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I would personally say that a pivotal moment in Medea is when The Chorus aligns with her views. Since the beginning of the play, we perceive Medea to be someone who is quite emotionally unstable and we don’t really understand her motives. The Nurse’s prologue helps to implant this first impression on to the audience, and The Chorus helps to emphasise this theme and idea that she is someone who can’t really decide for herself and we get an idea that she is someone who is quite dependent on Jason, considering that she has essentially done nothing ever since he left her. When we see Jason’s argument, saying that the reason he left her was for transactional reasons, we see that it is quite a plausible argument, however now that The Chorus is in support of Medea rather than Jason, it helps us to understand and to have an open mind about Medea’s argument. The Chorus essentially acts as a representation of the audience, and if it weren’t for The Chorus being in support of Medea, it is unlikely that the audience would think that it would be justifiable to agree with Medea’s perspective. This is able to highlight her individualism and for us to understand the ways that she is being oppressed by Creon and by Jason.

In The Handmaid’s Tale, I would say that a pivotal moment would be when they begin playing Scrabble. Not only does this provide a sense of hope for Offred, but it allows her to finally have a medium in which she can express herself. Throughout the story, we get a sense that she has this longing for human interaction, and during the Scrabble scene, although she is quite cautious, she’s finally able to open up and have the human interaction that she’s been longing for. The concept of Scrabble is also an important discussion point. Considering that it’s a game about words, it gives Offred an opportunity to play with language. This is able to provide her with a glimmer of hope in the superficial life that has been imposed on her, which in a sense is a form of resistance against Gilead’s patriarchal regime. The interactions that she is able to have with the Commander is able to provide her peace of mind and help her survive psychologically. The fact that she is able to derive so much pleasure and comfort from a game of scrabble helps bring to light just how oppressive the society that she lives in is.

In the fifth episode of Medea, we see the first case of internal conflict for Medea. With Medea’s plan in progress, she is conflicted with the fate of her sons. Because the plan is already in motion, Medea feels as if she needs to fully commit to her plan, as there is no longer an opportunity to back out. She knows she must kill them in order to get back at Jason and to hurt her enemies, but she struggles to bring herself to the task because of her desire to see them grow up and become prosperous. Her monologue begins with her grieving over the eventual death of her children, however, later on, she recalls the purpose of their deaths; to disallow her enemies to laugh at her and to get off scot-free. Immediately afterwards, however, we see the conflict that Medea has between her and her “heart”, wanting to spare her children but not wanting them to be the victims of her enemies’ rage.

The Exodus has Medea riding off on her dragon-drawn chariot, which acts as the Deux ex Machina. This symbolises the end of an important chapter for her, as although she may continue to live her life with regrets, she has resolved all the conflict that she has set out to resolve. She managed to kill off Jason’s bride and Creon and kill her children to put Jason in the worst emotional state she could have. Furthermore, the Exodus ends with the Chorus, as opposed to ending with Jason or Medea. This results in the final statements being from a “neutral” perspective, which prevents any bias and leaves plausibility for both cases on who could be to blame. If it were to end with either Medea or Jason, then they would be getting the last word in which could present bias to the audience on who they would consider the “villain” and the “victim” in this story. In the duologue between Jason and Medea, the subject retains mostly to who is to blame. Rather than grieving over the loss of his children, or the loss of his bride and father-in-law, Jason’s mostly preoccupied with whether it is Medea’s fault that this has all happened, while Medea argues that it is because of Jason’s actions that this misfortune has been brought upon him.

Examine Medea’s behaviour with Creon: what strategies does she use to manipulate him

In the first episode, Medea’s behaviour with Creon allows her to convince him to let her stay for a day by using her children as a scapegoat. Medea, taking advantage of the fact that Creon is a father, uses the idea of caring for your children, which Creon will inevitably empathise with, in order to convince him to let her stay for a day.

How does Medea’s speech after Creon’s exit give us further insight into her character?

After Creon’s exit, we immediately see that Medea had put up a front. This shows us that she is able to stay incredibly composed, even under drastic circumstances, such that she is able to act in a way that convinces Creon to let her stay for a day. Furthermore, it shows that she does not really care about her children — or at least, if she does, she thinks of them as a burden.

