"L'Enfer, c'est les autres." Jean-Paul Sartre
This year in OIB, we will explore the theme of Otherness. What defines the mainstream and how does this mainstream dictate to others? What does it mean to be marginalized? How has the mainstream impacted the world of ideas across time?
Friday, October 29, 2010
Meet Medea...
Where do you find your sympathy so far? With Medea or against her?
I personally think Medea is a total badass and she is in the right to speak up. It's true, her actions and sacrifices for Jason may have been extreme, but then againhe did never spoke out in protest. He took advantage of her and after ten years of marriage, even a woman who chops up her own brother and throws his remnants to his father is liable to sympathy. PREACH ON, GIRL!
I agree with Veronica when it comes to Medea being very strong and "badass" :) At first, I felt pity for Medea after being left in those conditions: for another woman, (well virgin princess), after she has left her home (which was important at the time), and after having cut up her brother for him. I definitely think she has the right to mourn and want revenge, but knowing her (specially with the brother story), Jason should have expected her reaction and not have left her. I liked Medea more at first because I do agree that he should recognize the pain he is causing her, and that his morals are wrong (although it was supposedly normal at the time to change wives). However, I am liking her less and less: First of all, she is completely ignoring her sons in the picture posted above. I think it represents her perfectly: she is self-centered. She is only thinking about her pain, agony, loneliness and strong feelings of betrayal. Because of this she is completely putting her sons aside, hating them too (connecting them to Jason), when she should realize that they too have been betrayed and abandoned. They are now fatherless and left with her as a mother. Not only is she being self-centered and ignoring the fact that her sons are in the same position as her, but she now wants to kill them for "it is the supreme way to hurt my husband" (page 366). She is accusing him of abandoning her, causing her pain, having the wrong morals, but she is about to do worse to her own sons. Although I find Medea very cool because she is smart and knows it (using it to her own advantage, yay for strong women), I think she should stop spending her time lamenting her life, "What good is life to me? I have no father, home, defense against misfortune..." (page 365), stop wanting to murder her family, stop using people around her (Nurse & Aegeus), and put her time, power and strength in starting over. I am sure the other ladies left by their husbands at the time knew they had to move on and didn't actually kill anybody, even if they wanted to.
After having read both Veronica's and Claire's comments, I'd like to say that I agree with what Veronica said in the beginning and agree fully with what Claire said. I don't think anyone should find sympathy for Medea after having read the whole play because I think that as the play progresses, the reader loses the sympathy he has for her, because of her destructive actions. Ok, it is true that Medea suffered, one can even make a list of the tough times she went through before exploding and causing the deaths of Creon's daughter and her own sons but it doesn't explain her reckless behavior after she learns that Jason was abandoning her for Creon's daughter. Medea left her home, family and joined Jason in Corinth. She didn't deserve to be abandoned by Jason since she loved him and she seemed to be a good mother; as I think this picture depicts. Her expulsion from her adopted city Corinth by Creon and seeing Jason leave her for Creon's daughter are other reasons for Medea to get revenge but not to that extent. I think Medea at the end went too far in her revenge tactics and shouldn't have killed her sons. I have to admit that I did feel sympathy for her at first and found what happened to her unjust and cruel.I also thought that she had the right to get her revenge, not knowing how deep and far she'd go. Thus, my sympathy for Medea started to get smaller, as soon as she unveiled her plan to poison Creon's daughter but after all, she was a witch. I did also admire in the beginning, Medea's courageousness, persuasion methods and the way she fought for her rights, defended herself and attacked Jason. I also consider her smart in way, because she knew where to hurt Jason the most, after having hurt her. In the picture above Medea seems not only like a good mother but at the same time, like in the passage where she is confused and doesn't know if she should kill her children or not. This picture actually illustrates this scene but I don't know if the picture alone can determine wether or not we should have sympathy for Medea except the fact that she seems alone, hurt, thinking and sad. Her secret cruel plan was effective and it did work just as Medea wanted but it did not help Medea to continue gaining my sympathy because it showed her true colors even if she had been in emotional pain. The event that completely killed my sympathy for Medea though was when she decided to kill her children. It did seem like Medea really loved her kids and I really thought at one point when she had her dilemma that she was going to make the right choice and keep her children alive or take them with her but my wishes weren't granted and Medea again made a wrong decision. I think that she should've taken her children with her to Athens and even if protection was to be provided only to her, she was a witch and could've found a way to protect her two children. Another thing that diminished the tiny sympathy I still had for Medea at the end of the play because of her courageousness, smartness was the fact that she didn't seem to regret any of her actions. It was close to the opposite and it looked like she was only satisfied to have gotten her full revenge on Jason and see him suffer now. I found this despicable and crazy because all of what happened isn't the fault of two innocent children and thus my sympathy, respect for Medea disappeared completely. I think we can link this play and theme (sympathy) to Macbeth and Frankenstein; two works in which the reader does express sympathy and respect for the protagonists in the beginning but this sympathy like in Medea, as the stories progressed, diminished and turned into dislike towards the "heros". Finally, unlike Veronica, I didn't keep sympathizing with Medea until the end of the play and my sympathy stopped at a part of the play because there couldn't be an explanation to the abused revenge Medea decided to achieve; I will not have sympathy for the devil.
