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Medea

In: English and Literature

Submitted By DRudolph
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Euripides’ Medea A. The author, Euripides a. Considered the liveliest, funniest, and most provocative of the three great Athenian tragedians whose works survive. b. Controversial for his time because of the use of colloquial language and depictions of unheroic heroes, promiscuous women and cruel, violent gods. c. Specialized in unexpected plot twists and new approaches to his mythological material. d. Use traditional myths but shifted the attention away from the hero’s deeds towards their moral and psychological weaknesses. Seen as a cynical realist about human nature; h showed people are they are. B. The Work e. Concentration on the domestic troubles in Corinth rather than a heroic quest. Jason is presented in an unheroic light because he struggles to gather up any calculated and rhetorical arguments to justify his actions towards Medea. f. Medea is categorized as a woman in a man-dominated world, a foreigner and smart person surrounded by a bunch of fools. --- seen as a symbol of feminine revolt. g. Never portrays herself as the “victim”, even as she expresses her devastation from Jason’s actions h. Explores the examination of family life, cheating, failed sexual relationships, and how it feels to be a demoralized member of society.

C. Prologue/ Parados (entrance song sung by the chorus after they enter, that accompanies the prologue)
The play begins with the desire to undo the beginning. (Medea’s revenge at the actions done to her can be seen as a way to undo, with the use of violence, her life history, her lost honor and go back to her former unmarried self). The Nurse enters from the house and she is completely freaking out. She expresses the fact that the Argo, Jason's ship, should have never set sail for Colchis. She cries out that she wishes the Jason should had never come for the

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