The Aristotelian tragedy has six elements: plot, character, dialogue, theme, spectacle, and song or music. Although Medea, the protagonist and Jason’s estranged wife, lacks the characteristics of a tragic heroine or portrays them in a highly distorted manner, Euripides’ play Medea qualifies as a tragedy as defined by Aristotle. Therefore, this essay intends to comprehensively analyze Euripides’ play Medea using Aristotle’s six Central elements of drama.
Plot
Conflict is what drives the plot. Medea is in conflict with herself and with Jason, Creon, and Glauce, King Creon’s daughter. Media is the protagonist, and Jason is the villain. Jason incites Medea’s wrath by betraying her love when he marries Glauce, King Creon’s beautiful daughter. Medea’s frustration displays, especially having lost so much to give advantage to Jason. She killed her brother and is forced into exile from her native land. Medea mourns her husband’s betrayal. When Creon arrives, he tells her that she is banished with her two children. She begs for the King’s mercy and is granted one more day before leaving. This chain of actions causes Medea to reveal her tragic flaw. After tricking Aegeus, King of Athens, to offer her refuge, the play’s plot climaxes when Medea executes her wicked scheme to revenge on Jason by killing Glauce and her father together with Jason’s children.
Medea is seen as a tragic heroine, even as she devises a plan to kill her own children, an act that makes her terrible flow clearer. Medea does not think of the consequences of her actions and is blinded by executing revenge on Jason. In the end, Medea is left with nothing and escapes death in a chariot. She loses everything she loved: her home, children, husband, brother, and father. Her tragic flaw leads her to greater sorrow.
Character
Medea’s character adheres to Aristotle’s tragic hero guidelines to a certain extent. She does, in fact, match the model of Aristotle’s tragic figure nearly perfectly. Medea is a lady who is noble, brave, and passionate. She loves her children and husband Jason so much. It is apparent in the play that Medea is willing to do anything to marry and make her husband happy. Although she adores Jason, he ruthlessly abandons her and her children in order to marry King Creon’s beautiful young daughter. This presents Medea’s first tragic hero characteristic. Jason’s selfishness directly triggers his estranged wife’s downfall, resulting in the reversal of their fortune.
Jason is excessively concerned with himself and his own desires. He is solely interested in furthering his political goals by marrying Glauce, King Creon of Corinth’s daughter, at the expense of his wife and two children. His infidelity and betrayal upsets Medea and exposes her second major flaw: a burning desire for vengeance against Jason. She is driven insane by anger and murders Glauce, King Creon, and, most cruelly, her two children. She explains that “I have done it because I loathed you more than I loved them…” (lines 326-327).
Jason’s greed and desire to further his political ambitions via a second marriage fuels Medea’s determination to get vengeance on him. Jason’s callous self-centeredness and greed render him an unsympathetic and miserable character, whilst Medea’s desire for vengeance drives her to do a series of horrible deeds upon which she eventually discovers the reality of her tragic predicament. Significantly, her tragic flaw is her obsessiveness to revenge on Jason to the extent she did not see the harm she was causing to herself and the others close to her. Whether Medea is a good woman is debatable; her actions would indicate that she is not and that her bitter past experiences would not justify her atrocious acts. Medea and Jason are victims of the society they live in or victims of their own tragic flaws. The playwright, therefore, effectively used the characters to pass his intended message.
Theme
The play Medea is based on betrayal and revenge between the protagonist and her husband, Jason. Jason’s greed and Medea’s thirst for revenge on him after he ditches him for Glauce compel them to go to extremes, finally leading them to self-destruction. Medea’s betrayal by her Jason is the genesis of every violence and horror in Medea. Her wrath at his infidelity motivates her to execute heinous acts of vengeance. Ironically, Medea’s rage towards Jason’s betrayal causes her to engage in deceit and manipulation, both of which are forms of betrayal. The play presents how all may be corrupted in society when one person betrays another. Medea is unrelenting in her quest for revenge because a burning desire to rectify wrongs against her pushes her to sacrifice even her sons in the search for fulfilment. Medea demonstrates to audiences the horrors that might follow when a person’s passion for vengeance takes over her life.
