In Euripides’ Media, Medea is a character who becomes exiled from her homeland, husband and children, and current residence in Corinth. Throughout Euripides employs foreshadowing to express Medea’s exiles both alienate and enrich her spirit and life.
When Medea first meets Jason she falls in love with him. With “her heart on fire with passionate love for Jason;” (Euripides 1), she helps him take her father’s most valuable possession, the Golden Fleece (Hunter). While she is fleeing from her homeland, she betrays her family by killing her brother, so that Jason may be spared (Hunter). She exiles herself from her birth land, effectively losing her birth family and their culture. Despite this, she enriches her life with the new possibilities …show more content…
Medea “cries aloud on the vows they made to each other, the right hands clasped in eternal promise” (Euripides 1-2), once she finds out “Jason has taken a royal wife to his bed, the daughter of the ruler of this land, Creon” (1). Medea experiences a worse alienation than before, except that she is more independent this time. This alienation is heinous for Medea because of her trust that she placed in him. Medea can now respond to the exile with direct confrontation, and without a man to back her up. Her independence also gives Medea power, and by the men exiling her, they are only giving her more power. She has only suffered as a result of Jason’s exile so …show more content…
Creon predicts for himself, while foreshadowing for the audience, that “with that angry look, so set against your husband, Medea” (10) will probably “make dead bodies” (13). This takes Jason’s alienation and completes it. Creon is the nail to Jason’s coffin of exile. However, Medea turns her alienation into an enriching experience, one that forces her to work fast. Medea must plead with Creon to allow her “to remain here just for this one day,” (12) so she can “look for support for my children” (12). Creon reluctantly agrees because “by showing mercy I have often been the loser” (12) Medea is foreshadowing her children’s deaths, which will be her ultimate alienation, while Creon is foreshadowing Medea’s triumph over him. This exile causes Medea to hold a sense of urgency; she needs to act within that day, “and in this I [she] will make dead bodies” (13). Creon does not instigate her alienation or gains entirely, compounding rather on what Jason
When Medea first meets Jason she falls in love with him. With “her heart on fire with passionate love for Jason;” (Euripides 1), she helps him take her father’s most valuable possession, the Golden Fleece (Hunter). While she is fleeing from her homeland, she betrays her family by killing her brother, so that Jason may be spared (Hunter). She exiles herself from her birth land, effectively losing her birth family and their culture. Despite this, she enriches her life with the new possibilities …show more content…
Medea “cries aloud on the vows they made to each other, the right hands clasped in eternal promise” (Euripides 1-2), once she finds out “Jason has taken a royal wife to his bed, the daughter of the ruler of this land, Creon” (1). Medea experiences a worse alienation than before, except that she is more independent this time. This alienation is heinous for Medea because of her trust that she placed in him. Medea can now respond to the exile with direct confrontation, and without a man to back her up. Her independence also gives Medea power, and by the men exiling her, they are only giving her more power. She has only suffered as a result of Jason’s exile so …show more content…
Creon predicts for himself, while foreshadowing for the audience, that “with that angry look, so set against your husband, Medea” (10) will probably “make dead bodies” (13). This takes Jason’s alienation and completes it. Creon is the nail to Jason’s coffin of exile. However, Medea turns her alienation into an enriching experience, one that forces her to work fast. Medea must plead with Creon to allow her “to remain here just for this one day,” (12) so she can “look for support for my children” (12). Creon reluctantly agrees because “by showing mercy I have often been the loser” (12) Medea is foreshadowing her children’s deaths, which will be her ultimate alienation, while Creon is foreshadowing Medea’s triumph over him. This exile causes Medea to hold a sense of urgency; she needs to act within that day, “and in this I [she] will make dead bodies” (13). Creon does not instigate her alienation or gains entirely, compounding rather on what Jason