Relationship Between Medea and the Chorus in Euripides' Tragedy

ln the play, Medea, a central set of characters is the Chorus, They are made up of the women of Corinth, They are used as messengers throughout a lot of the ancient plays, ln this play, they start off by feeling sorry for Medea, a woman who is about to be left by her husband, the famous Jason. They begin the play by trying to cheer up Medea, But, as the play progresses, they start to feel more sympathetic for those who Medea hurt instead Of Medea herself.

In the play Medea, the Chorus changes their feelings, first by feeling sorry for Medea, then for feeling sorry for the Victims of Medea, ln the beginning of the play, the Chorus is obviously feeling sorry for Medea. lt is pretty clear in the beginning of the play where the feelings of the Chorus lier Medea, poor Medea! Your grief touches our hearts A wanderer, where will you turn?

To what welcoming house? To what protected land? How wild with dread and danger ls the sea where the gods have set your course! (28) With this, we see that the Chorus feels sorry for Medea because her husband is planning to leave her for another woman to keep his fame and fortune.

The Chorus says that the gods have brought this on Medea and begin to question what she will do next. In the beginning of the play, the Chorus feels sympathetic for Medea because of everything that is going wrong in her life.

Get quality help now

Writer Lyla

Verified

Proficient in: Anger

5 (876)

“ Have been using her for a while and please believe when I tell you, she never fail. Thanks Writer Lyla you are indeed awesome ”

+84 relevant experts are online

Hire writer

About mid play, the Chorus starts to change their feelings, They start to feel towards Jason, the one who is abandoning Medea.

They start to feel sorry for him it seems. They go out of their way to tell Jason that some danger is looming in the future if he doesn’t change. The fiercest anger of all, the most incurable Is that which rages in the place of dearest love, (32) The Chorus seems to be giving Jason a warning in this quote, They seem to be warning him that bad things are to come, that this anger inside of his wife is going to be very dangerous. This is a clear warning that something big is about to happen. Their feelings shift away from Medea once they start to realize that she plans to act in revenge of Jason. Towards the end of the play, the Chorus is feeling sorrier for the ones hurt by Medea rather than Medea herself, With the pain she has inflicted upon the Corinthians, by killing their royal family, the Chorus starts to turn against Medea.

They feel more sympathetic for the children and the family who Medea murdered. One might even say that they saw Medea as a sort of monster because she killed her children out of spite her for Jason. Then Medea exits on a chariot pulled by dragons. At the end of the play, the Chorus felt more sympathetic for the ones hurt by Medea than for Medea herself. Throughout the play by Euripides, Medea, the Chorus is a good indicator of whose side the audience is on. In the beginning of the play, the Chorus is feeling pity for Medea, a woman who is being left by her husband. But as the play progresses, the feelings of the Chorus change and they starts feeling more sympatheticfor those who have been hurt by Medea. They feel that she has wronged the others out of revenge, which was frowned upon if done by women during this time period.