Spectacle
The play Medea is a major spectacle. However, Medea’s burning desire for revenge is more captivating in the play. The play has a series of fascinating and horrifying events that unfold and have the ability to grab hold of the viewer’s gaze. The chorus also watches Medea’s cutthroat destruction of her enemies. The genius and cunningness of Medea’s actions in executing her evil schemes are more striking throughout the play. Moments before the great end, a devastated, weakening Jason is rendered powerless by Medea’s will. He calls out, demanding the return of his children. Medea, on the other hand, is unrelenting and persistent. Even more captivating is Medea’s extraordinary hardships throughout the play. The end is revealed when she shows up in a flying chariot, flying over the house. The two children’s bodies are seen in the chariot. In this drama, the ascending chariot epitomizes spectacle. Her acts demonstrate her insane state of mind and her unrelenting quest for vengeance against Jason.
Music
The chorus’s role in Medea is to offer value judgements on the actions of individual characters; its voice serves as the play’s arbiter of objectivity, providing us with the greatest conventional viewpoint on the unfolding events. The chorus creates a cynical and sympathetic mood in the play. After previously expressing broad sympathy for Medea, the chorus now cautions her against overindulging in her emotions, stating that her anguish, although genuine, is a common thing. Medea, on the other hand, lacks this common sense viewpoint. The chorus advising her to restrain her emotions merely reinforces Euripides’ delusion that behind every day human difficulties lie latent powers that, although generally contained, might burst into tremendous disasters like those described in his play. Though the chorus’s perspective is the most rational, it does not completely account for Medea’s position.
As Medea puts it, she has abandoned life (line 146) and taken on the role of the conduit of a higher, more heinous system of justice. Her prayers to the gods, particularly as defenders of oaths, bolster her resolve. The chorus’ pragmatic viewpoint serves as an effective opposition to her far-reaching ambition, and their interaction serves as a crucial source of unsolved tension throughout the play.
Dialogue
Throughout Medea, Euripides uses the approach of dialogue between pairs of actors on the stage to portray the fundamental ideas underlying these dialogues. Medea demonstrates her intelligence, primarily via her interactions with various men in the play. Medea seizes control of the debate and coerces Creon into adhering to her goal. Medea maintains her cool throughout this debate, which lets her brilliance shine through her persuasive discourse.
Medea’s bold interaction with Creon would very certainly prove surprising to the audience. Bear in mind that Creon is a King, Corinth’s most state’s powerful man. Yet Medea, a foreigner, stands before him, pleading with him to reconsider his judgment about her banishment. Additionally, Medea manipulates their discourse in order for Creon to confirm her ultimate objective. As the conversation gains significance, the dialogue devolves into a sequence of single sentences exchanged between Medea, the protagonist and Creon. With the heat increasing, Medea seems to be pleading with the King to allow her to stay in Corinth forever. Creon declines the request, knowing her as a strong lady capable of tremendous harm; yet, she later explains that her genuine wish is to remain in the nation for only a day. This seems to be a trivial request to Creon, and he relinquishes his will, allowing Medea to stay at Corinth for one more day. Thus, Creon provides Medea with the opportunity to kill his beautiful daughter and himself. Creon’s actions result in his destruction and he serves as a springboard for Medea to get her retribution in
Conclusion
It is evident that the play Medea fits in the mold of Aristotle’s six central elements of drama. Medea, the protagonist, fits the role of a tragic hero. It is pretty evident that the play displays a well-thought-out plot with properly developed characters to pass the writer’s message to the audience. The play suits the Aristotelian guidelines of a tragedy.
References:
Euripides. (n.d.). Medea. Retrieved from https://www.pelister.org/courses/topics/greece/medea.pdf