Month: December 2020

Although Medea reconsiders her plan of murdering her children, she eventually sets in stone her initial plan as she does not want to show weakness. For her, this task is about sheer will power as she does not want her personal emotions ruining her plan. However, this whole plan was created due to her rage against Jason, which is an emotional reaction, but then she refuses to let her emotions towards her children stop her. This shows a sense of hypocrisy, whilst also showing a sense of sheer determination to follow through with her outrageous plan.

Her inner conflict between her maternal side and her murderous intentions is something which she has to face. In order to follow through with her plan, she must close her maternal side and push it to the side just so she can murder her children. In order to commit child homicide, Medea must close herself off to the part of her that is maternal. She rejects the path that includes a possible future with her children in Athens, a safe place she has secured no matter what her crimes. But Medea crosses a point of no return on her inner journey: She will not allow herself to retreat.

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

To manipulate Creon, Medea tends to take advantage of the softer attitude Creon has towards her as he empathises with her. She takes advantage of the fact that Creon also has a daughter which he absolutely cares a lot for and for Medea, she can use this as she is also a younger woman. At the same time, Medea has lost everything which can be seen as sad, although she can use it to gather pity thus getting leniency towards what she wants.
How does Medea’s speech after Creon’s exit give us further insight into her character?

After Creon leaves the scene, we can see that Medea is able to control her emotions in very stressful situations such as exile. By staying composed, she was able to convince Creon to let her stay for another day showing that this strategy works. At the same time, she also shows little emotion when talking about her children showing how much she truly cares, or in this case, doesn’t care about them.