Euripides As Feminist Analysis

When Euripides was alive things were a lot different. For example, women played very little, if any at all, of a role in government or the military or any major institution of the time. Women had no voting rights and were therefore considered to be less valuable than their male counterparts. And that was if they were lucky. Most women were oppressed by men and lived however the men desired them to live. In his society at the time, women had a designated role and few, if any, strayed from that role. The role being the obedient housewife and not much more. It helps to understand these things when considering whether Euripides was a feminist or misogynist.
The answer to the question is he a feminist or misogynist is not a straightforward …show more content…
This makes him more feminist, at least comparatively, because other authors and playwrights during his time generally failed to acknowledge the suffering of women, whether through ignorance of said suffering or just a lack of sympathy. Hardships such as having to live at home while the men are the ones fighting the wars. Women were not allowed in the military meaning that they had to wait at home while the men did all of the fighting. Also, women did not serve in major positions in the government. While many of the decisions made by their rulers may affect women, they had little to no say in the making of those decisions. Males dominated the society that women lived in both politically and economically, as well as …show more content…
It would have been worse if Medea had just senselessly gone on a killing rampage without even thinking about the consequences and fully understanding what she was doing. But she did not do this. She had the forethought to have a safe place to go after she completed her task and she devised a way to kill all of her intended targets without anyone knowing until after the fact. And she did all of this in a very quick manner. It seemed as though she knew exactly what she wanted to do as soon as she was informed of everything that had transpired. She did not act completely emotionally, but she responded by using her cleverness and emotion together. This probably scared men even more. Therefore, it is likely that most of the audience had an even more negative view of women than they before viewing the play. It may have run through the minds of the males in the audience that they need to do a better job of keeping women in their place so that they don’t face that kind of response from the women in their families and