- What is the significance of the information the Nurse gives the audience?
- How does it influence our impressions of Medea’s character before we see her?
The inclusion of the nurse creates a platform for the audience to feel sympathy for Medea in her times of suffering and grief. The nurse illustrates background events that have been the catalyst for Medea’s torment. This evokes sympathy for Medea, foreshadowing events and belittles Jason. The nurse creates emotional appeal to the audience awakening a response for the “woman scorned” by her “ spinelessness husband”. The nurse’s lament expresses an impossible desire to undo the past “oh if I had never gone to the land of Colchis” with a man that “now treats me with contempt”. The extent of Medea’s torture is evident as she cries out for an end to her misery by death
“oh, if only I could die”, contemplating suicide. Medea mentioning suicide enables the audience to sympathise with her and establish a negative attitude to Jason’s betrayal. This gives the impression that Medea is a proud, self-possessed, and powerful woman who is capable of moving from her suicidal despair to committing revenge. Her having been angry at the fact that Jason abandoned him for Creon’s daughter and constantly blaming Jason for the wrong he has done to her disclose that she is aggressive and very creepy.