The form of the play differs from many other Greek tragedies by its simplicity. Most scenes involve only Medea and someone else. The Chorus, here representing the women of Corinth, is usually involved alongside them. The simple encounters highlight Medea's skill and determination in manipulating powerful male figures. The play is also the only Greek tragedy in which a kin-killer makes it unpunished to the end of the play, and the only one about child-killing in which the deed is performed in cold blood as opposed to in a state of temporary madness.[11] Medea's "rebellion" is that which shakes the very world everyone must inhabit. Her rebellion tells of her past history, the goddess-like figure denigrated and ultimately dethroned gives lead to why she would act the way she does.[12] Euripides displays Medea as an archetype. As a result, he reinforces the modern stereotype as a woman to be the devourer of men and children, instead of Medea, the great mother wronged.[12]
Euripides' characterization of Medea exhibits the inner emotions of passion, love, and vengeance. The character of Medea has variously been interpreted both as fulfilling her role of "mother and wife" and as acting as a "proto-feminist".[13] Feminist readings have interpreted the play as either a "sympathetic exploration" of the "disadvantages of being a woman in a patriarchal society",[5] or as an expression of misogynist attitudes.[14] In conflict with this sympathetic undertone (or reinforcing a more negative reading) is Medea's barbarian identity, which some argue could antagonize a 5th-century BC Greek audience.[15]
It can be argued that in the play Euripides portrays Medea out to be an enraged woman who kills her children to get revenge on her husband Jason because of his betrayal of their marriage. Medea is often cited as an example of the "madwoman in the attic" trope, in which women who defy societal norms are portrayed as mentally unstable.[16] Although, Medea is not the only character in the play to use deception; other characters, such as Jason and Creon, also use lies and manipulation. A competing interpretation is that Medea kills her children out of kindness because she cares and worries for them and their well-being. Once Medea commits to her plan to kill Creon and Jason's new bride, she knows her children are in danger of being murdered. Medea is not paranoid. In another version of the myth, the people of Corinth kill her children to avenge the deaths of Creon and his daughter Glauke. At this time in myth and history, helping one's friends and hurting one's enemies was considered a virtue. Thus, by this ethic, the Corinthians will do right by avenging their king and princess. Conversely, a focus on Medea's rage leads to the interpretation that "Medea becomes the personification of vengeance, with her humanity 'mortified' and 'sloughed off'" (Cowherd, 129).[17] Medea's heritage places her in a position more typically reserved for the male in her time. Hers is the power of the sun, appropriately symbolized by her great radiance, tremendous heat and boundless passion.[12] In this view Medea is inhuman and her suffering is self-inflicted just as Jason argues in his debate with her. And yet, if we see events through Medea's eyes, we view a wife intent on vengeance and a mother concerned about her children's safety and the life they can be expected to live. Thus, Medea as wife kills Creon and Glauke in the act of vengeance. Medea as a mother thinks that her children will be better off killed by her kind hand than left to suffer at the hands of an enemy, intent on vengeance. And so, Medea saves her children from this brutality and a worse fate by killing them herself, providing them with as peaceful an outcome as she can.
Euripides’ tragic character, Medea, is often described as having a “heroic temper,” (Lush, 2014). With this temper, the motive behind much of Medea’s behavior is to avoid the laughter of her enemies, “even at the cost of decisions that contradict self-interest, personal safety, or strongly held moral beliefs,” (Lush, 2014). Although some may say that her motive is jealousy over Jason’s new bride, Glauce, such reasoning does not fully explain the severity of Medea’s actions. Medea’s temperament suggests that she was more embarrassed than she was angry. She was unwilling to let her enemies, in this case Jason and his new wife, be happy or look down upon her. Medea denied that “her enemies [would] cause her pain and rejoice,” and stated that her priority was to “avoid her enemies’ derision,” (Lush, 2014). Although the murder of her children would cause her pain, Medea’s temperament caused her to prioritize Jason’s unhappiness over anything else.
Lush, B. (2014). Combat Trauma and Psychological Injury in Euripides’ Medea. Helios, 41(1), 25–57.