I personally think Medea is a total badass and she is in the right to speak up. It's true, her actions and sacrifices for Jason may have been extreme, but then againhe did never spoke out in protest. He took advantage of her and after ten years of marriage, even a woman who chops up her own brother and throws his remnants to his father is liable to sympathy. PREACH ON, GIRL!
ReplyDeleteI agree with Veronica when it comes to Medea being very strong and "badass" :) At first, I felt pity for Medea after being left in those conditions: for another woman, (well virgin princess), after she has left her home (which was important at the time), and after having cut up her brother for him. I definitely think she has the right to mourn and want revenge, but knowing her (specially with the brother story), Jason should have expected her reaction and not have left her.
ReplyDeleteI liked Medea more at first because I do agree that he should recognize the pain he is causing her, and that his morals are wrong (although it was supposedly normal at the time to change wives). However, I am liking her less and less: First of all, she is completely ignoring her sons in the picture posted above. I think it represents her perfectly: she is self-centered. She is only thinking about her pain, agony, loneliness and strong feelings of betrayal. Because of this she is completely putting her sons aside, hating them too (connecting them to Jason), when she should realize that they too have been betrayed and abandoned. They are now fatherless and left with her as a mother. Not only is she being self-centered and ignoring the fact that her sons are in the same position as her, but she now wants to kill them for "it is the supreme way to hurt my husband" (page 366).
She is accusing him of abandoning her, causing her pain, having the wrong morals, but she is about to do worse to her own sons.
Although I find Medea very cool because she is smart and knows it (using it to her own advantage, yay for strong women), I think she should stop spending her time lamenting her life, "What good is life to me? I have no father, home, defense against misfortune..." (page 365), stop wanting to murder her family, stop using people around her (Nurse & Aegeus), and put her time, power and strength in starting over. I am sure the other ladies left by their husbands at the time knew they had to move on and didn't actually kill anybody, even if they wanted to.
Great comments, ladies. I'm curious to hear what others think. Gentlemen, want to speak up?
ReplyDeleteAfter having read both Veronica's and Claire's comments, I'd like to say that I agree with what Veronica said in the beginning and agree fully with what Claire said.
ReplyDeleteI don't think anyone should find sympathy for Medea after having read the whole play because I think that as the play progresses, the reader loses the sympathy he has for her, because of her destructive actions.
Ok, it is true that Medea suffered, one can even make a list of the tough times she went through before exploding and causing the deaths of Creon's daughter and her own sons but it doesn't explain her reckless behavior after she learns that Jason was abandoning her for Creon's daughter. Medea left her home, family and joined Jason in Corinth. She didn't deserve to be abandoned by Jason since she loved him and she seemed to be a good mother; as I think this picture depicts. Her expulsion from her adopted city Corinth by Creon and seeing Jason leave her for Creon's daughter are other reasons for Medea to get revenge but not to that extent. I think Medea at the end went too far in her revenge tactics and shouldn't have killed her sons.
I have to admit that I did feel sympathy for her at first and found what happened to her unjust and cruel.I also thought that she had the right to get her revenge, not knowing how deep and far she'd go. Thus, my sympathy for Medea started to get smaller, as soon as she unveiled her plan to poison Creon's daughter but after all, she was a witch. I did also admire in the beginning, Medea's courageousness, persuasion methods and the way she fought for her rights, defended herself and attacked Jason. I also consider her smart in way, because she knew where to hurt Jason the most, after having hurt her.
In the picture above Medea seems not only like a good mother but at the same time, like in the passage where she is confused and doesn't know if she should kill her children or not. This picture actually illustrates this scene but I don't know if the picture alone can determine wether or not we should have sympathy for Medea except the fact that she seems alone, hurt, thinking and sad.
Her secret cruel plan was effective and it did work just as Medea wanted but it did not help Medea to continue gaining my sympathy because it showed her true colors even if she had been in emotional pain.
The event that completely killed my sympathy for Medea though was when she decided to kill her children. It did seem like Medea really loved her kids and I really thought at one point when she had her dilemma that she was going to make the right choice and keep her children alive or take them with her but my wishes weren't granted and Medea again made a wrong decision. I think that she should've taken her children with her to Athens and even if protection was to be provided only to her, she was a witch and could've found a way to protect her two children.
Another thing that diminished the tiny sympathy I still had for Medea at the end of the play because of her courageousness, smartness was the fact that she didn't seem to regret any of her actions. It was close to the opposite and it looked like she was only satisfied to have gotten her full revenge on Jason and see him suffer now. I found this despicable and crazy because all of what happened isn't the fault of two innocent children and thus my sympathy, respect for Medea disappeared completely.
I think we can link this play and theme (sympathy) to Macbeth and Frankenstein; two works in which the reader does express sympathy and respect for the protagonists in the beginning but this sympathy like in Medea, as the stories progressed, diminished and turned into dislike towards the "heros".
Finally, unlike Veronica, I didn't keep sympathizing with Medea until the end of the play and my sympathy stopped at a part of the play because there couldn't be an explanation to the abused revenge Medea decided to achieve; I will not have sympathy for the devil.