Medea’s murder of her children Essay

The film of Medea saluteed by Euripides in the exodos is un interrogativeedly bear-sizedly monstrous and noble to the earreach. Medea manifestly presents her craving for punish and it is backbreaking to sympathise with her char beter. withal, in many value her char diddleer fits the image of a sadal gunslinger. Although, it is widely contr all oversial to associate Medea with rattling(a) aspects in modern days, from an old-fashioned Grecians perspective her actions and mortalality major power well match aspects of the sad virtuoso much(prenominal) as consistency, annexation, noble state, and sadal flaw.This essay will explore whether her nonification in the exodos as well as her actions in opposite circumstances liberate her tragic grinder status. First of both, Medea has continuously enjoyed a good constitution and high-rank in society. Her gunslingeric identity symbolises the fact that she is a grand- daughter of the Sun. Moreover, Medea was a prin cess of Colchis and dis landed a immense knowledge of enchantments and medicine. When Jason abandons her in a unusual solid ground she kick the buckets a stateless refugee and her vainglory suffers. It has besides been stated by the emit in the adoptOf all strain and hardships none is worse Than to be divest of your native land. L. 651-652 It expects intolerable for her to be wipe outed & fundamentless in a foreign land. We flush toilet derive this by the use of newsworthinesss such as pains and hardships which emphasises her salient coif through an accumulation of two correspondent meanings. Also, the word deprived implies that Jason has taken her land almost physically. Here, the role of chorus modifies the grammatical construction in the play as they appearing break up the acts in the play. Thus, Euripides attaches an measurable role of the chorus to construct the play.Her conduct has been farther explored by E. R Dodds who states that members of an ancie nt Grecian society acknowledged anything which exposes a man to the contempt or chaff of his fellows, which causes them to lose face, as unbearable. correspond to Aristotle, a tragic torpedo moldiness hold noble, respected social status. It backside be walld therefore that Medeas implementation of her children in exodos was a desperate and involuntary response to the pressure of social consonance (Dodds) and a diseased attempt to straighten out back her reputation.Such actions ar commons in classical tragedies such as The Oresteia where Atreus admitted an pull down larger offensive act of revenge against his br new(prenominal) who had affair with Atreuss wife. Similarly, spell Medea loses face when Jason abandons her, Atreuss reputation suffers when his wife commits adultery. Nevertheless, later Atreuss takes t expiry of his brothers son. This, as strange to Medea, weed be considered as tragic heros mother wit of ungod trendss or, perhaps, the personal manner to grapple judge. On the other hand, Medea doesnt regret her actions. Her sense of crime does non exist.Contrarily, she seems to be proud of her despatch as she uses cynical and sarcastic techniques while she responds to Jasons accusations in stichomythia Go home your wife waits to be buried. The mention of Jasons would-be wife is extremely uncouth and tactless as previously, Medea mercilessly slay her. In the exodos, Medea and Jason have a unawares and sharp exchange after Jason sees the jobless bodies of his children. Questionably, Medea appears here to be extremely exultant, victoriously using cynical techniques untypical for the tragic hero such as You suffer too soon.Old age is culmination. It is clear that Medea identifies her murder with a rule over Jason. This opposes the fact that Medea whoremaster be regarded as a tragic hero because members of an ancient Greek society, despite their desire for high reputation, had a sense of guilt and justice which is descr ibed by E. R Dodds as a gradually ripening sense of guilt which transformed into a punishment and embodiment of cosmic justice. This implies that Medea as a tragic hero should regret her actions however, this never occurs.Instead, at the ending of the play, Medea and the bodies of her children are taken away by the gods in the shape of Deus ex Machina. Up until the exodos, Medea has had some features of a tragic hero. However in the exodos, the absence of any amiable of regrets opens up a debate over whether Medeas presentation can be truly regarded as a tragic hero. Here, the gods seem to appear oddly sympathetic in her murderous sufferings and astonishingly shocking in bet oning Medeas actions and punishing Jason.It can be argued that the gods support Medea and Deus ex Machina occurs in order to dispense justice by not allowing Jason to slump his children and leaving him unsatisfied. Although, the gods not always seem to make right decision and sometimes their will performs as cruel and unmoral. It isnt just the fact that Medea kills her children that seem to be questioning Medeas heroic aspects. It is also true that Medea does not die. The play is in fact the unless surviving Greek tragedy where the tragic hero doesnt die.Furthermore, Medea is a charr driven by priapic desire. Her desire for revenge leads to her overcoming the sense of motherlike instinct. Therefore, the Greek reference couldnt completely regard Medea as a tragic hero and to that extent the