What is the significance of the information the Nurse gives the
audience?
It sets the scene for the play, and contextualises the relationship between Medea and Jason. It allows the audience who is not necessarily familiar with the contents of the play gain an insight into how Medea was wronged by Jason. It shows how unjust the situation is for Medea and women in general during that era. Jason had the liberty to just leave Medea and go marry King Creon’s daughter simply because he wanted to, where Medea had no say in the decision. It shows how despite Medea doing her best this is the “thanks she has received for her fidelity.” It portrays how grief-stricken Medea took out her hatred for Jason upon her children and how she projected that pain in a seemingly unreasonable act of crazed desperation to rid herself of anything to do with him. Even to the point where she is a mother where “She hates her sons: To seem them is no pleasure to her.” Through the Nurse, it is shown the type of character Jason is. The nurse is in disbelief of his actions “surely Jason won’t stand by and see his sons banished, even if he has a quarrel with their mother?” This once again outlines the power that men of stature hold in this Greek society, where they can even go about abandoning their own children, children who are at a young age no less. They would not even be able to understand the complexity and conflict because “they’re young; young heads and painful thoughts don’t go together.” By this merit the young boys are going to ‘grow up’ very quickly, very soon.
How does it influence our impressions of Medea’s character before we see her?
It makes her seem quite unreasonable, and very prone to reacting emotionally. It makes her seem like she is a bit deranged and that she would look at her children with “eye(s) like a wild bull’s. There’s something she means to do; and I know this: She’ll not relax her rage till it has found its victim.” It makes it clear to the audience that not only does Medea had issues controlling her temper but it is something that has occured in the past and perhaps quite frequently. However once we see Medea “She is not shaken with weeping, but cool and self-possessed.” This shows that Medea is a very different person behind closed doors, she is not allowed by society to express her grievances in the public eye. Due to the fact that she is married she has to be a ‘perfect’ wife where she must always be happy and more importantly grateful to have been chosen to be married to, so regardless of the internal turmoil she is suffering through she has to put on the facade of a strong front. This shows that she is in fact more mature than what the Nurse had portrayed her to be, that Medea understands her position in society and how she is obliged to act accordingly.
