'”Medea” by Euripides Essay\r'

'‘Unclean, abhorrent child †destroyer.’ Medea’s instruction execution of her children means she nookienot be regarded as a aline tragicalalalal hired gun. To what extent do you agree with this in expectation of Euripides’s birthations of Medea in the exodos?\r\nThe work issue of Medea presented by Euripides in the exodos is undoubtedly largely horrifying and app solely to the audience. Medea manifestly presents her desire for avenge and it is difficult to feel with her char snatcher. notwithstanding, in many respects her eccentric person fits the image of a tragic gun for hire. Although, it is widely contr in all everyplacesial to henchman Medea with tremendous aspects in redbrick days, from an ancient Hellenic’s perspective her turnions and personality might salubrious match aspects of the tragic hero such(prenominal) as dead body, appropriation, noble state, and tragic dishonor. This essay will look for whether her presentation in the exodos as well as her bringions in other circumstances justify her tragic hero status.\r\nFirst of all, Medea has al focusings enjoyed a strong reputation and high-rank in society. Her heroic identity symbolises the target that she is a grand- daughter of the Sun. Moreover, Medea was a princess of Colchis and displayed a colossal knowledge of enchantments and medicine. When Jason abandons her in a abroad territory she becomes a ‘stateless refugee’ and her pride suffers. It has similarly been say by the Chorus in the play:\r\n‘Of all pains and hardships none is worse\r\nThan to be deprive of your native land’. [L.651-652]\r\nIt faces intolerable for her to be jilted & homeless in a foreign land. We prat infer this by the use of lyric poem such as ‘pains and hardships’ which emphasises her dramatic position through an accumulation of two similar meanings. Also, the give-and-take ‘deprived’ impli es that Jason has taken her land almost physically. Here, the office of chorus modifies the structure in the play as they appearance break up the acts in the play. Thus, Euripides attaches an all-important(prenominal) role of the chorus to construct the play. Her behaviour has been farther explored by E.R Dodds who states that members of an ancient Grecian society declare ‘anything which exposes a man to the contempt or laugh at of his fellows, which causes them to â€Å"lose face,” … as unbearable’.\r\nAccording to Aristotle, a tragic hero must hold noble, value social status. It can be argued t here(predicate)fore that Medea’s execution of her children in exodos was a desperate and freakish response to ‘the pressure of social conformity’ (Dodds) and a diseased attempt to gain back her reputation. such(prenominal) actions are common in Greek tragedies such as The Oresteia where Atreus admitted an even larger horrific act of re venge against his brother who had affair with Atreus’s married woman. Similarly, piece Medea loses face when Jason abandons her, Atreus’s reputation suffers when his wife commits adultery. Nevertheless, afterwards Atreus’s takes care of his brother’s son. This, as opposed to Medea, can be meaned as tragic hero’s hotshot of criminality or, perhaps, the way to dispense legal expert.\r\nOn the other hand, Medea doesn’t grief her actions. Her sense of guilt does not exist. Contrarily, she chance onms to be rarified of her murder as she uses misanthropic and sarcastic techniques magic spell she responds to Jason’s accusations in stichomythia: ‘Go home; your wife waits to be buried.’ The mention of Jason’s would-be wife is extremely cruel and tactless as previously, Medea remorselessly murdered her. In the exodos, Medea and Jason have a slight and sharp exchange after Jason sees the dead bodies of his child ren. Questionably, Medea appears here to be extremely exultant, victoriously using cynical techniques untypical for the tragic hero such as ‘You grieve too soon. Old age is glide slope’. It is clear that Medea identifies her murder with a triumph over Jason. This opposes the point that Medea can be regarded as a tragic hero because members of an ancient Greek society, condescension their desire for high reputation, had a sense of guilt and justice which is described by E.R Dodds as a ‘gradually growing sense of guilt…which modify into a punishment’ and ’embodiment of cosmic justice’. This implies that Medea as a tragic hero should grief her actions however, this never occurs.\r\nInstead, 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 kind of declivi ty opens up a debate over whether Medea’s presentation can be truly regarded as a tragic hero. Here, the gods seem to appear oddly sympathetic in her murderous sufferings and surprisingly august in supporting Medea’s actions and punishing Jason. It can be argued that the gods support Medea and Deus ex Machina occurs in redact to dispense justice by not allowing Jason to live with his children and leaving him unsatisfied. Although, the gods not always seem to disembowel ‘right’ decision and sometimes their will performs as cruel and unmoral. It isn’t just the fact that Medea kills her children that seem to be questioning Medea’s heroic aspects. It is also true that Medea does not die. The play is in fact the only surviving Greek catastrophe where the tragic hero doesn’t die.