Odysseus And Medea Comparison Essay

1166 Words5 Pages
In this essay I will first discuss the comparison between Medea and the ancient expectations of women and then the expectations of Penelope, wife of Odysseus, to contrast the story of Medea. Throughout Greek dramas there is always an underlying message of opposing values. This allows the audience to learn about the nature of humans, and life. The play Medea, by Euripides, is no exception to this in Greek dramas. The play manifests the conflict between the conflicting values betrayal and loyalty through characters and their shifting sympathies. Medea, in the beginning of the play, was pained, because Jason did not have the loyalty to be with her, so the audience felt sympathy towards her. Her crazed emotional state was provoked by how important loyalty was to her. Emotionally, Medea brings up the fact that she betrayed her home land, her father, and killed her own brother to how emotionally connected she is with her loyalty to Jason, "Oh, my father! Oh, my country! In what dishonor I left you, killing my own brother for it". Although being courageous, sacrificing much for her husband and being considered a deed of a “good wife”, one may interpret this as a…show more content…
She gets to lay out many of the concerns that feminists throughout the ages have struggled with, complaining that, “What they say of us is that we have a peaceful time/Living at home, while they do they the fighting in war./How wrong they are! I would very much rather stand/Three times in the front of battle than bear one child.” Medea speaks like an ancient feminist, clearly laying out the struggle that women have fought in trying to be equals outside of the home. However, while Euripides does correctly represent the plight of women in ancient Greece. But puts the words into one who is mentally in-capable of rational thought thus dismissing everything that Medea speaks about in regarding woman’s
Show More
Related

  • Gender Roles In The Odyssey

    1543 Words  | 7 Pages

    Essay question: Show how your chosen texts engage in debate over the distinction and hierarchy of genders. In the patriarchal setting of classical literature, strong and complex female characters are often hard to find. Some texts, however, are known as quite misogynistic to the general public but, with a better attention to details, can be read a proto-feminist. Taking the example of Homer’s Odyssey and Euripides’ Medea, I will attempt to demonstrate how these texts engage in debate over the distinction

    Read More

More about Odysseus And Medea Comparison Essay

Open Document