Notes taken by students from a previous class...Hope you find them helpful!
Euripides’ retelling of the myth from the moment that Jason has left her for the princess: crimes on the Argo and in Iolcus have already occurred so we know what Medea is capable of and what she will do.
Dramatic irony: we know she will kill the boys but we watch how she comes to do it, and we are asked to consider the story from a point of view that is sympathetic. Jason, the classic hero is locked out until later in the play.
According to Aristotle, Sophocles represented men as they should be, Euripirdes as they are. Euripides offers social critique: Athens in moral decline, past the golden age of Sophocles and Pericles and in the corrupt days of sophistry: critique of empty rhetoric, cultural practices.
Medea: outside on several counts—woman and barbarian (from Colchis, beyond the Black Sea). Athens and Corinth considered civilized world. The world of men and its laws: honor, marriage, house (from male perspective means lineage). The world of Medea and its laws: pride and justice: her status and the oath sworn on the Argo as incontrovertible, the house she has built within the norms of Corinthian society for ten years, with the bed she has shared with Jason. Jason abandons her: let the house rot.
The realism of the play: opening of the play is from the point of view of the servants on the passions and excesses of their masters. Their point of view is the point of entry in the play
Nurse: sympathetic: oh why—lament
Tutor: male point of view regarding marriage as economic contract.
her potential for horrible things
vulnerable side/powerful side => imbalanced responds to catastrophe in her life => crying, “has not raised her eyes from the floor”, “arock or a wave of the sea” eye of the storm, where it is calmest yet storm is imminent.yet completely gives in to the events, does not fight them back.Lament in beginning of nurse
--1st presence is not visual, its auditory, everything is being given by the nurse, shows unfairness, Medea deserves to be rewarded (=social: lshe has been Jason’s perfect foil, done what she has been supposed to do, shift of sympathy. why shouldn’t we give her our sympathy ?
Fatalitic element: she was wronged even though her reaction is so unfair.
large rewinding = why did the boat go, why were the pines chopped, why where they sent toget the golden Fleece => Pelias ?unlocking the myth of Medea,track record is really bad, bad resumé, Nurse is trying to make us understand that Medea is a tool => if those things hadnʼt happened, Medea would never have sailed toGreece. Who’s Aphrodite, in order to help Jason, makes Medea fall in love
mixed => part that is vulnerable, part that is victimized yet aggressive part
rebelling against oppression. nurse has been lamenting and tutor does not understand, makes fun of the nurse other perspective => tutor, not emotionally related to Medea, does not understand her and the fact that she still cries over her lost husband, Nurse sees Medea is a victim, that she could be dangerous both project the voices of Medea and Jason.Funny how “a côté de la plaque” the NurseTutor => more moderate point of view unnatural for a mother not to love her sons yet Jason is committing the unnatural act inway she will only hurt herself. unnatural that Jason wants to get rid of his sons1st wave => Jason leaves Medea 2nd wave => trying to get rid of the Medea and the boys.why are the boys dangerous
a lot of speculating, lets read on.
What is interesting is that the play starts with two slaves. The nurse is obviously going to be on Medea’s side because she’s her nurse, and she’s a woman so she is sympathetic. Medea’s songs are like Pecola because they are weak barely speak. Boys = Jason’s oikos
- she killed her brother to be with Jason
calling to the gods “oath”
this play has a lot of legal rhetoric
her speech is so passionate and intense; therefore, the fact that she says she hates her son makes it so dangerous
hating the sons = hating Jason because they represent him; she made them with him; pieces of him
vulnerable and powerful side to Medea; she is imbalanced
• She’s been crying
• We are worried: hates her sons maybe she will kill them too
• Intense sadness
• Nurse puts forward moderation doesn’t want to live like either the rich or the poor wants to live like the middle class
• Sexual bed, new bride
• Medea isn’t housewife like but for the past ten years she has been instead of being that crazy like woman
• She’s been playing by those rules because of her bond and feelings for Jason; she was willing to play by the civilized rules
• She sacrificed her time, her home, and now her dignity
• Feminist: “But a day will come when the story changes. Then shall the glory of women resound, And reverence come to the gender of woman, Reversing at last the sad reputation of ladies.” 345 huge speech Medea gives
• A strong woman can never be just a normal woman, she has to be evil and unsexed and a murderer …
• In her speech on page 345 she is not trying to say that all men are “asses” but that the marriage process at that time was wrong and unfair men get to choose the women, but women can’t choose their men, and inside of that the men choose how the relationship is, etc… and women can’t do anything
• Her situation is one step worst because at least the women in the chorus have somewhere to go back to if they ever get screwed over but she has no home, family, or friends to go back to double screwed
• She changes her attitude in front of the king (Creon) because he is high, chief of “testosterone”, and a king so she acts like the weak woman
• To give her one day is wrong because it’s enough time for her now to plan and plot and improvise
• She was planning and improvising at the same time because at first she was plotting when she was talking to the chorus but then when Creon tells her to leave it really ticks her off and she improvises maybe she is planning worst than she had originally
• “the fool!” she wasn’t crying because she was weak, she was crying because she knew she was gonna get something out of all this she went from revenging against her husband to the king, the princess, and the husband
• Paradox of the play: incredible that Euripides is talking about this unfair treatment to women but at the same time he is expressing it in this destructive way which makes it seems bad.
• Jason is wrong but since Medea is taking all these things in her own hands to the other extreme (plotting death) it makes her wrong too … they are both wrong
• Agon – debatel confrontation; logos – argumentation; pathos – emotion; ethos – character
• Jason/Medea debate: who wins? Archie says Jason won because Medea dug and dug through the hole of her anger getting angrier and angrier each time instead of controlling her emotions – Medea wins the logic though and she’s right but Jason also wins as well
