Fate in Medea

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Observation and Interpretation: Throughout the text, fate and the gods

are blamed for the cause of the problems, however subsequent choices

made later on by the characters appear to be free will, however are

actually influenced by fate and the gods.

So what?: This makes the audience blame the gods for the overall out

come, but still blame the main character for her choices.

Quotes:

P48 l. 1014-1015 “The gods/ And my evil-hearted plots have led to

this.”

P39 l. 717 “What good luck chance has brought you.”

P61 l. 1416-1419 “Many matters the gods bring to surprising ends./ The

things we thought would happen do not happen;/ The unexpected God

makes possible;/ And such is the conclusion of this story.”

To an ancient Greek, fate was thought of as the power that determined

all of our destinies, although a person could make choices along their

life to change small outcomes, which was the extent of free will. In

the play Medea, fate is used as a scapegoat to blame some of the

problems happening to the characters, despite the fact that most of

the characters had free will. In some instances the characters are not

even aware of the causes behind the causes of their problems.

Therefore, throughout the text, fate and the gods are blamed for the

cause of the problems, however subsequent choices made later on by the

characters appear to be free will, however are actually influenced by

fate and the gods.

The characters in the play make many references to...

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