Gender roles have historically been fairly standard, men provide for their family and the women are simply their husband’s property. Many old-time plays and stories embrace this simple concept, men over women. However, Euripides’ Medea shatters the concept of gender roles by having a woman, Medea, triumph over a man’s tyranny. Euripides description of Medea is that of a clever sorceress who will stop at nothing to achieve her goal. At the beginning of the story, Medea is depicted as a woman that’s madly in love with a man whose name is Jason, “ Then my mistress Medea would not have sailed to the fortress of Iolcus' land, her heart battered by love for Jason”. Medea, madly in love with Jason, decides to help him in his quest for the golden
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In the prologue, given by the nurse, we learn that something terrible has happened and that Medea is mad for some reason. After the prologue, Euripides cleverly initiates a conversation between Medea’s subordinates and drops hints as to why Medea is upset, “Old ties give way to new ones. He is not interested in this family”, in this quote he’s already dropping things of the plot of the story but he still doesn’t reveal what it’s going to be about creating an atmosphere of intrigue and tension as to what is going …show more content…
Medea in a show of strength and breaking the stereotype that women should be the caretakers of their children decides to kill her own children. At first, Medea struggles with the decision of killing her children. However, after much thought and meditation, she decides to commit to her thoughts and finish enacting her revenge upon her husband. Medea states that “I who gave them birth will kill them”. Nevertheless, she continued forward and destroyed Jason’s life by taking everything away from him, just like he wanted to do with her. By the end of the story Euripides uses imagery to convey one last scene in our minds, “(Appearing in a dragon-drawn chariot on the rooftop with the bodies in her
In the prologue, given by the nurse, we learn that something terrible has happened and that Medea is mad for some reason. After the prologue, Euripides cleverly initiates a conversation between Medea’s subordinates and drops hints as to why Medea is upset, “Old ties give way to new ones. He is not interested in this family”, in this quote he’s already dropping things of the plot of the story but he still doesn’t reveal what it’s going to be about creating an atmosphere of intrigue and tension as to what is going …show more content…
Medea in a show of strength and breaking the stereotype that women should be the caretakers of their children decides to kill her own children. At first, Medea struggles with the decision of killing her children. However, after much thought and meditation, she decides to commit to her thoughts and finish enacting her revenge upon her husband. Medea states that “I who gave them birth will kill them”. Nevertheless, she continued forward and destroyed Jason’s life by taking everything away from him, just like he wanted to do with her. By the end of the story Euripides uses imagery to convey one last scene in our minds, “(Appearing in a dragon-drawn chariot on the rooftop with the bodies in her