2022 IB Diploma Extended Essays

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where she argues with herself and changes her mind many times mid-monologue. Medea asks herself, “In bringing suffering on them to cause their father pain, why should I bring twice as much suffering on myself?”, coming to the conclusion, “No, I shall not do it.” (lines 1045-1049). Immediately after this decision she again changes her mind: “And yet what is the matter with me? ... To think I could have been so weak! Did I actually let myself be influenced by such cowardly thoughts?” (lines 1049-1053). The repetitive use of self reflective rhetorical questions in Medea’s entire monologue, positions the audience to understand that Medea is essentially questioning her emotions, and by extension of that, her society’s gendered emotional stereotypes. In referring to her feminine emotions as ‘weak’ and ‘cowardly’, she insults her entire gender, and defies the expectations of women in her position, placing her as the man or ‘hero’ of the story. She eventually comes to the conclusion: “I am well aware how terrible a crime I am about to commit, but my passion is master of my reason, passion that causes the greatest suffering in the world” (lines 1078 1080), indicating that she is simultaneously experiencing anger, suffering, and reasoning. Euripides utilised this dramatic conclusion to Medea’s monologue to build tension within the audience, as they were bluntly confronted with the notion that women are able to experience the same emotions as men, as well as the emotions they already experience. Euripides essentially blurred the lines between the genders in regard to their management of emotions. Through Medea’s constant changes of mind, and the reactions of other characters to her emotions, Euripides advocates that despite the Ancient Greek perception of women to be timid and cowardly, they could experience as many emotions as any other human being.

There is a parallel between the two plays, regarding the treatment of Medea’s angry and vindictive emotions. It is revealed through Medea’s monologue, where she verbalises increasingly gruesome scenarios of Jason and his fiancée’s (Kate’s) death, in both Euripides’