e home of her husband where she was to fulfill her principal function, the bearing and rearing children. Medea shows the inequality of women in Greek society. The betrayal of Medea by Jason through his marriage to another woman enrages Medea. She begins to question the role and position of women in a patriarchal society. "Are we women not the wretchedness? We scratch and save a dowry to buy a man…Our lives depends on how his lordship feels. For better for worse we can’t divorce him."(p.8, Medea). However, "a husband tired of domesticity, Goes out sees friends and enjoys himself…."(p.8and 9, Medea). Medea compares the virtual slavery of women to the absolute freedom of men, showing the inequality and disempowerment of women in society at that time. Jason’s chauvinist beliefs are put under the microscope. Jason airs his views about what all women want: "If they’re (women) happy in bed, they’re happy everywhere". By comparing Medea’s pure feminism to Jason’s selfish chauvinism, Euripides brokers sympathy and support for feminism from the audience. Medea questions the firmly held belief in Greek society that women are weak and passive. Wanting revenge on Jason for his betrayal of her, Medea must take control of the situation, a stereotypical masculine quality. Though she cannot become a man or take power like a man, she perceives her ability to take vengeance with the same kind of forceful determination that a man would demonstrate in her situation. "I’ll kill the children…Then, when all Jason’s hopes, his palace hopes, are gone I’ll leave this land"(p.27 Medea) She makes the ultimate sacrifice, her children’s lives, in order to decisively take control of her life and become independent of Jason, showing that she is neither weak nor passive. Medea challenges the feminine stereotypes of weakness and passiveness by taking control of her life.Medea challenges socie...
