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What background facts are revealed in the Nurse's opening speech in "Medea"?
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The Nurse's opening speech provides crucial background information about the characters and events leading to the play's main action. It reveals that Jason and Medea, once in love, are now estranged due to Jason's betrayal and remarriage to the king's daughter. Medea is devastated, curses Jason, and shows signs of intense emotional turmoil, including refusing food, which foreshadows potential violence. This sets the stage for Medea's wrath and possible dangerous actions against her family.
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 which takes the form of a dramatic lament, followed by the foreshadowing of the terrible deeds to come.
First, we learn who the major characters are going to be. We get a little refresher on the story of Jason and the Golden Fleece. We learn what role Medea played in the story, namely that she convinced Pelias' daughters to commit patricide, one of the greatest taboos in Ancient Greek culture. In this, we learn that Medea is not above the idea of murdering family members to serve a purpose.
Jason and Medea have arrived in Corinth as refugees. We also learn that the marriage between Medea and Jason has soured. Where once there was love, all...
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that remains is hate. This is going to be the driving force of the play. The Nurse tells the audience that Jason and Medea no longer share a bed and that Jason is sleeping with the king's daughter.
The Nurse goes on to describe Medea's wrath. Medea has called the gods to witness her husband's betrayal and curses him with every breath. Medea has stopped eating. This is a bit of foreshadowing. In many of Euripides' plays, a woman who refuses to eat will go on to commit crazed and dangerous acts. The Nurse goes on to lament that Medea now scorns her own children and will not even look at them without hate. The Nurse is very worried that Medea has concocted some sort of scheme which will cause a great deal of pain and suffering.
The nurse provides the audience with information about what has happened to Medea. She tells us of Jason's betrayal of his wife and gives us information about Medea's present condition:
"She calls out to the gods to witness
how Jason is repaying her favours.
She just lies there. She won't eat—her
body
she surrenders to the pain, wasting away,
always in tears, ever since she found out
how her husband has dishonoured her". (Lines
26-35)