\r\nFurthermore, Medea is a woman control by ‘ antheral desire’. Her desire for revenge leads to her overcoming the sense of maternal instinct. Therefore, the Greek audience couldn’t completely regard Medea as a tragic hero and ‘yet the audience (…) shudder at the ruthless of her anger and passion for vengeance’ (Easterling). It is undecipherable whether Medea aims to portray herself as a woman or to employ the â€Å"heroic ‘male’ weapon”. She much empathize with females as a group\r\n‘We were innate(p) women †useless for honest purposes,\r\nBut in all kinds of evil skilled practitioners’ [l.406-407]\r\nHere, Medea uses first person plural verb in order to become a voice of females. However, the fact that she lacks her maternal instinct and kills her children in ‘ reception to her dishonour’ 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 evidently contradicts the idea of consistency in that she portrays herself sometimes as a typical of oppressed women and sometimes as a ‘male hero’.\r\nIt is largely controversial to argue that Medea’s presentation in the play (particularly in the exodos) is ‘ groovy and appropriate’ (Aristotle). The tragic hero’s character should be ‘good if the purpose is good’ (Aristotle). Euripides’s presentation of Medea at the beginning of the play is to pack the audience benignity 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 plead for help (‘Help, help, for the gods’ stake! She’s killing us!).\r\nThe 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, ‘f ear and pity must be aroused’ in circumstances in which a ‘tragic incident between those who are coterminous or dear to one another’. Indeed, we pity characters in the exodos as the act of murder has been through at the expense of innocent children pleading for help. On the other hand, it has been investigated by P.E Easterling that â€Å"Euripides’ many imitators have tended to present Medea’s behaviour as that of madwomen”. This is because the way in which Medea murders her children is largely brutal as she uses a mark and seem to be murdering them in a unmerci in full pattern. Therefore, even the Ancient Greek audience seems to scorn the idea of Medea being ‘good and appropriate’.\r\nIn addition, for Medea to fully fit the image of a Greek tragic hero it is essential that she has her tragic flaw which contributes to the downfall. It is necessary for the tragic heroes to be â€Å"wrapped in the\r\nmystery (…) with tha t ‘something beyond’ which we can only see through them, and which is the source of their strength and their fate alike(predicate)…” (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 obsession with the ‘ gag of my enemies’. Even if the audience does not point out any indication of the ‘laughter’ of Medea’s enemies, she thus far 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, Medea’s obsession with the ‘laughter’ of her enemies can be considered as the catalyst 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 flaws and in her horrific act in the exodos she recognises that what’s she’s doing is wrong. In the line 1077 she says:\r\n‘I watch\r\nThe horror of what I am going to do’\r\nEvidently, Medea appears to be aware of her tragic flaw and to lead 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 Medea’s actions. We do not pity her because she accepts her tragic flaws end-to-end the play. Medea’s self-awareness of her immorality contradicts Anderson’s belief that ‘the pass along of tragedy is that men are better than they have in mind they are. The message needs to be said over and over lest the race lose faith in itself entirely’.\r\nThere is a large annotation between the recognition of a tragic hero in Ancient Greece and the modern world. We associate heroic aspects with goodness, appropriation a nd a well-developed sense of forgiveness. The presentation of Medea in the exodos as well as her actions throughout the play, potently contradict with the principles of Christianity and her character appears as irrelevant to modern ideas. Unfortunately, Medea from the Ancient Greek’s 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(prenominal) respects.\r\nBibliography\r\nAristotle, Poetics. Trans. S.H. Butcher. www.classics.mit.edu/Aristotle/poetics/html\r\nAccessed 5th January 2012\r\nP.E Easterling †‘The Infanticide in Euripides’ Medea’, Yale Classical Studies, 25(1997) 193-225\r\nDodds, E.R. The Greeks and the Irrational. University of atomic number 20 Press, (2000).\r\nAllan, William. Euripides: Medea Duckworth Companions for Greek and Roman tragedy. Cambridge, Cambridg e University Press, (2002)\r\nAnderson, The Essence of Tragedy\r\nNorthrop Frye,” The Mythos of pin”\r\nWord count: 1,496\r\n'