Medea, the main character in Euripides play "Medea," has been separated from her culture and society because of her gender and also her race. The time in which this play is based is ancient Greece, a time where women weren't allowed simple rights because they were women. Medea is persecuted duly hard for her crime for she is a woman, as well as an outsider. She was originally from Colchis, but fled to Corinth when she disobeyed her father, aided the great hero Jason, and murdered her brother. She was also forced to kill her children, her husband's wife, and his father in-law. A woman under great turmoil, Medea is forced to make numerous decisions regarding her life and her happiness. Some may consider her actions as selfish, however, Medea was not mad in making her choices. Not only did she have the enormous strength necessary to carry out these actions but she fully understood the consequences. A woman wronged, she was merely providing the justice that no one else would.
Many of these eventual decisions and their aftermath are not pleasant, certainly not to society today, and considerably worse to the ancienty race to which she belonged. Murder of family is a tremendous crime. Not only did Medea murder her brother, but she killed her children as well. The deceit of her father was completed by killing her brother and hacking him to pieces in order to escape with Jason, whom she would eventually marry. Seen as a traitor to her own country, she was immediately exiled. How could she deny love? Her society believed in family values first and foremost, but Medea was unique in the fact that she followed her heart and went where it took her, to Corinth. Here she was an exile living in a foreign land, and here she lived happily with children and a household to look after. Unfortunately, when her husband's attentions took too wandering to the daughter of the local king, Medea is again held responsible, this time for her husbands adulterous actions.
Medea and Edna both eventually eschew the confined rigors of their societies, and they shun traditional gender roles. ... Greece's treatment of Medea reveals much of the perverseness of the society. Medea breaks the mold and society punishes her. ... For this she, like Medea, begins to become alienated from society. ... Society could alienate her, but they could not strip Edna of her fundamental being. ...
