Female Protagonists In Euripides Works

Upon reading Euripides’ work, many people struggle to determine if he was or was not a feminist. With his presentation of female protagonists in many of his plays, some do not find it difficult to rationalize that Euripides was a feminist. However, upon closer examination of his texts, this is not the case. In plays such as “Alcestis”, “Medea”, and “Iphigenia at Aulis” Euripides shows female protagonists who are at crossroads in their lives, and focuses on their decision making process. However, Euripides presents these women in the presence of strong male characters that have the most influence on what decision is made. While Euripides’ plays include strong female protagonists, his denial of their agency demonstrates that he was not a feminist …show more content…
In this play, Euripides presents Medea as a wife who is distraught about her husband leaving her to marry a princess. This decision by Jason prompts Medea to concoct a plan that would allow her to avenge the fact that he “broke [his] oath to [her]” (Med. 495). Since Jason was the one who broke these marriage vows, he is the driving force behind the whole story. Medea had no choice in the matter of Jason’s marriage to the princess; her only choice was how she would respond. This displays that Medea gained her agency through Jason’s actions. Had he not entered into this new marriage, Medea would have never needed to respond to these actions by going to the drastic measure of murdering Jason’s new wife, the father of Jason’s wife, and the children that she shared with him. Without Jaoson’s betrayal, Medea would not have created and executed this plan; therefore, she would have never gained any agency. Had Euripides wanted to depict Medea as an ancient feminist would, he would not have had Medea react to Jason’s actions simply because she had no choice in the …show more content…
In “Alcestis,” Euripides presents the strong female protagonist of Alcestis with many masculine characteristics. She is shown with these characteristics to further develop her character, since she is dying to prevent the death of her husband, Admetos, and that protection in itself is a masculine characteristic. One depiction of Alcestis’ masculine characteristics is when she is described telling her servants and loved ones goodbye, and waiting until “ later, in her chamber, she fell on her marriage bed,/ then she wept” (Alc. 175-176). This shows a masculine characteristic since men are typically expected to refrain from showing emotion as that is considered to be “weak.” By waiting until she was alone to cry and display how distraught she was about having to die and leave those she loved, Alcestis shows the same characteristic of not wanting to be perceived as weak. Her actions also contrast with the feminine way of grieving, as Greek women who were grieving would typically lament, pull their hair out, scratch their bodies, and beat their breasts. By not grieving in this way, Alcestis rejects they typical feminine grieving process. Alcestis’ embodiment of these masculine characteristics is significant, as it causes her to be described by the chorus as “the best wife possible” (Alc. 85). This shows that Euripides believes that a woman could not be characterized in this way without