Feminism and Exile in Medea

At the core of The Medea is the theme of women in exile in a patriarchal society. Beginning instantly with Medea's suffering due to her husband's infidelity; Medea tempers her misery with rage. The switch is almost schizophrenic, however, at once calling for her own death and moments later beseeching the gods to see Jason "...and his bride and all their palace shattered/For the wrong they dare do to me without cause" (164-5). It is this turbulent, passionate rage that leads Medea to become an anti-hero, living in extreme emotional states without pausing to examine her life or actions reasonably and rationally.

The extremities in which Medea lives manifest themselves best in Medea's relationship with her husband. In order to be with Jason, she makes both her husband and herself literal exiles from their homelands and families. As demonstrated in such plays as Sophocles' Oedipus the King and Antigone the only thing comparable to exile is death, and even then death is considered to be more generous a fate. Moreover, Medea suffers from not only physical exile, but spiritual exile as well, being a woman in a patriarchal society: "We women are the most unfortunate creatures./Firstly with an excess of wealth it is required/For us to buy a husband and take for our bodies/A master; for not to take one is even worse...here is no easy escape/For a woman, nor can she say no to her marriage" (231-7). Medea is not the only woman suffering her gender's lot, however. Jason marries Glauce solely in hopes of advancing his station and bettering his family. While men are allowed to take other lovers if their wives do not satisfy their needs, Medea laments that women must serve only one man. Trapped in a non-reciprocated marriage where her husband has already taken another wife, trapped in a country that is not hers and trapped in her status in society, Medea seeks the Chorus' sympathy, even by exiling herself from them: "Yet what applies to me does not apply to you./You have a country. Your family home is here./You enjoy life and the company of your friends./But I am deserted, a refugee, thought nothing of/By my husband-something he won in a foreign land" (253-6). The Chorus' reassurance that Medea is, at least in some way, wronged, acts as further fuel to her fire and sends her into her ultimate revenge on Jason.

No sooner is Medea reassured, however, than she is sent into exile again by Creon. However, it is when she asks Creon why he is banishing her from his land that the true exile of women in Grecian society is displayed by the opposite sex. "I am afraid of you," he tells her, "why should I dissemble it?...You are a clever woman, versed in evil arts,/And are angry at having lost your husband's love" (282, 285). Creon recognizes the danger in an empowered woman, much unlike his own daughter. Medea is not merely a wronged woman; she is an aggressive, temperamental, and stubborn woman who can carry herself like a man. However, her physical limitations will keep her as a subservient sex, and what would be considered in a man to be power and might is considered in a woman to be witchcraft. In spite of this, Medea chooses to carry herself with strength and not live as the weak, virginal poster-child for Grecian women.

Even when she plots her revenge, however, Medea worries again about exile and acceptance. "And now suppose them dead. What town will receive me?" she asks, "What friend will offer me a refuge in his land,/Or the guaranty of his house and save my own life?/There is none." (387-90). By this point, however, Medea has taken her physical exile as a given, the more important task being to avenge herself. "The test has come/For resolution. You see how you are treated. Never/Shall you be mocked by Jason's Corinthian wedding" (403-5). Medea no longer seeks acceptance in a world full of exile, rather she seeks to satisfy herself in this world as best she can. What Creon condemns as wicked cleverness, Medea accepts gladly as her tool to exact her revenge. Again, she is supported by the Chorus, who say "It is the thoughts of men that are deceitful,/Their pledges that are loose./Story shall now turn my condition to a fair one,/Women are paid their due./No more shall evil-sounding fame be theirs" (414-20). Echoing the sentiments of Medea, the Chorus does not simply describe it as revenge. Rather, it is a brash feminist reclaiming of what is due to women. There is an absence of obedience to the gods in The Medea, particularly on Medea's part. She devotes herself to Hecate, the goddess of witchcraft, and calls on her for guidance and support. Interestingly, Hecate is the same goddess called upon in Shakespeare's Macbeth, which also places women at the root of evil and anarchy through a series of unchecked emotions and actions.

Women are also denied the honours that they feel they deserve, as per Medea's confrontation of Jason. While she very well may have saved Jason's life, because she is a woman and not a true Greek-or as Jason calls her, a "barbarian"-Jason attributes his salvation to powers other than his wife. Moreover, Jason claims responsibility for Medea's fame, telling her: "if you were living at/The ends of the earth, nobody would have heard of you" (540-1). Women are not executers of their own actions, rather they are performed by men on their behalf, and Jason's counter to Medea's argument exemplifies this. Because Medea is a much maligned exile, her revenge in turn makes exiles of those who have wronged her. Glauce is not merely killed because she is a bastion of Medea's revenge, she is also killed-a literal exile from life-because she embodies the classical, virginal woman that society praises; the same woman that Medea cannot, nor will not be. Creon, while taking his own life, dies as the embodiment of a society dominated by men. Medea uses infanticide as a means of release for her children, saving them from a life of exile themselves. Through killing her children, she also ultimately ruins Jason.

Medea ultimately emerges triumphant in her actions. However, does this make her a hero? We as the audience on many levels want her to triumph and have her wrongs righted, however in doing so she ruins six lives-not counting her own which is already ruined. The inner turmoil of being a woman while carrying the power of a man can be all-consuming to the checked and rational female; it is brought onto an entirely new plane when this turmoil is possessed by a woman who can do nothing but live in her extreme emotions. For, to Medea, her emotions are the only places from which she is in exile.

Work Cited:

Euripides; Warner, Rex. The Medea. Chicago, The University of Chicago Press.