Medea Short Essay

Deception and manipulative motives don’t get you anywhere, but back to square one. You are angry and feel betrayed, so you become deceiving and manipulative, but soon the tables will turn and people will see you for who you are. The lights come on and your true self is revealed and you lose the people closest to you. Medea was betrayed, someone left her, she became deceiving, people saw her true colors, and she ended up alone. Medea always gets what she wants and people don’t realize that. She doesn’t know any other way to communicate with people without manipulating them at the same time. The façade of being clever only lasted for so long until the community realized Medea is conniving.
Medea uses two rhetorical devices in her conversation with King Creon. During this scene Creon enters with his attendants declaring he will exile Medea from his land. The first rhetorical device is logos and that is used when Medea persuades people by the use of reasoning and using supporting evidence. Logos is a very effective strategy because one uses facts, statistics and other sources to support their claim. After Creon orders Medea to leave with her two children, Medea says, “What is your reason, Creon, for banishing me?” (281). Medea is so straight forward with her question that way nothing is lost in translation. Asking Creon a question like that makes him question himself and makes him question his actions. Creon continued by saying he is afraid of her and of her wicked plans. Medea acts as if she doesn’t understand why anyone would be afraid of her especially a king. She even states, “You gave your daughter away to the man you wanted. Oh, certainly I hate my husband, but you, I think, have acted wisely” (309-311). She indirectly is appla...

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...ategy of pathos really sold the deal for her because Creon was able to pity her and her children while looking at things in a new perspective.
The rhetorical strategy of pathos was more helpful on Medea’s behalf because Creon actually agreed to give her more time. Medea using the strategy of logos didn’t have a huge effect on Creon because the only thing Medea assured him was safety because she said she wasn’t angry with him. Medea’s manipulative motives are helping her go through life day by day, but at the end of each day she has to accept that she ran everyone away. Medea pushed many people out of her life that cared and loved her, to attack and ruin one person’s life. The façade of being clever only lasts for so long until people realize you are truly deceiving and manipulative.

Works Cited

Euripides, and Alan Elliott. Medea. London: Oxford UP, 1969. Print.