Medea Summary Example

Medea Summary: Introduction

Medea is one of the ancient Greek tragedies, and it was written by Euripides. The tragedy is about Medea and her family. Medea is a foreign princess who is married to Jackson and came to Greece. According to the tragedy, Medea kills her father and her brother in order to marry Jackson. Medea was hit by Eros' bow because Jackson asked Aphrodite for help. Subsequently, Medea and Jackson got married after they had two sons. However, Jackson betrayed Medea. He cheated on Medea with another princess, the daughter of Creon. When Jackson left Medea to marry Creon's daughter, Medea's feelings got hurt by this action. She uses the storytelling to express her condition

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On the other hand, Medea uses storytelling as a confession to explain her actions because she kills Jackson's bride, Creon, and his sons. In her narrative, storytelling is a confession. She confesses her crimes to the reader. Medea uses both expression and confession in her storytelling. She also confesses that she wants to be alone without her family. More specifically, Medea expresses her perspective about killing Creon's family and her sons in the story can be considered as a conclusion about she prefers loneliness. Eventually, Medea is satisfied; her solitude did not bother her as it bothered Jackson because she expressed that Jackson would be sad when alone.

In Medea, storytelling appears in the dialogues because characters are telling their past stories to the reader. Also, they are telling the stories of gods and goddesses. Moreover, the characters also tell their personal stories to the reader. In the Medea tragedy, there is only one journey exists. The trip to Hera's Temple. Medea and her dead sons are going on the same journey.

The second book is The Arabian Nights, and this paper focuses on its narrative. The book is about two brothers who are the kings of Indian cities. The storytelling in the book is an essential component because the book is highly based on narratives. Also, only two brothers are telling their stories to the reader. Other stories are fictional, and they are told by two sisters to the reader. These sisters use storytelling as a gift. However, the brothers use storytelling as an expression. Their story proves that why they need to express their stories.

The younger brother Shahzaman is the ruler of Samarkand. The older brother Shahrayar misses his brother and sends his Vizier to Samarkand to deliver Shahrayar's message about visiting him. However, on that day, he caught his wife with a cook. She was betraying him, so Shahrayar killed his wife and the cook. Then, he told his story to his brother after he found out that his brother was betrayed by his wife, too. Therefore, Shahrayar killed his wife and the slaves when he saw her cheating on him. They expressed their story to justify their actions against their loved ones.

These two brothers went on a journey to find out someone who is more unfortunate than themselves. On their journey, they found a gin and woman. Gin was more unfortunate than these two brothers because Gin's wife betrayed him one hundred times, and the last two men were these brothers. Moreover, the brothers and their journey ended when they came back to the kingdom. Older brother Shahrayar took an oath that he would spend only one night with each woman. At the end of each night, the girl was supposed to be killed. This expression on Shahrayar's decision provided that use storytelling in another way. The sisters used storytelling as a gift. Therefore, this gift provided to achieve that two girls spend more than one night with Shahrayar because the sisters were telling stories to him until he sleeps. Every night, Shahrayar’s curiosity grew higher, and due to this curiosity, he did not order to kill the girls. The girls stayed alive because of their stories. Also, Shahyarar's curiosity is a confession against his decision.

After all, Shahrayar and his brother went on their journey to see that they were not alone with their destiny. However, after they came back, they wanted to stay alone without a woman to share their life with, and they preferred loneliness. A woman's perspective is different than man's perspective because, in this story, men are using storytelling to explain their actions and decisions. However, a woman is using storytelling as a gift to change a man's decision.

Conclusion: Personal Reflection

We women are the most unfortunate.
First, we need a husband, someone we get for an excessive price.
He then becomes the ruler of our bodies.
And this misfortune adds still more troubles to the grief we have.
Then comes the crucial struggle: this husband
we've selected, is he good or bad?            270
For a divorce loses women all respect,
yet we can't refuse to take a husband.
Then, when she goes into her husband's home,
with its new rules and different customs,
she needs a prophet's skill to sort out the man
whose bed she shares. She can't learn that at home.
Once we've worked hard at this, and with
success.                       240
our husband accepts the marriage yoke
and lives in peace—an enviable life.
But if the marriage doesn't work, then death         280
is much to be preferred. When the man tires
of the company he keeps at home, he leaves,
seeking relief for his distress elsewhere,
outside the home. He gets his satisfaction
with some male friend or someone his own age.
We women have to look at just one man.
while they must go to battle with their spears.
How stupid they are! I'd rather stand there
three times in battle holding up my shield          290
than give birth once. But your story and mine are not the same.
For you have a city, you have your father's house, enjoy your life.

This paragraph is from Medea, and she suffers the woman's destiny. She tells the obligations of pleasing men, or else women would get disrespect by divorce. In addition, she mentions that women are the most unfortunate individuals because of their gender. Men can go to battles, but a woman should stay at home. Until man accepts, the married woman should live by their rules. Basically, men own the woman when they get married, and men can do whatever they want, and men can sleep with whoever they want. However, women cannot do the things that men are doing. In addition, Medea mentions that giving birth is almost equal to going to battle because a woman suffers the highest pain at birth.

Medea's words are a rebellion against man's actions. Women are paying an excessive price to marry a man. In this story, Medea kills her family to marry Jackson. Although the sacrifice that Medea made, Jackson still betrays her. Even though Medea lives under Jackson's rules, Jackson prefers another woman. Even though they have two children, she got betrayed by him, which is considered unfair. Also, Medea lost her family because of Jackson. When Creon and his followers have Medea exiled, she had nowhere to go. I think Medea's words are emotional. These words affected me deeply. This passage speaks to me because even in the 21th-century, a woman is facing similar problems such as obligations, rules, and perception of pleasing men.

On the other hand, the trend has changed in recent years, mostly due to the emergence of social media and the internet. Accordingly, women can freely socialize, make friends, and even flirt with men, unlike in history. Maybe, it is the first time in human history that women are this strong when compared to men. Also, it seems that the trend will proportionally increase with the advancement of social media and the internet. Women get attention on social media, and this attention makes women be more self-confident about their perspectives.