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While barbarians mainly use actions to put across their thinking, Medea uses emotions and this makes it possible for viewers to come to appreciate her personality and her strength of will.
It is actually difficult to think of Medea as being a barbarian, in spite of her origins. The character appears to be perfectly able to think rationally and is, in contrast to other barbarians in the film, sensible...
It is not until the moment when she realizes that she has been betrayed that Medea comes to resort to returning to her origins. She takes on barbarian attitudes and she harshly reacts to anyone who stands in her way, virtually demonstrating that she can really be barbaric.
Medea has a series of concepts deep down inside her and this is actually what makes her unique. It is surely interesting to look at her from an impartial perspective and observe ideas like barbarianism and rationality coming together in a philosophical attempt to display a complex yet simple character. This character virtually stands as a paradox, as even though she is similar to other barbarians she manages to differentiate herself from them by expressing thinking that makes her look even more civilized than Jason and Creon.
Medea relates a story about the power of love, which induces sacrifice as well as jealousy and feelings of revenge aroused by betrayal. Medea, the principal character, is a woman, who is so smitten by her love for Jason that she forsakes her family, country and people to live in "...the land of Corinth with her husband and children, where her exile found favour with the citizens to whose land
Medea Villianness, Victim, or Both? Medea has emerged from ancient myth to become an archetype of the scorned woman who kills her own children to spite her husband, who must then suffer the fate of outliving them. The story itself is horrific, and yet it remains strangely fascinating, and into the mouth of its maniacal heroine many writers have given philosophies which were too subversive to be voiced in open discourse. Many
Medea also uses her children by having them deliver poison in the disguise of gifts, as no one would expect the children to have ill intentions. The children present the gifts as a request to let them avoid banishment, but in reality the gifts have been sent not to aid the children's situation at all. Throughout the play Medea acts like a puppet-master using the children to get her
This double standard is prominent in Medea, for example when Jason admits that it is normal for women to get very angry when their husband is being unfaithful, yet he expects Medea to forget about it. (Euripides, ln 908-910) This is yet another way in which Medea parallels the position of women in our society today who are also expected to keep their feelings hidden. Medea has an inclination towards
Freudian theory believes that extreme suffering removes own from the tamed state which each individual resides within civilization, "Just as satisfaction of instinct spells happiness for us, so severe suffering caused us if the external world lets us starve, if it refuses to state our needs," (Freud 28). Medea is so affected by her suffering that she removes herself from everyday life, "She lies without food and gives herself
"As a female foreigner whose relationship with Jason was only formalized with the birth of the children, Medea would have been viewed as an irregular companion, and after Jason's betrothal to Glauce, she would be reduced to the status of concubine." (Guastella in Claus) This makes them a helpful tool in securing her bond to Jason. Another means by which they can be useful props for Medea is when she