Medea as cunning manipulator

or Children as a central theme in the play

This is essentially the same essay. You just have to twist it to suit each question.
If asked about Medeas manipulation skills remember she uses
Children/Motherhood in different ways to manipulate everyone in the play. If
asked about how the them of Children guides the plot, just emphasis how the
theme of children is central to each episode.
Medea manipulates everyone in the play by seizing upon their weaknesses and
exploiting them to her own ends. She manipulates a Chorus of fellow women and
mothers of Corinth, King Creon: a protective father, King Aegeus: a would-be
father and Jason: a misguided father.
Chorus of Corinthian Women fellow women and mothers all
By its own admission, the Chorus weakness is their fellowship with Medea as
women in Corinth

They arrive to offer support and sympathy to Medea

They disapprove of Jason and of Creons actions (men)
They want Medea to take heart and find a way to bear her misery for her
childrens sake

Medea uses their sympathy for her to manipulate them into siding with her.
She makes them promise to keep her silence.
Creon the protective father
Creon arrives in the orchestra to banish Medea

She has been openly making threats against him and Glauce
She is a dangerous witch with a track record of conspiracy against kings

Initially, Medea tries to play the vulnerable woman but that strategy doesnt
work. Creon loves his daughter more than he loves being charitable; though he
admits that Medea has reasons for feeling agrieved.
Then Medea seizes upon his love for his daughter and appeals to him as a
parent. She begs for something reasonable: half a day in order to make
preparations for her journey into exile for the sake of her sons.

Creon grants Medeas request knowing that he may be making a mistake

but he admits that he would rather be judged a good father than a poor
king.

Aegeus the would-be father

Medea does the opposite of Creon to Aegeus. He wants children desperately. She
promises to help him conceive of a child.

Aegeus comes from Delphi en route to Troezan to consult king Pitheus on

his oracle.
During their agon he learns of Medeas story and is shocked.

Medea offers to help cure his infertility with her magical drugs providing he offers
her asylum from Corinth. He wants children so much he swear a blind oath to
protect her not knowing that what he has entered into will mean war between
Corinth and Athens later on.
Jason the loving father
Medea uses Jasons own misguided love of his sons against him thus turning
them all into agents of tragedy.

Jason explained during his first agon that his sole reason for abandoning
Medea and her sons was to actually take care of them by securing them
royal relations.

In their second agon, Medea wears the mask of the goodly wife who has
reconsidered and seen sense. She begs Jason to intercede on their sons behalf
by using Glauce to persuade her father to spare their sons from exile. She uses
her own children to manipulate Creons child . Secretly she intend to send them
bearing the poisoned gifts that will kill father and daughter.
Conclusion 1 for Medea the Manipulator
It is fair to say that Medea is an expert at manipulating men but equally it must
be noted that she also manipulates the Chorus of women who unwittingly aid her
in doing the unthinkable: killing her own children . Therefore she is an expert
manipulator full stop!
Conslusion 2 for Children as central theme
Ultimately, children are the driving force behind the entire plot: a play about
infanticide. In their final agon Jason attempts to curse Medea with the blood of
her sons but as she explains, this third heinous crime is merely the divine
retribution for his breaking of the other two: oath breaking (when he broke his
marriage bond to her) and abuse of hospitality (when he abandoned his foreign
wife without a care). She asks what god will listen to an oathbreaker and guestabuser? She even goes onto curse him with an ignoble death (to be killed by the
argos hull collapsing on his head) and escapes in Helios sun chariot; getting off
scot free.