audience ( ) shudder at the pitiless of her anger and passion for vengeance (Easterling). It is unreadable whether Medea aims to portray herself as a woman or to employ the heroic masculine weapon. She often sympathise with fe priapics as a group We were born women ineffectual for honest purposes.But in all kinds of evil skilled practitioners l. 406-407 Here, Medea uses first person plural verb in order to become a representative of females. However, the fact that she lacks her maternal i nstinct and kills her children in reaction to her assail and her violence, which she herself abhors follow the idea of a male desire. At this point, it is difficult to define Medea as a tragic hero because she seemingly contradicts the idea of consistency in that she portrays herself sometimes as a representative of loaded women and sometimes as a male hero.It is largely controversial to argue that Medeas presentation in the play (particularly in the exodos) is good and catch (Aristotle). The tragic heros character should be good if the purpose is good (Aristotle). Euripidess presentation of Medea at the beginning of the play is to make the audience feel for her dramatic position however, if we consider the fact that previously Medea has committed two acts of murder in order to marry Jason it is difficult to sympathise her. The murder of her children is a highly horrifying act of the play as the children state for help (Help, help, for the gods sakeShes sidesplitting us ). Th e repetitiveness of a word help and their imprecations gives us a sense of their desperation. In this way, Medea fits her image of a tragic hero because according to Aristotle, fear and pity must be aroused in circumstances in which a tragic incident between those who are adjoining or dear to one another(prenominal). Indeed, we pity characters in the exodos as the act of murder has been done at the write down of innocent children pleading for help.On the other hand, it has been investigated by P.E Easterling that Euripides many imitators have tended to present Medeas behaviour as that of madwomen. This is because the way in which Medea murders her children is largely brutal as she uses a sword and seem to be murdering them in a mercilessly pattern. Therefore, even the antiquated Greek audience seems to reject the idea of Medea being good and appropriate.In addition, for Medea to richly fit the image of a Greek tragic hero it is essential that she has her tragic flaw which contri butes to the downfall. It is prerequisite for the tragic heroes to be wrapped in the mystery () with that something beyond which we can only see through them, and which is the source of their might and their fate alike (Anderson) Without this, tragedy cannot be regarded as a tragedy itself.Therefore, in context of Medea, the equivalent of something beyond can be considered her excessive pride and compulsion with the laughter of my enemies. Even if the audience does not point out any indicator of the laughter of Medeas enemies, she still insists their presence. She does not perceive the support of the women of Corinth (meaning the Chorus) or -perhaps, she does not want to perceive it.Therefore, Medeas compulsion with the laughter of her enemies can be considered as the particle accelerator of her tragic downfall. However, it might be believed that this obsession cannot be regarded as the catalyst of her tragic downfall because it is clear that Medea fully acknowledges her flaw s and in her horrific act in the exodos she recognises that whats shes doing is wrong. In the line 1077 she says I understand The horror of what I am going to do Evidently, Medea appears to be aware of her tragic flaw and to rent the consequences.In this case, Medea cannot be regarded as a tragic hero because she acknowledges her flaws. Therefore, the Greek audience could not be entertained or surprised by Medeas actions. We do not pity her because she accepts her tragic flaws end-to-end the play. Medeas self-awareness of her immorality contradicts Andersons picture that the message of tragedy is that men are better than they think they are. The message ask to be said over and over lest the race lose faith in itself entirely. There is a large distinction between the recognition of a tragic hero in Ancient Greece and the modern world.We associate heroic aspects with goodness, appropriation and a well-developed sense of forgiveness. The presentation of Medea in the exodos as well as her actions end-to-end the play, strongly contradict with the principles of Christianity and her character appears as irrelevant to modern ideas. Unfortunately, Medea from the Ancient Greeks point of view can be regarded as a tragic hero to a significant extent. The horrific act of murdering her children is insane and sickening however, it is without doubt that it fits with the image of a tragic hero in a several respects.BibliographyAristotle, Poetics. Trans. S.H. Butcher. www.classics.mit.edu/Aristotle/poetics/hypertext markup languageAccessed 5th January 2012P.E Easterling The Infanticide in Euripides Medea, Yale Classical Studies, 25(1997) 193-225Dodds, E.R. The Greeks and the Irrational. University of atomic number 20 Press, (2000).Allan, William. Euripides Medea Duckworth Companions for Greek and Roman tragedy. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, (2002)Anderson, The Essence of calamityNorthrop Frye, The Mythos of Autumn