Medea The Feminist Term paper

While the free essays can give you inspiration for writing, they cannot be used 'as is' because they will not meet your assignment's requirements. If you are in a time crunch, then you need a custom written term paper on your subject (medea the feminist)
Here you can hire an independent writer/researcher to custom write you an authentic essay to your specifications that will pass any plagiarism test (e.g. Turnitin). Waste no more time!

The role of women in Greek society is a major theme in Euripides’ Medea. In ancient Greek society, women are frail and submissive according to men, and their social status is considered very inferior. Feminism is the theory of men being treated differently than women and the male dominance over women in society. Because of Jason’s betrayal of Medea, she is a challenge to the traditional views of ancient Greek society based on her actions. She wonders about the differences between the treatment of men and women and the active roles they play in society, such as the woman’s role to bear and nurture children. Medea ignores those feminine qualities and questions Jason’s sexist ideals. She internally struggles between self independence and motherhood. Euripides uses Jason’s affair with his new found wife and Medea’s obsession with wanting to bring much pain to him to display a feministic point of view in his play.

Early in the play, when Medea is upset and somewhat depressed, she examines the inequality of men and women in her monologue.

We women are the most unfortunate creatures.

Firstly, with an excess of wealth it is required

For us to buy a husband and take for our bodies

A master; for not to take one is even worse.”

And now the question is serious whether we take

A good or bad one; for there is no easy escape

For a woman, now can she say no to her marriage.

She arrives among new modes of behavior and manners,

How best to manage him who shares the bed with her.

And the husband lives with us and lightly bears his yoke,

Then life is enviable. If not, I’d rather die.

A man, when he’s tired of the company in his home,

Goes out of the house and puts an end to his boredom

And turns to a friend or companion of his own age.

But we are forced to keep our eye on one alone. (Euripides, 695)

Medea is infuriated at Jason because of his marriage to the King’s daughter. This type of behavior is nothing so rare in ancient Greek culture; it is the fact Jason tries to keep it secret from Medea that angers her so badly. She is also enraged because she sacrifices her family, her land, and her home, just to be with him. She made the sacrifices without regrets because she loved Jason. But after finding out about the marriage to the King’s daughter, she has much regret, which was forbidden in Ancient Greek culture. Medea is also comparing women, who are virtually servants, to their husbands who have freedom. She is also comparing the chauvinistic views of men with men being able to have other friends while women are to keep their eyes only on their husband and stay at home.

Jason displayed his chauvinistic qualities in the following monologue:

But you women have got into such a state of mind

That, if your life at night is good, you think you have

Everything; but, if in that quarter things go wrong,

You will consider your best and truest interest most hateful.

It would have been better far for men

To have got their children in some other way, and women

Not to have existed. Then life would have been good. (Euripides, 702)

Jason boldly conveys his, and perhaps society’s, views of sex as being for reasons of procreation only and that men only engage in this activity for the purposes of having children, that there is no pleasure in the act at all. His desire is that men can avoid the act if there was some other way to have children. As Euripides uses Jason’s chauvinistic ways in this excerpt, the audience is developing pity and compassion for Medea and feminism is supported.

Characteristic qualities of women in Greek culture are frailty, submissive, and inferiority to men. In order to have the best revenge on him,...

You should cite this paper as follows:

MLA Style
. EssayMania.com. Retrieved on 26 May, 2012 from
    <http://essaymania.com/170657/medea-the-feminist>

More College Papers

The Function of Poetry and the Poet in Romanticism essay
To the romantic poets poetry was an instrument of emotion and feeling intended to reconnect man with the natural world, and in general the poet was viewed as a person uniquely equipped to guide the layman to this reconnection. Romanticism as a movement appeared following a period in history when g

Greek Mythology essay
Greek mythology In many societies, tales of gods and ancient heroes have been told and passed over from one generation to another. Such stories mainly talked about some supernatural powers or gods and some of their deeds during their interactions with human beings. The Greek society has been distin

Liberty in the United States Constitution essay
Just as the framers believed that the government needed to be protected from the people, they also believed that giving the government too much power would infringe on the God given rights of the people so the people needed to be protected from the government. Because of this belief, they included