Force Majeure In Force Majeure

In legal terms, force majeure is a commonly included clause in a contract that is intended to save the parties from legal reparation should they fail to fulfil their obligations because of an “act of god” or natural disaster. Force Majeure, a film by Ruben Östlund, provides the perfect example of the contract made in marriage not carried out when one of the main characters, Tomas, abandons his wife and children in the wake of an avalanche. Euripides’ play Medea also depicts a broken marriage contract when Medea’s husband Jason leaves his children and wife to marry a princess. The contracts spouses create when they become partners for life include spoken words in the vows exchanged, a tangible sign of promises made to each other, yet there …show more content…
Jason’s betrayal puts Medea at a much greater disadvantage, seen in the quotation “But [women] are forced to keep our eyes on one alone.” Medea laments that in 431 B.C. society held that women should live at home and could not have companions in the way that men did (9). When Jason breaks his marital contract to Medea, she has not just lost a husband, she has lost her home, her provider, the father of her children, and her societal status. Furthermore, she is exiled from the land of Corinth and has nowhere to go, having no home since she murdered her brother in her native land of Colchis (6). Ebba also goes through the emotional struggle of a marital contract breaking when her husband who has sworn to care for her runs from both her and their children in order to save himself. However, this breach of contract is not one that cannot be mended and the film shows her trying to sort out the events many times which indicates her desire to not give up on having a strong relationship with her husband again. If the event had completely destroyed their marriage it is unlikely that Ebba would have continued to bring up the events during the avalanche to other parties in the hopes they could validate her