MEDEA Analysis Essay Example For Students

MEDEA Analysis Essay A monologue from the play by Euripides NOTE: This monologue is reprinted from The Plays of Euripides in English, vol. ii. Trans. Shelley Dean Milman. London: J.M. Dent Sons, 1922. JASON: I ought not to be rash, it seems, in speech,But like the skilful pilot, who, with sailsScarce half unfurled, his bark more surely guides,Escape, O woman, your ungoverned tongue.Since you the benefits on me conferredExaggerate in so proud a strain, I deemThat I to Venus only, and no godOr man beside, my prosperous voyage owe.Although a wondrous subtlety of soulTo you belong, twere an invidious speechFor me to make should I relate how LoveBy his inevitable shafts constrained youTo save my life. I will not therefore stateThis argument too nicely, but allow,As you did aid me, it was kindly done.But by preserving me have you gained moreThan you bestowed, as I shall prove: and first,Transplanted from barbaric shores, you dwellIn Grecian regions, and have here been taughtTo act as justice and the laws ordain,Nor follow the caprice of brutal strength.By all the Greeks your wisdom is perceived,And you acquire renown; but had you stillInhabited that distant spot of earth,You never had b een named. I would not wishFor mansions heaped with gold, or to exceedThe sweetest notes of Orpheus magic lyre,Were those unfading wreaths which fame bestowsFrom me withheld by fortune. I thus farOn my own labours only have discoursed.For you this odious strife of words began.But in espousing Creons royal daughter,With which you have reproached me, I will proveThat I in acting thus am wise and chaste,That I to you have been the best of friends,And to our children. But make no reply.Since hither Iolchos land I came,Accompanied by many woes, and suchAs could not be avoided, what deviceMore advantageous would an exile frameThan wedding the kings daughter? Not through hateTo you, which you reproach me with, not smittenWith love for a new consort, or a wishThe number of my children to augment:For those we have already might suffice,And I complain not. But to me it seemedOf great importance that we both might liveAs suits our rank, nor suffer abject need,Well knowing that each friend avoi ds the poor.I also wished to educate our sonsIn such a manner as befits my raceAnd with their noble brothers yet unborn,Make them one family, that thus, my houseCementing, I might prosper. In some measureIs it your interest too that by my brideI should have sons, and me it much imports,By future children, to provide for thoseWho are in being. Have I judged amiss?You would not censure me, unless your soulWere by a rival stung. But your whole sexHath these ideas; if in marriage blestYe deem nought wanting, but if some reverseOf fortune eer betide the nuptial couch,All that was good and lovely ye abhor.Far better were it for the human raceHad children been produced by other means,No females eer existing: hence might manExempt from every evil have remained.