Medea as a Homeric Hero

Define a homeric hero simply by reference to Odysseus; though some mention of
Achilles in the Iliad is more apt.
Homeric heros are separate to everyone else by a particular talent. Odysseus is
clever. Achilles is a great warrior.
Homeric heros are also flawed by their desire for kleos (glory) above all else.
Homeric heros are a like in word and deed. They are as good at oratory as they
are with warfare.
Homeric heros are loved, protected and their actions are sanctioned by the
gods.
Now show how Medea qualifies for this.
Medea is the famous witch of Greek mythology. We first hear about Medeas
talents during the Prologue when the Nurse tells us that Medea came to Corinth
with Jason. She is afraid of Medea and reveals that her enemies never come off
well. Later during the first episode Creon reveals that he too is afraid of Medea
because she is a cunning witch and during her first agon (encounter) with Jason
soon after she herself reveals that various magical ways by which she helped
Jason secure the Golden Fleece and take the throne of Iolchos. Later on, when
she reveals her plot to the Chorus she herself evokes Hecate, goddess of black
magic and she secures asylum in Athens by promising to cure Aegeus
impotence with her magical drugs. At the climax of the drama she even kills
Glauce and Creon with magical drugs. Medea is a witch from first to last in the
play. It is what separartes her form everyone else. In fact, she is conscious of it
because that is why she comes out to speak to the Chorus, to control the way
that she is viewed by society due to her reputation.
Medea is the mother who kills her sons to revenge her adulterous husband. She
does so due to an unyielding pride; the pride of a queen, as the nurse tells us in
the prologue. She is highminded and such pride is unyielding. It cannot weather
humiliation. The nurse fears Medeas pride. Medea herself reveals that it is the
humiliation she has to bear that hurts her the most. She spurns Jasons insulting
offer of money in exile and accounts him as her enemy. She refers to Creon and
Glauce too as her enemies. Ultimately, though she is torn between killing her
sons and sparing them what moves her to draw her sword is the thoughts that

her enemies will laugh at her sons should she spare their lives and leave them
behind in Corinth. Since she sees her sons as merely extensions of herself, she
naturally feels that if they are humiliated than so too shall she and cannot bear
that. Her desire for kleos (glory) is what moves her to do the unthinkable, just as
it is what moves Odysseus to do the unpredicatble and Achilles the unbelievable.
Like Odysseus or Achilles, Medea too is alike in word and deed. Thoug hshe
admits that fighting make coawrds of women, she also reveals that in all acts of
trickery and disception women are masters. Medeas means of fighting may be
subtle and less phyiscal than that of Achilles but it is no less worthy due to her
committment to see her plan through to the end. Like all heroes she is as good in
argument as she is in action. She proves she is as good an orator as the best of
any heroes in her agons with Creon and Jason. Though he arrives to banish
Medea, Creon leaves the orchestra having granted her one final day knowing
that it is probably a mistake but equally admitting defeat in the argument by
saying he would rather be judged a caring parent than a harsh ruler. Medea uses
this day to kill him thus action follows words. In her first agon with Jason the
Chorus actually say that although he spoke well, he still shouldnt have
abondoned his wife, meaning that they side with Medea and in their second agon
she succeeds in manipulating him to do what he would never imagine doing:
facilitating Medea with a means to kills his fiance, his father-in-law and their own
sons. Again, action follows words. Medea is an expert in oratry. She even defeats
Jasons argument in the final scene by answering his curse of infanticide with the
double curse of oathbreaking and guest abuse. Her rationale is that Jasons two
previous sins incurred her own and cancels out her guilt. In this case the words
follow the action but the result is the same. Medea is alike in word and deed.
Like Odysseus and Achilles, Medea too would seem to enjoy divine protection
and sanction. Why else would Helios come to rescue Medea at the end of the
play? She has after-all just killed his great grandsons. Yet he arrives unexpectedly
and in the nick of time to airlift Medea to safety. In the theatre she would have
appeared on the theologion: a platform above the skene (backdrop), which was
understood by the audience as being an unreachable height. Jason, in despair,
simply begs her to leave him to his misery at the end knowing that he cannot
touch her. The fact that she does not have to asnwer for her actions may seem
unsatifcatory to the audience, but as the Chorus explain, the gods move in
mysterious ways, and sometimes they make the unexpected happen, and so it
was in this story.
Thus, in all ways Medea answers to the definition of a Homeric hero. Eventhough
she is is woman, as she admits herself, I am of a different breed and to such a
life belongs glory. Who else but a hero would utter such a line?

MEDEA is androgynous/manlike or that Euripides understand the female psyche.

In this essay you must argue that Medea uses everything she has to accomplish
her plan.

Flawed Ending of Medea