In Euripides Play, how important is it that Medea is a foreigner, not a Greek woman?

The next issue is that of Medea being a woman in Greek society. Women in Greek society are supposed to follow the orders of the men above them, look after their household and bare children. It is important that women do this because men take care of politics and make the decisions in society and the home. Many women do this unless they are courtesans (prostitutes that were free to do what they pleased). Women were property of their fathers until marriage and after that of their husbands. This means that men could do what they pleased with a woman. However, Medea is a totally different kind of woman and is not true to type as she is a woman that makes her own decisions. She doesn’t listen to Jason, she is possessed by the furies and the anger against Jason getting another wife. She looks at the morals literally and women aren’t supposed to do this, they are quiet beings who take orders, but they do have to understand the morals fully. Medea doesn’t fully understand the morals, she picks and chooses the ones she wants to use, for example revenge and xenia. Women play a very minor part in society and should not go about killing people out of pure anger against their husbands. It was legal for men to choose another wife, although, it is quite rare to not find pleasure in the first wife they have. She says that though she killed her children she loved them very dearly and life had been cruel to her. She is a murderess and she is not deeply regarded for this as Jason thinks of her as a “sick murderess”. The Greeks feel that the murder of an innocent is against the will of Zeus. Medea treats the situation not as a woman, but as a man. With Agamemnon, however, there is a man involved whereas here Medea alone made her own decision. This shows that Medea is not a true woman at all.

Medea as a foreign woman has a very deep effect on the audience. The audience see it in the eyes of the Chorus. This allows them to see the change in emotion in Medea’s character from a very sad and despaired woman who doesn’t know where to turn to a woman full of fury and revenge set in her mind. This shows that the audience can see her character develop. This would scare a 5th Century Athenian man because he would be afraid of what his wife might do to him. The audience would real sympathise with Medea at the start but as the play progresses and they see the change in her they would begin to think that she shouldn’t kill her children. The chorus sum the feelings for Medea in three simple words “cursed, miserable woman” and this would be agreed by the audience as well. Medea was foreign and this may make the audience think that she was not a protagonist in the play. This play goes against everything that usually happens as a man is normally the tragic hero in a tragedy, this play does not have a tragic hero and also doesn’t fit the “perfect tragedy” because there is no catharsis or anagnorisis in this play. The role of Medea is a lot different from the ones that a Greek man would think of a woman, and also mean that Medea scares them because of her powers to do things to men. She is a foreign woman and she had the power to do what she wanted to do to people, she would scare the audience and make them despise her for what she does to her children.

If Medea was a Greek this would change the play dramatically as she would play a different role. She would be a true woman in the eyes of all the audience and characters. If Jason were to take up a new wife then Medea would still feel angry towards Jason and maybe kill the children, but, the chorus would know Medea and trust her so meaning that they could have persuaded her out of killing her children. However, Jason probably would have never re-married because Medea is a princess and this would give him royal standing already so he would be satisfied with where he was and Medea would not have killed her sons at all. However, this would mean that there would be no play at all and that is pointless. The Medea would be different but this would make the play much less effective than it is. Medea is different in every way, she is an exile and nothing can change the play’s outcome. Medea is a murderess who killed her own children, she slaughtered her children and had caused much wrongdoing. Medea cannot work with her as a Greek princess because it would change the entire play, and there might not even be a play. Medea needs to be foreign, nothing can change the play.

In conclusion, it is very important that Medea is a foreign woman not a Greek woman because it brings forward the contrast between the ways foreign barbaroi views the world compared to a Greek woman. Medea views herself as an exile and she has left her home to be with Jason. She is not regarded as important to the Corinthians as a Greek woman. This means that she is overlooked and this is important because no one can persuade her against what she wants to do as she is a foreigner with different morals and makes her own decisions. Even before the play starts she decides that she must kill her brother and Pelios so that she is in more control. She is not a woman true to type because she takes matters into her own hands and interprets the Greek morals in the way of a man. Others view her as an outsider and Medea can see that she isn’t thought of well, especially when she becomes a “sick murderess”. Medea is a woman that would scare an audience full of men as she is foreign and acts like a man in many ways, they didn’t know if his wife was going to do the same thing. If Medea wasn’t a foreigner then the play wouldn’t work and there wouldn’t be a play at all. This means that she must be a foreign woman not a Greek woman because she brings a good, different element to the play, “and such is the conclusion to this” essay.