Medea: Discussing Euripides’ intention

What are the key views and values that Euripides presents in Medea and how does he promote these views/values?

October 2015

How to use this powerpoint…Be active

Write (with pen – penetrates memory better) your reactions as you travel through

Argue with the points made, revisit the text and your notes to find evidence to support or challenge each viewpoint

Review and rewrite

Play with some essay questions and see where you can incorporate these ideas

Why bother?The answer is obvious when you consider the

examiner’s description of a 9-10/10 text essay :

Demonstrates a close and perceptive reading of the text, exploring complexities of its concepts and construction. Demonstrates an understanding of the implications of the topic, using an appropriate strategy for dealing with it, and exploring its complexity from the basis of the text. Develops a cogent, controlled and well-substantiated discussion using precise and expressive language.

Important considerations …Remember characters’ actions are designed to

encourage audience reflection and assessment of existing social norms and attitudes

Characters and the plot are symbols – therefore not meant to be reflective of everyday life

Euripides was not a popular playwright and a polemicist (purposefully provocative)

The audience is now and was then made up of many individuals who bring their different perspectives of the world. Show this through your avoidance of neat, simple answers

Audience and performance issues: Then and Now Then…

Male Athenian Free Whilst many races in Athens,

power and influence held by a homogeneous group

Performed once during the festival of Dionysius Actors male Use of masks Sung Vast venue – 1000s in audience

Today Males and females Broader social views born

from a heterogeneous society with a myriad of social values

Performed regularly also for the purpose of study Actors male and female Limited stylistic

restrictions Smaller venues – 100s in

audience

Key messages Sophrosyne

Athenian values: logos, pathos and ethos, and the importance of balancing these elements

Humans are both logical and emotive: not one or the other, but both

Religious attitudes and approaches Greek gods are revered and feared –they are called upon by humans as

witnesses to their behaviour and like humans are shown to be capricious Above all, the gods avenge broken oaths mercilessly The gods’ intervention be used to explain & excuse behaviour

The other – Gender and Race Status of women & differences in gender behaviour As Athenians considered themselves highly sophisticated in determining

their civil and political systems, non Athenians were considered barbarians and were viewed with suspicion and mistrust

Cautionary tale - don’t forget humans are also base creatures with loathsome qualities

Evidence? SophrosyneAthenian values: logos, pathos and ethos, and

the importance of balancing these elements

Evidence =

Implications for discussion =

Humans are both logical and emotive

Evidence =

Implications for discussion =

Religion Greek gods are revered and feared. Capricious like humans.

Message?

Evidence =

Implications for discussion =

Above all, the gods avenge broken oaths mercilessly

Evidence =

Implications for discussion =

The gods’ intervention can be used to explain & excuse behaviour

Evidence =

Implications for discussion =

Other – gender & raceStatus of women & differences in gender

behaviour

Evidence =

Implications for discussion =

Athenians viewed themselves as culturally superior & non-Athenians as barbarians - viewed with suspicion and mistrust

Evidence =

Implications for discussion =

Cautionary taleHumans are also base creatures with

loathsome qualities and Athenians are all too human.

Evidence =

Implications for discussion =

This can be considered as an overarching theme which will draw together a number of the messages.

Euripides’ changes to traditional story: Impact?Original story:

Corinthians killed Jason and Medea’s children Medea killed the Princess and Creon only

Impact of change? Filicide is utterly abhorrent - shock Sons – representation of Athenian society Medea is supported by Helios to evade justice Medea – colder, more calculated, more shocking,

less human and more Tuscan Scylla

Feminist, misogynist or neither?YOU need to be aware of the differing interpretations of Euripides’ character Medea. Euripides is …

rightly accused of misogyny because Medea is calculated, malicious, hell-bent on revenge and she escapes without debilitating consequences: thus representing the ultimate cautionary tale for males via an unholy nightmare

purely a conservative who is presenting a cautionary tale of the perils of giving women voice and sympathy

a feminist because he choses to have a female protagonist and chorus, who intelligently articulate their social grievances. Furthermore, Medea escapes to Athens through the aid of the gods and fate, justly leaving Jason as a pathetic shell with nothing

neither a misogynist or feminist because he articulately (and provocatively) outlines the many concerns that faced women in Ancient Athens through a female protagonist and a female chorus, and whilst there is little sympathy for Jason throughout the play, by the end, the audience’s sympathy does extend to the now forlorn Jason

Representing your interpretation: example 1The playwright sets up the protagonist to confirm the audiences’ beliefs by having her destroy well respected homes and commit murders, deceive unsuspecting men in power and escape punishment with the assistance of the gods. The Athenian audience of predominantly males would have feared the end and clung onto their ingrained beliefs about women, gods and foreigners. (Mrs Stathatos)

Example 2

The playwright sets up the protagonist to challenge the audiences’ beliefs by having Medea straddle the civil and political worlds and extend the principles of democracy to the role of women. The lines she speaks about her plight and the plight of women are designed to garner the sympathy of the audience. She has support from other characters too who are pushing the boundaries of thinking about reciprocal respect between the sexes. The actions of killing her children and escaping punishment with the help of the gods highlights her absolute desperation to make her point, sacrificing her own children and thus her happiness. Euripides shocks his audience out of their complacency while the protagonist’s words and actions have been taken up by the subsequent generations as a call to fairness and the horrible consequences if it is not acknowledged and forthcoming. (Mrs Stathatos)

