Mede Reaction Paper

The nurse sets the scenario and the mood. The Greek tragedy begins. "I wish...my mistress Medea would have never met Jason, nor loved and saved him, nor cut herself from home to come with him into this country... at first it all went well... now it is all changed; all is black hatred, for Jason has turned from her; he calls the old bond a barbarian mating, not a Greek marriage; he has cast her off and wed the yellow haired child of Creon, the ruler here. He wants a high place in Corinth. For these he is willing to cast Medea and betray the children... but Medea lies in this house broken with pain and rage", the Nurse weeps; the tutor furthers her lamentations, "Creon the lord of this land intends to drive out Medea and the children with her, these innocent boys, out of this house and out of Corinth, and they must wander trough the wild world homeless and helpless." In this tragedy, Medea, an Asian princess, avenges herself against her husband, her husband's new bride, and the new bride's father who humiliated her. In her revenge, she also murders her children.

The author uses the Nurse to explain how Medea, is a tragedy. Nurse: "oh, it is a bad thing to be born of high race , and brought up willful and powerful ...for then if misfortune comes, it drives you mad...poor people are happier: the little commoners and humble people, the poor in spirit: they can lie low under the wind, and live: while the tall oaks and cloud ranking mountain pines go mad in the storm, writhe, groan and crash... this is the wild and terrible justice of God: brings on great persons the great disasters." (pp.15, 14) Greek tragedies are based on the hubris of a high-class person, and his or her demise, in this case, Medea. Jealousy turned Medea against Jason, but it was Jason and Creon's humiliation that fueled her desire for revenge, ending in death. Hubris (the extreme pride that leads to misfortune) is well described on page 38 by the first, second and third women, who use love as the cause of Medea's hubris, "a great love is a fire that burns the beams of the roof. The doorposts are flaming and the house falls."

Through each character, the author reveals his own philosophies. For example, he uses Medea's pessimistic