Medea
... She is loyal to the house and to Medea, but she fears Medea and her violent heart. ... The Nurse reminds us that Medea is here because she followed Jason back to Greece out of love. ... Without knowledge of the backstory, the Medea cannot be properly understood.) Passion and love motivated Medea to help Jason: it is thanks to her and her mastery of arcane arts that he won the Golden Fleece. ... This theme is very typically Greek, and in Medea it overlaps with the theme of passion. ... Medea sets up parallels between pride and passion: both make Medeas great acts possible. ... Medea points out many specifics of Greek life that are nearly universal to pre-industrial societies. ... Medea makes herself the spokeswoman for the suffering of women, and by this act she secures the loyalty and secrecy of the Chorus. ... Euripides may be deeply critical of male-dominated Greek order, and he may be deeply sympathetic to the position of women, but he does not grant Medea and the women of Corinth the moral high ground. Medea may earn our sympathies in her first speech, but she will soon be revealed as a terrifyingly self-centered and ruthless woman. ... Medea, for the sake of her husband, has made herself an exile. ... Jason, hero of the Golden Fleece (although Euripides emphasizes that Medea was the true agent behind the success of the quest) is now a wanderer. ... When emphasizing the circumstances women must bear after marriage (leaving home, living among strangers), Medea is reminding us of the conditions of exile. ... Medeas foreignness is emphasized from the start: the Nurse, from the very opening lines, reminds us that Medea comes from a distant and exotic land. ... Throughout the play, we hear again and again that Medea is different from Greek women. Jasons marriage to Medea can be seen as an attempt to bring the adventure home with him. Medea describes herself as "something he won in a foreign land" (l. ... In Medea, they lead to chaos. ... Medea tells Creon that it is better to be born stupid, for men despise the clever.