Questions and Answers for Medea
Medea
Why does Medea think it is necessary to kill her sons to get revenge on Jason?
Medea kills the children to spite Jason. The core focus of the play is on the fact that Jason is going to marry a Greek princess, and Medea, who is a foreigner, will be relegated to “mistress”...
Medea
Can somebody please tell me what the role of the Nurse is in Euripides's Medea?
The Nurse's role in Medea is to bring the audience into the world of the play. In the prologue of the play, she gives the historical background, provides commentary on these events, and introduces...
Medea
What is Medea's tragic flaw?
One of the reasons as to why Medea is such a compelling character is because she does not have one particular tragic flaw. Her tragic condition is the result of a convergence of flaws. I think...
Medea
How and what does Euripides' Medea teach us?
I believe the play should teach us to recognize the reality that some women can be so filled with resentment and hatred for a man who has abandoned or otherwise mistreated them that they will turn...
Medea
How is the play Medea related to or relevant to today's time?
Psychiatrists have identified a condition they have termed the Medea Complex, deriving the name from the ancient Greek tragedy by Euripides, just as Sigmund Freud derived his term "Oedipus Complex"...
Medea
Is Medea a villain or hero in Medea?
Medea is a very complex character, which is what makes her such an endless source of fascination. Neither completely heroic nor totally villainous, she has both good and bad sides to her...
Medea
What is the structure of Medea?
Medea follows the traditional structure of a Greek tragedy: prologue, parodos, first episode and stasimon (also known as choral ode), second episode and stasimon, third episode and stasimon, fourth...
Medea
Why does Creon fear Medea in Euripides' Medea?
Creon fears Medea because he senses that the latter will take revenge upon him, his daughter Glauce, and his new son-in-law, Jason (formerly Medea's husband). Above all, Creon fears that Medea will...
Medea
How does Medea express the classical unities of time, action, and place?
The unities of action (a single plot), of time (the action of the play occurs within a single day), and of place (the action of the play occurs in a single location), although attributed to...
Medea
Discuss the role of the chorus in Medea.
The Chorus in Euripides's Medea serves many of the same functions as the chorus in other Greek tragedies of the sixth and fifth centuries BCE. The chorus acted as a collective narrator, providing...
Medea
What are some similarities and differences between Medea and the traditional ancient Greek women?
Medea is a complex character in that she shares many similarities and differences with other Ancient Greek women of the time period. It should be noted that although Medea is technically set in...
Medea
How does Euripides position the audience to sympathize with Medea?
Medea opens with a highly partial description of the circumstances from the nurse. She says that Jason has betrayed both Medea and his children and that Medea has reminded him of his promises to no...
Medea
Why does the nurse stand lamenting in the first scene of Medea?
In Medea, the nurse stands lamenting as a way to set the tone of the play and to introduce the situation to the audience. The nurse recounts the events that have happened before the immediate...
Medea
How can I describe Medea as a mother, a child killer, a sorcerer, and as a woman, and how can I describe her aims?
It is very hard to read this play and remember that the audience is supposed to cheer on or at least feel catharsis with the end of the play. I think you can find the answers to your question by...
Medea
What are some differences between Medea by Euripides and Medea by Seneca?
The Medea of Euripides lacks the keen focus of pure vengeance that Seneca portrays in his version of her. Of course, Euripides must eventually get around to the theme of vengeance and the fury of a...
Medea
How does Euripidies make his audience more sympathetic towards Medea than Seneca in his play, Medea?
First of all, Euripides presents Medea as a wronged woman, cruelly and callously discarded by the man she loves. Medea had made great sacrifices for Jason, and yet now she finds herself a stranger...
Medea
What was the importance of Medea to Greek society?
The story of Medea and her dangerous passion for Jason, and the extreme actions she commits as a result, represent a warning to the original audience of Euripedes. One of the central themes is that...
Medea
How does Medea put her cunning to use in the play?
Medea plays on the weaknesses of those around her and uses flattery and self-deprecation to advance her plans. The first instance of Medea's cunning is in her manipulation of Creon. She plays upon...
Medea
Do you believe Creon and Jason deserve what has happened to them in Medea?
Clint Eastwood says a great line in the film "Unforgiven" about this very concept. Eastwood's character is going to kill a very corrupt and evil sheriff. The sheriff, with his last words, says,...
Medea
In "Medea," how would the ancient Greeks have reacted to her shocking actions?
Actually, if you research Euripides you will know that he was not well accepted among his peers or Greek society in general, as he tended to speak up for the voiceless in his society (namely Women...
Medea
To what extent can the character of Medea be considered an outsider and a barbarian in Medea?
The character of Medea in this play is very quickly established as a figure who is both an outsider in that she does not belong in Corinth, and also as a barbarian through the extent of her...
Medea
How is Medea a proto-feminist play?
Medea has agency, which is a very important feminist value, and one that was notable by its absence in ancient times. Abandoned by her lover, Jason, and having turned her back on her homeland,...
Medea
In Euripides' Medea, how is Medea a victim of the gods or where and when is Medea cursed by the gods?
This question strikes me as rather challenging, since I probably would not consider her a victim of the gods nor would I consider her as being cursed by the gods. Later in the play, Medea will have...
Medea
Discuss Medea's role as a tragic heroine in Euripides' play Medea.
It's not entirely clear that Medea can be described as a tragic heroine. For one thing, she's far from being a noble character with a tragic flaw. She's the architect of almost everything bad that...
Medea
What is the difference between Medea and the other women in the play?
Two women other than Medea also play significant roles in the play: Glauce, Jason’s second wife, and the Nurse. There is also a chorus, composed of women of Corinth. In Medea, Euripides has taken a...
Medea
Compare/contrast Clytemnestra and Medea.
