Realism In Medea Essay

Euripides’ Medea is a telling tale which delves deep into the realm of the modern human being’s greatest internal conflict, balancing the tug of one’s heartstrings amidst the vacuum of society’s value system. The darling daughter of a barbaric Greek kingdom, Medea’s life is warped by the blinding light of love. Thus readers are compelled to understand the distraught state of this loyal woman, which came about following Jason’s decision to marry the daughter of Corinth. Despite opposing views, Medea’s decisions, and ensuing actions, were substantiated given the circumstance within the play. Foremost, the emotional myriad which coated Medea’s heart, from the effects of losing the love of her life to being exiled from Colchis, placed her in a …show more content…
This passion is blinding, and often times readers cease to understand the depth of such pain due to their state of relative objectivity. To imbue one’s analysis of Medea’s action with realism is futile. The reason being, there is little basis for one to ostracize Medea’s revenge on the basis of logic and ethics, when said decision making process was solely the product of emotion. Hence, it is not sensible for one to understand and criticize a action from an objective perspective when the state of the one making said action, Medea, was in an inscrutable state of relentless passion amidst the decision making process. The only basis for such criticism lies in a circumstance in which the character would have faced a mental hurdle that impeded his/her progress on the basis of ethics. Although, this never occurred in the novel as her entire scheme of revenge was conceived and enacted while Medea was ingrained within her torn emotional state. The one point in the novel where many may view that the ethics of mankind finally gained control of Medea’s mind, her point of apprehension prior to killing her children, was in fact evidence her passion and ceaseless desire for revenge left her in a