The Role of Women in Medea

A detailed Summary of The Role of Women in Medea

Medea is the tragic tale of a woman scorned. It was written in

431 B.C. by the Greek playwright, Euripides. 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 mo

I shall leave the land and flee from the murder of my

cleverness to produce plots of revenge.

doing the justice she sees fit. Weak and submissive are not

murder of her children in the end is brilliant. The reason for

to Medea's frenzy directly, they add fuel to the fire of the

Approximate Word count = 954
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: English

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