For completion purposes, I've decided to post one of my more radical Medea essays for those still pondering this wonderfully ambiguous text....
‘Oh, what an evil power love has in people’s lives!’ To what extent does Euripides show that love brings us pain'?
Euripides' tragedy Medea seeks to examine the human psyche and explore how extreme emotions motivate callous acts of violence. Indeed, the play understands the multifaceted emotion of love as an ‘evil power’, which has strength enough to torment one’s physical and moral self. Paradoxically, however, audiences are shown that this torment can be so visceral that its victims are no longer subject to suffering, but euphoric elation.
Euripides intimates that Jason’s obsessive sense of self-love motivates his betrayal of Medea, and thus her intractable suffering. The disapproving tone of the Nurse’s assertion, ‘Jason is a prisoner in a princess’s bed,’ indicates that Jason has been ensnared by a marriage predicated on mere royalty and image. The fact that the Nurse does not refer to Glauce by name, further stresses the idea that Jason is not enticed by the ‘princess’ herself, but by what he can gain from the ‘princess’s bed.’ This selfish desire for political alignment has in turn made Jason a ‘prisoner’ to his own cold reason. Yet, for Jason, this excessive reason is not perceived as a hindrance, but rather a means by which he can rationalise his desire for status, and thus his own self-love. Certainly, by preceding all his ideas with phrases such as, ‘first- and most important’ and ‘to begin with,’ Jason implies that much logic and cognition has led him to betray Medea for Glauce. Euripides imparts, however, that this ‘logical’ betrayal has left Medea ‘collapsed’ in overwhelming grief. That the playwright should use the verb ‘collapsed’ to describe Medea’s state indicates that she has been left immovable by anguish. Such an idea is propelled by the Nurse, who describes Medea as ‘a rock or wave of the sea.’ Here, the Nurse indicates that Medea, like an element of nature, is constant and resolute in her outpouring of ‘fierce’ distress. In reality, Jason’s self-indulgence and disloyalty has plagued Medea’s entire existence. From her ‘poor right hand’ that he once ‘clasped,’ to her ‘knees’ that he once ‘clung to,’ every element of Medea’s body has been shattered by Jason’s broken oaths.
Hence, Euripides maintains that intense feelings of love can make one vulnerable to physical agony. Indeed, prior to Medea’s deceptive machinations, Creon assertively informs her, ‘I’ve made my mind up; you’re my enemy.’ The calcified nature of this declaration implies that Creon is aware of Medea’s propensity for violence, and so seeks to circumvent its occurrence through the rationalised decision to banish her. Yet, this firmness of emotion is conspicuously quelled when Medea targets Creon’s ‘soft heart’ and appeals to his position as ‘a father.’ By challenging Creon’s capacity for love and affection as a father, Medea cunningly engenders a gross level of guilt within him, which consequently lessens his conviction. As a result of these emotional entreaties, Creon’s sentences become much more verbose with him declaring, ‘and I know it’s foolish of me now.’ This unconscious abandonment of sophrosyne, in want of love, is proven detrimental for Creon, who becomes inextricably ‘stuck’ to Glauce’s poisoned dress. Emblematically, however, Creon is ‘stuck’ to and entangled by the vehement love that he has for his daughter, which slowly ‘[tears]’ the ‘old flesh’ from his bones and ultimately annihilates his entire physical essence.
Thus, Euripides seeks to warn audiences of the all-consuming affliction involved with neglecting strong feelings of love. As moral arbiters of the play, the Chorus acknowledge this deficiency in Jason, by stating that he is ‘so sure of destiny, and so ignorant.’ By identifying excessive pragmatism as a ‘superior strength,’ Jason has, in effect, subordinated the significance of love. In turn, he cannot grapple with nor comprehend why his ‘insult’ to Medea was ‘reason enough’ for her to commit infanticide. But more significantly, for not perceiving love as a motivator for action, Jason’s entire dynastic line and path to prosperity has been obliterated. From the unusual overtones of passion and despair that flood the phrase, ‘my life wrecked,’ audiences’ can discern that Jason’s character has been enveloped by abject sorrow as a result. Yet, Medea herself does not escape the full torment of her children’s death. By ‘steel[ing] [herself] to’ kill her children, Medea seeks to subjugate any maternal feelings of love that may weaken her heart. Indeed, from her ‘sudden flood of weeping’ at the thought of committing filicide, Medea is proven capable of harbouring sincere feelings of love, like any other mother. The suppression of these strong feelings, however, distress Medea to the extent that she can only scream, No! No! No! By all the fiends of hate in hell’s depths, no!’, at her logic. Here, the repetition of the word, ‘No,’ and Vellacott’s application of exclamation marks, enable Euripides to stridently punctuate Medea’s sense of disquiet and ultimately, the way a conscious suppression of love has disintegrated her moral being.
However, Euripides imparts that this disquiet is so savage that Medea is no longer pained by her children’s deaths. Despite illustrating a capacity to love her children, Medea’s ‘passionate indignation’ at Jason’s infidelity reaches such a height that she can no longer differentiate between what love she has for her children and what she has for him. Such is underscored by the Nurse, who asks ‘what they have to do with their father’s wickedness.’ With the emphasis on the word ‘they,’ the Nurse implies that Medea sees an echo of her former, tainted love for Jason in her sons. Indeed, by leaving the children unnamed and keeping their dialogue to a minimum, Euripides seeks to dehumanise them and leave them as a figurative manifestation of tainted love. In this sense, audiences can better comprehend why Medea opts to slaughter her children in the most brutal way possible; by ‘sword,’ not her mythical ‘bent’ of poison. Hence, by killing her children, Medea has effectively destroyed any lasting remnant of the love she once had for Jason, and left his ‘head shattered’ for having taken away his literal prosperity. And for this, Medea ecstatically rises up against him and exults at how she has ‘take[n] away [his] smile.’
In essence, Medea strives to understand the complexities that are masked behind the human emotion of love. Certainty, Euripides emphasises that love left unchecked, regardless of its form, has the capacity to torture one in both a literal and metaphysical sense. Yet, the playwright maintains that this torture can be so intense that mortals sometimes have no choice but to relish in it.