Example 3

The playwright sets up the barbarian Medea, archetypal Athenian Jason and the action of the gods as a cautionary tale illustrating the absolute necessity of living within the spirit of sophrosyne. Medea is intelligent, capable of reflection and moderation but she allows her intelligence to be held hostage by her pride. Her obvious intelligence prevents the audience from characterising her actions as mindless rage. It is Medea’s controlled, logical mind which hatches the plan of “impious bloodshed” in response to Jason’s calculated plan to improve his status. It is her emotions, unchecked, that allow her to consider filicide, however, it is also these same emotions which would have permitted mercy. Interestingly, the chorus-leader accuses, Jason, the hero of the Argonauts, of being “unjust” when he dismisses Medea’s reaction to his marriage as “embittered jealousy” illustrating Euripides’ warning not only of the excesses of emotion, but of pride, cold logic and heartless action. Without the children’s murders, this is yet another story of a broken heart, however, Euripides’ alteration to the traditional ending and his representation of Helios’ active support of Medea also challenges any glib reductive moral to be attributed to this play. Through the use of Jason, the symbol of logical Athens, we see the tragedy fall most brutally, and it is here where the Athenian audience are issued their warnings: ignore the seemingly powerless in society at your peril, and, logos without ethos and pathos is ultimately destructive.

Now your turn…

Activity

Write your interpretation complete with evidence and explanation which enable your discussion of Euripides’ views and values

Considering other analyses…From Wikipedia

Euripides' characterization of Medea exhibits the inner emotions of passion, love, and vengeance. Medea is widely read as a proto-feminist text to the extent that it sympathetically explores the disadvantages of being a woman in a patriarchal society,[4] although it has also been read as an expression of misogynist attitudes.[5] In conflict with this sympathetic undertone (or reinforcing a more negative reading) is Medea's barbarian identity, which would antagonize a 5th-century Greek audience.[6]

Continued…When we talk about Medea, we might begin by thinking about how reversal plays an important role in understanding Euripides' intentions. First, as the play opens (prologue), the Nurse gives us history and a view of the "diseased love" between Jason and Medea. There is no equivocation; Jason has wronged Medea. The audience (and the reader) will perhaps feel sympathy for this woman and Corinthian women in general. Obviously the patriarchal elitism and the consequent double standard of masculine behavior is put on display. Women live oppressed lives. Jason himself will confirm these sympathies as his reasoning and thus his words (in the second episode) are visibly absurd. He is transparent and vain.

What strikes me as important in reading this play is the notion of reversal as [sic] mood. Medea kills her own children and in doing so nullifies any initial sympathy we might have for her. In fact by the end of the play, one might have a great deal more sympathy for Jason instead of Medea and in this Euripides has reversed the sentiments of the audience through dramatic action. It appears that the idea of having Medea kill her own children was solely the creation of Euripides. So while Medea gets away with murder… she also brings destruction on Athens (in the future) for King Aegeus offers her sanctuary in that city.

http://public.wsu.edu/~hughesc/medea_notes.htm

And… The ending of Medea has caused debate for thousands of years. It's full of contradictions and conundrums. For one, it defies the conventions of tragedy by letting its protagonist off the hook. Medea commits four murders, the most horrendous being the slaughter of her own children. Instead of making his heroine pay for her crimes, Euripides saves her using a deus ex machina. …What are we to make of Medea's escape?

It's doubtful that an audience is supposed agree with Medea when she says she only did what was right. Clearly Jason did break his oath to the gods and to Medea, but is killing their children really the appropriate response? Even Medea recognizes this when she says, "Why damage them in trying to hurt their father?” . In the end, though, revenge is more important to Medea than maternal love, and she kills her children in order "To get at [Jason's] heart”. Her methods are effective; Jason is decimated at the end of the play. It's highly unlikely that the majority of audience members, modern or ancient, would think the jealous slaughter of innocent children is acceptable.

Therefore, if we're not suppose to condone Medea's monstrous actions, what exactly are we supposed to take from all this? Is there a moral to this story?

Some scholars think that Euripides’ great sympathy towards women is the reason he lets Medea fly away. Medea's violence is the result of oppression. She's put upon by a male dominated society and cast aside by her husband. When faced with this incredibly unfair treatment, Medea responds with a shocking act of bloody resistance. By killing her children, she's rebelling against the dominant role of women in her time: motherhood. Also, notice that the children she kills are both males. In a way, she's stopping another generation of potential oppressors from gaining power. The fact that she gets away with it, makes the ending even more unsettling. It's almost as if Euripides wanted to leave his all-male Athenian audience with a note of warning – beware those you oppress. One day they might not take it anymore, and you may not be able to do anything about it.

http://www.shmoop.com/medea/ending.html with some minor editing

Over to you…

Review your interpretation

Be able to present, consider, discuss and use other views