Transformation: Medea (Reflection)
In the past few weeks, the focus of our English classes has been unpacking, analysing and discussing the Greek play Medea, written by Euripedes and centred around a woman who will kill her children. What has been especially interesting for me has been examining Medea’s complex and conflicted character within social contexts and the role of the woman (as a mother, sister, daughter or wife) traversing across time.
I surprised myself by having relatively strong feelings about Medea (which I did not have for Hedda Gabler, a character we looked at earlier in the year). This was something that definitely transformed the way my observations developed as we began to pick apart individual scenes in the play. I held pity, admiration, sympathy and empathy for Medea at varying points in the plot, and the complexity of my own response to Medea was an additional element I had to supervise and regulate in order to present a balanced interpretation and analysis of the play. For example, I held great regard for her within her encounters with Jason and in the ways in which she manipulated her exchanges with the male characters. I thought her cunning, but in a celebratory way – I admired the strength of her agency. However, I also felt empathy for her suffering and her motherhood, her grief and her guilt, but pity for her circumstance and her reactions to her situation. I think that as part of a modern audience, my reaction is heavily influenced by my own beliefs that are shaped by modern feminism, and this is something I learned to take into consideration as I shaped my analysis of the play.
Another thing I found interesting was the examination and comparison of multiple translations and adaptations of the play, and upon which sentences or lines the emphasis was placed, or where in the play edits or new metaphors were introduced. This transformed the way I viewed interpretation – it revealed to me the nuances in different perspectives as they viewed the text, as well as how the text transforms over time depending on which societal lens it is examined through. Watching the play adapted for a modern audience was also incredibly interesting, especially within the costume design, blocking, staging and lighting, and truly changed the way I read plays. Medea’s white pantsuit, I felt, was a wonderful choice of clothing due to the symbolicism of the colour, and the way it conveyed her agency using pants instead of a skirt, yet still emphasizing a feminine waist and cut. I also thought it was interesting that the place where Medea kills her children is bathed in bright white light, and as Jason approaches the murder scene at the end of the play, the white light shines upon his face, casting a shadow across the stage. Through this play, I learned to observe details such as these, and I feel that this certainly enriched my experience and understanding.
Although I probably could write at some length more what I thought about Medea, I feel that the insights above are more than sufficient. Thank you for reading 🙂