Tragedy

European drama.

Perhaps one of the most famous Greek tragedies, Medea is the first Greek play I have read.

A woman is betrayed. Medea. All she had sacrificed for in life is on the verge of being scrapped. And what remains of her, as she wallows in abandonment ; is a passionate rage and yawn for vengeance against those who aggrieve her. Including her husband Jason, the king of Corinth and his daughter.

Streaking along the famed Greek tragedy fashion of incorporating songs into the play, in an ingenius bid to pan out the plot and engage the reader in a debate raging in the protagonist’s thoughts, Medea’s rage is queried and antagonized. Especially when it involved the lives of her children.

In the end, like all tragedies glide, Medea commits an unimaginable act to cause Jason incurable pain. Yet one still yearns for a vindication of her crimes, and a little jubilant over her ability to exact some pain on her tormentors.

Which raised the question, when we cause others pain, intently knowing we are alienating all their sacrifices from our concern, betraying them impenitently; do we have the right to ask why they aren’t fair, or reasonable, when they in turn hurt us back?

Medea committed irredeemable crimes to elope with Jason. Hoping they would pay off, having left bridges behind her razed to the ground by her fire, fire emanating from a desire to face a new passionate future. Yet still, she is considered alien, even a threat by her new country. Her efforts are discardable at will. As Jason dismisses her pain by the words, “a greek woman would have handled the situation much cordially…”we understand the low empathy women in Corinth received.

This drama helped me ponder deeply upon traitorous acts which have become rampant in Kenyan society. Men and women alike, in Love , weaving all their efforts into making a blissful relationship; even tearing down all around them- jobs, relationships with family and friends. At the end, when all crumbles, we expect them to heal expeditiously. But is it ordinary to react dexterously to wasted passions?

Medea is sometimes referred to as having strains of feminism. Medea was expected to take it humbly like a greek woman should, but decided to fight back against her ‘d*k husband’ and the tyranny of the Corinth ruler who desired her expulsion.

But all in All, Medea is a gem indeed. A masterful craft from a legend.