medea

An analysis of Medea through Aristotle’s Poetics

Aristotle was a Greek philosopher, who lived during the period of 384 to 322 BC. He has been widely recognized throughout history as one of the most significant thinkers and philosophers. His work in Poetics has helped define the way in which Greek literature and even contemporary texts are read. To begin Aristotle helps us define what he considers tragedy and what he determines is not worthy of the term. He divides and analyzes one by one the parts that he considers are essential to any tragedy, and orders them according to what he believes is the most important. He meticulously picks out every component that each part should have, and is very clear on what he considers inappropriate and what shows the weakness of a poet. He shows a very strong admiration for the works of Homer and Sophocles.

Aristotle says that tragic poetry is a mode of imitation, the goal of it is to represent men a lot better than they actually are in real life. He also mentions that every tragedy must be composed of the following six parts: plot, character, diction, thought, spectacle and song (Aristotle 1229). The goal of this essay will be to contrast and compare all the different parts of the tragedy Medea written by Euripides to see if this author’s story falls into the category of what Aristotle would believe to be a good tragedy.

Euripides lived during the time period of 480 to 406 BC, he is considered alongside Aeschylus and Sophocles, to be one of the greatest play writers of the greatest age of Greece (Hurt, Wilkie 839). His story Medea revolves around a woman who is betrayed by her husband when he decides to leave her and marry the princess of Corinth. Out of her anger and hurt Medea is overcome wi...

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... mentions how men are allowed to seek out other forms of company when they become bored with their wives, but women are not allowed to do this and all they can do is bear this mistreatment in silence. Therefore being a female is Medea’s flaw that permits for Jason to be able to leave, and also Medea’s status as a foreigner is a contributor to this, because one of the reason’s that Jason uses during the play to defend his actions of leaving, is the opportunity to marry into the royal family, which he explains will be prosperous for all of them. Therefore Medea is not able to compete against the wealth and respect that being married to the princess of Corinth will bring.

Jason can also be used as an example of this, he makes the mistake of believing that by leaving his wife and sons to marry into the royal family he is guaranteeing a secure future for his children