Power

3 Pages 800 Words

In present and historic times we are told that the man is supposedly the head of the household and “King of the castle”. Over time this thinking has changed drastically due to the fact that women are proving that they are men’s equal. This change has created a power struggle between men and women today because women want to be seen as dominant as their male counterparts. In the play “Medea” by Euripides there are conflicts between characters Jason, Medea and Society because women has been devalued in a way where they are seen as passive, emotional and powerless.
It is believed that women are supposed to accept everything that society demands of them. Women encounter many struggles but based on place in society their silence is expected. Medea suffers by the betrayal of her ex-husband Jason who has became her mortal enemy. She is so distraught by this act that she cries constantly and begs the gods to grant her death. “Women are frail things and naturally apt to cry (Euripides 428)”. Medea is a woman and a member of an ancestry of Patriarchs but in society she is underestimated and seen as another woman betrayed by a man. “Woman in most respects is a timid creature, with no heart for strife and aghast at the site of steel; but wronged in love, there is no hearts more murderous than hers (Euripides 417)”.
At the beginning of the play Medea is depicted as a weak female who was weakened by the betrayal of her love Jason. Throughout the scenes she cries as though she mourns the death of a loved one. As the story unfolds we learn that she is a cunning, conniving and manipulative woman but her male counterparts feel she acts this way because she is a foreigner. She feels that women are cursed by society to live a boring submissive life but by seeking revenge she gains or shows her “male” aggression. “Of all creatures that feel and think, we women are the unhappiest species (Euripides 416)”. This thinkin...