Medea. The dialogue in the plays a very important role in terms of characterizing Medeas inner character by what she says to Jason and to the other characters she speaks with
In the famous play of Medea, Euripides creates an unconventional female protagonist who is more self-willed than many others in Greek mythology. This character could be represented as Medea, who could be described as a self motivated, self controlled, barbaric mannered woman, who relies more on revenge than her own honor and blood. She tends to reach the utmost barbaric state in order for her enemies to feel enough pain to relieve her disconcerted rage, this is proven to us when the nurse says that “no one who makes an enemy with her, will carry off an easy victory”. We also notice this when Medea speaks her first words of revenge on Jason, and she says “If I could find a way to work revenge on Jason for his wrongs to me”. This essay basically discusses the topic of characterizing Medea by using dialogue, narrative point of view, and the chorus’s perception.
The dialogue in the plays a very important role in terms of characterizing Medeas inner character by what she says to Jason and to the other characters she speaks with. At the beginning of the play we notice how Medea begins to feel self pity for herself and yet is not satisfied with allowing Jason to walk out as the victor. She is determined to revenge herself by taking out those who are most close to him and therefore shreading apart his heart as well as his dreams. At first it begins with quotes of self pity like when she says “Oh oh! What misery, what wretchedness! What shall I do? If only I were dead”. Then the revenge plotting begins to take place when she first mentions about having her vengeance to the chorus, as mentioned in the introductory paragraph, and then in develops into a planning phase where she begins to take advantage of the time Creon provides her before her exile. “Trials are yet to come for this new-wedded pair nor shall those nearest to them get off easily”, this is said by Medea, in page immediately after her confrontation with Creaon. We notice here how her she tends to a have a somewhat barbaric cunning mind, where she carefully plans her ways of revenge and takes into consideration the consequences that may result of her actions. Another example of Media’s speech in planning for the killing of what she calls her enemies is when she says “I have in my mind so many paths of death for them. I don’t know which to choose. Should I set fire to the house and burn the bridal chamber? Or creep up to their bed and drive a sharp knife through their guts?” This also emphasizes of her barbaric thinking manner and fleshes out her character in that sort of way. We also are able to notice the extreme degree of her barbarity, when she intends to kill her own children just so Jason’s heart could be crashed and she would by then get her full retribution. “What is a matter with me? Are my enemies to laugh at me? Am I to let them off scot free? I must steel myself into it.”