How does Euripides dramatically present the contrast between Medea and Jason’s different perspectives on their relationship?

In the second episode, we see that Medea’s perception of Jason’s actions is quite emotional, which contrasts with Jason’s factual perception. Jason’s idea on their relationship was that he only left her because of the opportunities that would arise from marrying into the royal family. Furthermore, Jason disregards all of the things that Medea has done that has lead to his success, and even refers to Medea as a “friend” despite his wrongdoings. Jason also shows a complete lack of understanding towards Medea’s situation, offering her help which she doesn’t need, and then, despite putting in little effort to actually help her, calls the gods as witnesses to show that “he tried”

What sympathy does the chorus show to Medea? Why?

The chorus acknowledges that Jason’s reasonings are plausible, however, we see that they agree that what Jason did was wrong in abandoning Medea. The chorus states that “and you may be surprised” which reflects how, compared to the general views of men who would generally support Jason’s side, supporting Medea is a unique perspective. This also shows how Jason completely believes that what he did was justified, and is delusional to the fact it does not justify his wrongdoings to Medea.

The prologue opens up with the Nurse setting the scene, giving context to the audience which is important because that is where we get our first impressions of who Medea is as a person. The nurse gives a lot of backstory to Medea as a character, which is when we understand that Jason, her husband, abandoned her to marry into the royal family. The first impression that we end up getting of Medea is that she is a passionate, frightening woman who has an irrational hatred for Jason and her kids due to trust issues and her kids potentially acting as a reminder of Jason. We also get the impression that she is miserable; not eating, essentially doing nothing, and therefore as someone who is not able to care for themselves.

In the Parados, The Chorus further represents the idea of Medea’s irrational hatred by speaking directly to her, saying “Check this passionate grief over your husband which wastes you away”, essentially telling her she’s wasting her time grieving over her husband and should instead be moving on. This makes us feel pity for her as a character.

This creates a shock effect for the audience when Medea is finally revealed to us, as she is completely different from the first impressions that we would have had. When Medea has her monologue, it reveals to us that perhaps her suffering and anger isn’t as irrational as we thought them to be.

The theme of gender inequality is used to allow Medea to characterise her suffering to the audience. For example, she says “I’d rather stand three times in the front line than bear one child”. In the context of when the play was written, men’s role in society was usually to go out and fight in the front lines, while the role of women was to bear and care for children. Therefore, by stating that she would rather do what a man does, three times, which is arguably more risky and dangerous, it shows to what degree she is suffering. The theme of gender inequality and gender roles is further explored, specifically regarding the lack of a women’s ability to have free will. For example, “we must accept him as a possessor of our body” and “divorce is not respectable; to repel the man, not possible”. This shows the contrast between the ability of men to do as they please while women are forced to tend to the men.

In a thesis by Alanna A. Callaway, she argues that the power structure of Gilead in The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood also critiques the feminine roles that support and enable the repression of other women. Is Atwood’s novel ultimately a feminist work of literature, or does it offer a critique of feminism?

The thesis transitions the focus of The Handmaid’s Tale from the consequences of patriarchal control and “traditional” misogyny, to the matriarchal network, and a new form of misogyny: women’s hatred of women. An example that comes to mind is the role that women play in society. Women can be separated into four distinct roles: Wives, Marthas, Aunts, and Handmaids. It can be argued that the power structure of Gilead, which places Wives over the Commanders, does not accurately reflect the mission of feminism of creating equality amongst men and women, as in the case of Wives, women are instead placed in a superior position to men. Furthermore, the subdivision of women into classes creates a sense of hierarchy between them, such that the oppression of women is not necessarily brought upon by men, but instead by other women instead. Another key example that comes to mind is when the women brutally assault the man, which again is a misrepresentation of the feminist movement and is actually more reflective of more extremist, anti-men values that a vocal minority of feminists have.

