Revision notes - All about Medea
MEDEA by EURIPIDES RevengeOath taking→ Medea thinks that keeping an oath one has made is more important than anything else Position of women in the society → making a statement. Ex: Creon grants her an extra day because he does not believe that she will achieve what she wants in just a day because she is a woman.Was too difficult for the audience to relate to a weak man and I very strong women → statement way ahead of their time In this play the hero doesn’t dieA tragic hero is supposed to be noble and fighting against a force or an
injustice → their fate is the fate of their people, their communityThey don’t decide they own faith and Medea does They often have a flaw that turns out to be fateful → often pride: hubris Wanting to get revenge Usually we feel sympathy towards these tragic heroes → we don’t really with Medea She is much more complex than a typical tragic hero She has a huge amount of passion In the end she doesn’t die but she is punished and has to pay for what she has done The fact that she is half goddess→ she has to keep ...
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injustice → their fate is the fate of their people, their communityThey don’t decide they own faith and Medea does They often have a flaw that turns out to be fateful → often pride: hubris Wanting to get revenge Usually we feel sympathy towards these tragic heroes → we don’t really with Medea She is much more complex than a typical tragic hero She has a huge amount of passion In the end she doesn’t die but she is punished and has to pay for what she has done The fact that she is half goddess→ she has to keep her honor: keeping an oath The play takes place in Corinth → The chorus is made up of the Corinthian woman QUESTIONS: In the first hundred lines: 1) how is the nurse sympathetic, how does she fear Medea and how does she support her → think about staging and the techniques used to bring effects LANGUAGE → how this brings out the THEME: lexical fields, imagery, mood tone and setting, semantics and syntax (what is being said and how) → hyphens, repetition, vowel soundsShe has betrayed, her home, her father, her countryLexical field of suffering: grief, tears, wails→ inhuman cry of suffering, killLove is sick → turns to hateRepetition of poor Medea→ pain, sufferingFighting/ revenge: loss of honor (lexical fields of fighting revenge and honor)Jason thanks her for her loyalty by going off with someone else Gender→ men and women: status of women Simile: line 27-9 The nurse repeats poor Medea, starts the monologue with if only, she blames Jason, Jason does not honor his oath → makes us feel sympathetic towards Medea. We have to remember what Medea has abandoned for JasonOn stage 1st: nurse P7: Medea can be heard crying off stage when the nurse is talking about herPick out that the nurse fears and supports Medea: “she is dangerous”, “she hates her sons”, “I’m afraid she’s dreaming up a dreadful plan”Effect → build up of tension, suspense, foreshadowing = talk about tone and moodNurse’s support→ “ I will keep quite if I must”, she is saying how she is going to share this suffering, she uses “we”, she curses Jason: she tells the children they should curse their father → her 1st instinct “Like a wild bull” → a bull is very manly, symbolizes a masculine idea of rage and temper, she is UNCONTROLLABLE ORAL PRESENTATION: An extract and a blank copy of the book, 30 minute preparation. 10 minutes discussion of the extract → 2 to 3 minutes talking about themes with linking it to streetcar if possibleIntroduction → 1) situate the extract → In the book, who is on stage and what is going on, say how we are breaking down the extract and why2) DO NOT DO A LINEAR ANALYSIS!!! → Break the extract down; go through it by themes for example. Breaking it down by character, by theme or by stylistic devicesDIVISIONS: analysis, how themes are brought out3) SUM UP + LINK
