Social commentary in literature and culture

Medea vs. Jesus: Social Commentaries in Dramatic Fiction and in Gospel Narratives

Both Euripides' ancient Greek tragedy "Medea" and the chronicled gospel "Sermon on the Mount of Jesus" in "The Gospel According to St. Matthew" give the perspectives of outsiders critiquing the morals of their respective societies. Medea is a strange, witch of a woman, brought from a strange and alien land to marry Jason. Her alienation for Euripides becomes proof that people should not mingle with one another, across different city-states in Greece. Thus, although the play is sympathetic to Medea's plight to some degree, ultimately it acts as a validation of common Greek social values. In contrast, Jesus' social commentary instead validates the words of the speaker, rather than critiques them. The play is written from a sympathetic chronicler of Jesus' social mission and validates Jesus' words and Jesus' critique of common societal wisdom on the subjects of suffering, adultery, materialism, murder -- subjects Medea also addresses, but in a more conventional fashion.

Suffering

Jesus validates suffering in a positive fashion. In the section of the "Sermon on the Mount" known as the "Beatitudes," Jesus states "Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven, Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted." The most famous phrase of the Sermon on the Mount is "Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth." This suggests that those individuals society may reject are not necessarily bad -- in fact, quite the opposite. The world's decision to give favor to some and not give favor to others is not a moral judgment for all time, merely an expression of an incorrect societal moral norm. Thus, Jesus says, in God's eyes: "Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled. (5:2-6) Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake. (5:10-11)

However, Medea does not have this sense comfort, instead she curses her suffering, cast out as she is, and wails, "Oh, oh! Would that Heaven's levin bolt would cleave this head in twain! What gain is life to me? Woe, woe is me! O, to die and win release, quitting this loathed existence!" She sees suffering as unjustly inflicted upon her, but does not believe in a heavenly authority that will validate her suffering in the world hereafter.

Adultery

Both Medea and Jesus speak to societies where adultery and divorce are tacitly accepted, although the former is not condoned practice by men. But, philosophically at the beginning of "Medea," one attendant muses to Medea's nurse that "Old ties give way to new" and Jason "bears no longer any love to this family." Unlike Jesus, Medea condemns adultery and divorce for personal and practical reasons. She states to her husband "thou hast cast me over, taking to thyself another wife, though children have been born to us. Hadst thou been childless still, I could have pardoned thy desire for this new union." But she left her home and betrayed her friends and family, for love of Jason, a love that is now rebuked. Thus she believes she should not be cast out and Jason should not be allowed to remarry, even though common custom and law allows a man to do so, keeping his children.

Medea must leave Jason, but she kills her children, asserting her maternal right over patriarchal law. Jesus, however, is not a married man, and condemns divorce and adultery from a cooler, moral perspective. "Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not commit adultery: But I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart. (5:27-29) For Jesus, all divorce is wrong, and divorce is an emotionally interior matter as well as an external and legal concern, or a concern particular to a family, as it is in Medea. Jesus says: "But I say unto you, That whosoever shall put away his wife, saving for the cause of fornication, causeth her to commit adultery: and whosoever shall marry her that is divorce committeth adultery." (5:32)

Even Medea is not so extreme -- she bemoans her loss of status and her loss of a place of position in the world and in her children's heart, not the moral transgression of love adultery, divorce, and remarriage signifies. Jesus denies divorce not because of social obligations between human beings like Medea, but because he believes that attention to be devoted to higher matters than material love.

Materialism

Jesus blesses the poor in spirit in the first words of the "Sermon on the Mount" in its "Beatitudes," and condemns those who place clothes and food above spiritual enhancement. "Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment?" At first glance, this may seem to be the least applicable statement to Medea's plight in Jason, given that Jason is a queen bemoaning her loss of status -- yet Jason is remarrying because he wishes to avoid the loss of face from remaining married to and having children by an older woman and an 'outsider' by birth. Jason's bride dies by vanity. The observer of the young bride's death notes that "soon as she [the young woman] saw the ornaments [the gift from Medea], no longer she held out, but yielded to her lord in all; and ere the father and his sons were far from the palace gone, she took the broidered robe and put it on, and set the golden crown about her tresses, arranging her hair at her bright mirror, with many a happy smile at her breathless counterfeit." This critique of materialism and vanity in Medea is more of useless, female vanity than the eviscerating social critique of Jesus not simply upon valuing appearance at all -- Jesus denies the value of any attention to the body, social status, or physical pleasure in society.

Murder