her than Jason. She just

does not see it because she is so bent on revenge against Jason. On the other

hand, if we define Medea’s objective in two parts, one being revenge, and the

other to keep the children away, then it is possible that she had to kill her

children. As for the revenge part, it was not necessary that she kill her

children for the reasons just discussed. However, she may have needed to kill

them to keep Jason from getting them. If Jason decided he wanted his children,

there is not much Medea could do about it, other than kill them. Also, it is

possible that she did not want to take them with her into exile because they

could make it more difficult for her to reach Athens. For whatever the reason,

however, it is probable that she needed to kill her children to carry out her

plan, since she accomplished two different goals through their deaths.

The murder of Medea’s children is certainly caused in part by her

barbarian origins. The main reason that Jason decides to divorce Medea to marry

the princess is that he will have a higher status and more material wealth being

married to the king’s daughter. (553-554) In other words, Jason believes that

Medea’s barbarian origins are a burden to him, because there is a stigma

attached to that. In his mind, having the chance to be rich outweighs the love

of a barbarian wife. Medea’s barbarian status is a burden to herself as well.

Once separated from Jason, she becomes an outsider with no place to go, because

the barbarians were not thought too highly of in Greek society. Had Medea not

been a barbarian, it is likely that Jason would not have divorced her, and

therefore, she would not have had to kill her children. But since she is a

barbarian, this sets in motion the events of the play, and in her mind the best

course of action is to kill her children. Just because she is non-Greek does

not necessarily mean that her way of thinking would be different from the

Greeks; in other words, her way of thinking did not necessarily cause her to

kill her children.

Medea deals with the pain that the deaths of her children cause her

quite well. She does this by convincing herself that her revenge against her

husband was worth the price of her children’s death. When asked about killing

her children, she replies, “So it must be. No compromise is possible.” (819)

This shows that she is bent on revenge, and that she is justifying their deaths

to get her revenge. However, she does struggle with her decision to kill them.

She is sad that she must take their lives, but also tells herself that it is in

their best interests, as evidenced by what she says to her children: “I wish you

happiness, but not in this world.” (1073) She does not seem to have a problem

with killing her children once it comes time to actually carry out the act. But

her motherly instincts will not allow her to totally abandon her children after

they are dead, as she decides to hold a yearly feast and sacrifice at their

burial site. (1383-1384) But in the end, we can see that she dealt with the

pain surprisingly well.

Two main themes are present in Medea: Medea’s barbarian origins, and

her desire for revenge against Jason. Her barbarian status is really what

starts the actions of the play. It is what makes her a less desirable wife to

Jason than the princess, and causes him to leave her. This then leads to her

thoughts of revenge against Jason, and her decision to kill her children as a

way to exact that revenge. As far as revenge goes, Medea is heroic in that she

is standing up against an evil done to her. Throughout most of the play, she

spends her time plotting her revenge against Jason, waiting until the right

moment to unleash her plan. She uses her cleverness to trick Jason and the

others into believing that she was not upset with him. In the end, we can see

that Medea’s barbarian origins were a major factor in the play, and that Medea

was no ordinary woman in Greek terms.