On the contrary, because the Handmaids’ role in society is diminished to a reproductive role, it can also be argued that the novel puts to light the oppressive nature of the power structure of Gilead as a reflection of society in the real world. The loss of individualism of the Handmaids through the loss of their names, being named based on the name of their Commander diminishes the women as distinct members of society and makes them no more than a reproductive chamber. The oppression of women is not sparse within The Handmaid’s Tale, however the empowerment of women as a collective masks the fact that part of the oppression is not coming from men, but from other women.

Perhaps it’s possible to say that Atwood’s novel is a call to action – not necessarily for women to rise up against patriarchal-like modern societal norms, but for women to become aware of the radical strains that the feminist movement can result in. The thesis states that Atwood witnessed a version of this backlash when she wrote The Handmaid’s Tale during the early 1980s; the conservative revival in America and Britain was a counter-assault on the progress women had struggled for during the 1960s and 1970s.

In The Handmaid’s Tale, the system that is used to name the Handmaid’s carry symbolic power. The system removes the sense of individuality, as individuals are stripped of their real names and are given these new names instead. The narrator is quite clear that she doesn’t see herself as “Offred”. The name that she is assigned is one that makes her the property of a man and not one that she chooses herself. Names in The Handmaid’s Tale are described, from Offred’s point of view, as “like your telephone number, useful only to others”. Offred refuses her name, saying “My name isn’t Offred” which shows the lack of emotional attachment that she has to these names. The name that she is given has nothing to do with who she is as an individual. In fact, there have been other Offreds before her as Handmaids can be replaced with other ones. When she tells Nick her real name, she states that “I feel that therefore I am known” which shows that she values her sense of individuality.

In the article “Say her name: Breonna Taylor, black women and the invisibility of our pain” from New York Daily News, Breonna Taylors name is constantly referred to in full, which puts emphasis on making her name known. Other names, such as George Floyd are referred to as Floyd because people already know who he is, while on the other hand Breonna Taylor’s story is not as well known. The article also refers to her by her first name at one point which creates a sense of having a closer, more personal relationship with her.

In The Handmaid’s Tale, a dystopian fiction by author Margaret Atwood, Atwood creates a repressive atmosphere within the introductory chapters. Atwood achieves this by (1) using the theme of abandonment as well as (2) the use of imagery

Firstly, Atwood uses the theme of abandonment in order to create a repressive atmosphere. This can be seen in the quote “We had slept in what had once been the gymnasium”. This quote reflects the makeshift-feel of sleeping in a repurposed gymnasium which creates the sense of abandonment due to the reusing of facilities. Furthermore, Atwood uses the quote “for the games that were formerly played there” which further creates the sense of something existing in the past which doesn’t exist anymore. Atwood also uses the quote “the watching girls, felt-skirted as I knew from pictures”. This quote creates the sense that our protagonist only knows things from pictures rather than experience, and furthermore the choice of the word “knew” creates the sense that our protagonist is able to relate to the characters on a relatively personal level, creating the idea that there is nothing else that she is able to relate to. Atwood also uses the quotes “I remember that yearning” as well as “We yearned for the future” which create the idea that there was a sense of ambition in the past that used to exist, but because of the circumstances that our protagonist is now in as well as the repressive atmosphere, these ambitions no longer exist. Atwood also showcases the limited skillset that the people in the gymnasium have developed, such as the ability to “whisper almost without sound” and to “lip-read, [their] heads flat on the bends, turned sideways” which shows that the people in the gymnasium have had enough time in isolation to develop these niche skillsets

Secondly, Atwood uses imagery in order to create a repressive atmosphere. This can be seen in the visual imagery used to describe the “chain-link fence topped with barbed wire”. This quote creates a sense of enclosure because of imagery of the chain-link fence, as well as the barbed wire which further creates this sense of enclosure due to the fact that barbed wire is usually used to prevent people from being able to climb over the fence. This shows our protagonist is being limited in terms of accessibility to the outside world which helps to contribute to the repressive atmosphere. Atwood also uses imagery in order to describe some fairly trivial things, however this is important because it represents how limited our protagonist has been in terms of experiences such that she doesn’t have much else to describe other than trivial things that she can see.