Medea and Clytemnestra are both wronged women who carry out acts of brutal revenge. The differences between the two women lie in their responses to their respective situations. Although both seek...
Medea
To what extent does Euripides’s play Medea provide the audience with the classical expectation of catharsis?
When a person watches a tragic play, the events of the play produce in that person a wide range of emotions, including happiness, pity, fear, sorrow, revulsion, and so on. In his Poetics, Aristotle...
Medea
What does Aegeus want from Medea?
I have edited your question, assuming that you are asking what it is that Aegeus wants from Medea, not what he wants from himself. I will also tell you what Medea wants from Aegeus, because...
Medea
Medea confronts the reader with a violent event. How does this violence contribute to the overall meaning of the work...
Before we consider Medea's choice to use violence as a solution to her situation, we need to take a very quick look at another Greek play, Oedipus Rex. In Oedipus Rex, the playwright Sophocles...
Medea
In Euripides' play Medea, what concern does the Nurse reveal when she tells the children to go inside? Can this be...
Foreshadowing is a literary device that can be employed to give readers and audience members hints at what is to come. Foreshadowing can be created through "imagery, language and/or symbolism"...
Medea
What background facts do we learn from the Nurse's opening speech in "Medea"?
The Nurse's opening prologue to Medea serves to quickly inform the audience about the details leading up to the main action of the play. A lot of background information is presented in this opening...
Medea
What do Medea and Odysseus have in common?
Medea and Odysseus are two unusual characters to compare, as the first character is the creation of the fifth-century playwright Euripides and the second character is the creation of the...
Medea
Discuss Medea as a Revenge Tragedy.
I think that there is much in the drama that makes it a revenge tragedy. The act that Medea takes against Jason for his transgressions is revenge enough. Yet, where I think that the revenge...
Medea
What is the role of Aegeus in Medea?
Aegeus is the King of Athens. He passes through Corinth hoping that the Oracle of Delphi will help cure his inability to produce children. Medea discovers his dilemma and agrees to give him some...
Medea
How is Aegeus scene relate to the overall theme of Medea?
The Aegeus scene is important to the theme of the play in several ways. On the first level, it is central to the plot: it givies Medea a place of refuge which facilitates her escape from Corinth....
Medea
Why does the nurse in Medea say she prefers not to be great?
Euripides had a tradition of not just supporting the cause of women, but also of slaves, and it is interesting that in some ways the Nurse in this play is presented as being the most sensible and...
Medea
can anyone compare "medea" and "phaedra" as a revenge tragedy?
The term "revenge tragedy" refers to a genre developed in England in the Elizabethan and Jacobean periods, that is the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries AD. Medea and Phaedra are works from...
Medea
How does Medea inform contemporary psychology?
The ancient Greek tragedy Medea by Euripides would not be of much interest to modern readers were it not for the fact that it dramatizes a conflict which has existed throughout history and is...
Medea
Describe the theme of manipulation in Medea. Medea is a clever and cunning character; what does manipulation say...
I think that the subtext of the question is fascinating. Certainly, Medea is fairly manipulative and self- serving in how she assists Jason to escape from his challenging predicaments, even...
Medea
Is Medea, in Euripides' Medea, a positive or negative role model for female empowerment? Why or why not?
Medea, as portrayed by Euripides and other ancient authors, was not intended as a positive role model in any manner whatsoever, nor is she an example of female empowerment. If anything, she is...
Medea
What is the character of Glauce/Creusa like in Euripides' Medea?
I agree with the earlier comment that Euripides' shaping of the character of Glauce is rather non-existent. The only glimpse we get of Glauce's character comes at around line 1135ff, when she...
Medea
Does anything in the play attest to Jason's background as a hero? Is the reader meant to sympathize with him?...
In Greek myth, Jason was a hero who led the Argonauts on a quest to retrieve the Golden Fleece for the king of Iolcus, Pelias. On this journey, Jason met the sorceress Medea, and the two eventually...
Medea
In "Medea," how does the chorus react to Medea's slaying of her children?
They are definitely not happy, but they're also slow to take action against Medea. They cry out, "wretched, evil woman! and "hard and wretched woman," so they clearly reject the...
Medea
Compare Medea and Jocasta.
Both Medea and Jocasta commit morally reprehensible acts in relation to their children, albeit for different reasons. Medea is traditionally presented as the epitome of evil for the murder of her...
Medea
What is the significance of Medea's first monologue?
The significance of Medea's first monologue lies in her statement of her own position in this conflict with Jason. At the beginning of the play, her nurse opens the scene by summarizing the...
Medea
For what does Medea beg Jason?
As Jason enters for the first time, the antagonism between husband and wife is already evident. Jason's first words reflect this in terms of speaking of Medea's "evil" condition. Their antagonism...
Medea
What happens to Medea's father?
Euripides' "Medea" presumes that the audience is familiar with the story of "Jason and the Golden Fleece" in which Jason first met Medea. In this story, King Aeetes, Medea's father, assigns Jason...
Medea
Why did Medea kill her own children though they were innocent ?
When considering this question, students will first need to think about the ancient source in which they are encountering Medea. Several different sources tell the story of Medea killing her...
Medea
In Medea, why does Medea ask Jason to persuade Creon to let the children stay in Corinth, even though she already...
The answer to this interesting question is explained in Medea's speech following her interview with Aegeus in which he promises her sanctuary and swears "by the Sun-god's holy beam and by all...
Medea
How can Medea be defended for the crime of killing her children? I think the only route is by reason of insanity, but...
It is hard to construct a defense for Medea. Euripides portrays her as a monster—he writes her as selfish, vengeful, and evil. The murder of her children is seen as unforgivable. However, I think...
Showing 1-50 of 140