MEDEA'S HARSH LIFE

Imagine that there is a patriarchal world that has been the subject of legends even ages ago. There is a woman who is trying to get a place for herself in this world, trying to prove herself and never want to be underestimated, and she is the main heroine, Medea.

So, is this main character, Medea, a victim or is she not a victim even though she finds herself in this world? In my opinion, Medea is not considered a victim, so I would like to state that I agree with the first question. Well, when it comes to the extent to which Medea is responsible for the problems experienced, I believe it would be unreasonable to put everything on her. To answer the last question that will help to complete the essay, there is a female figure who has struggled with difficulties in certain periods of her life in a patriarchal society. For this reason, it can be observed that the desire for revenge increased her belief in herself even more, and this increase fueled her desire for revenge again. In short, I think it's a vicious circle; these two heavy demands dominate Medea's existence. With this response essay, we will talk about the life Medea lived, the patriarchal order she was overshadowed or was tried to pull over, and its revenge fire.

I would like to talk a little bit about the Medea legend before going on to the answers and examples of the 3 main questions. As I said before, Medea is our female main character. Medea is a princess and also a character with certain powers. She gives up her powers and possessions for the sake of love, but after a while, she is cheated on, and at the end of the legend, Medea takes her blood-chilling revenge. In such a short summary, you might think that Medea was indeed a victim, but as you delve into the legend, it becomes clear that this is not the case. After this short summary, things are not clear in one's mind, so I want to continue with the second main question so that it will be easier to explain why I agree with the first question as the explanations are made.

The second question asks to what extent Medea is responsible for what happened to her. First of all, let's go back to the beginning of the legend and consider both the incredible impact of the patriarchal society on the female character, even if she is a princess, and how Medea actually protected herself from this influence and even took revenge. Medea's falling in love with her husband, Jason, did not happen of her own free will. This is purely the work of Eros, the god of love. Because of this, this is not a situation that has happened with the will or control of Medea; we cannot put this love in the category of the problems that happened to her because of her. But in addition to this, you can see that even here, a male-dominated decision is taken. In order to win a war, with the help of Eros, which is a male god, a woman is used in the game. In some cases that developed after that, Medea did it because she was very much in love with Jason. But here again, it can't be Medea's fault, considering that she fell in love with her husband against her will. For example, she defies her father and goes with Jason, helping Jason against his father, giving up her powers, sacrificing her brother to her father's soldiers. These are things made under the influence of love. Of course, on the other hand, Eros' arrows make people fall madly in love with each other, but love itself is a crazy thing. For this reason, I do not think that Medea is guilty of what she did until her revenge. 

But on the other hand, what about Medea's famous revenge and her unending belief in herself? First of all, I want to talk about the reason for her revenge. Medea and her husband Jason run away from Medea's father, King Aeëtes, with Jason; they are happy for a while and have children. However, since Jason is not under the influence of Eros' love spell, he gets bored with Medea and cheats on her. Not only that, he wants to leave Medea and be with the other girls. Of course, Jason has officially forgotten who Medea is. Medea is a strong, ambitious woman. To get revenge on Jason, it is not enough to kill the woman he loves; she takes his blood-curdling revenge on Jason by killing her own children born of Jason.

Looking at these cases, I can see two different main topics. The first is love; the other is rebellion against the patriarchal world. Medea was so blinded by love that she risked the death of her own children just so her husband wouldn't be happy with someone else. This is where the patriarchal worldview comes into play. Normally, people don't do such a thing because everyone expects mothers to be affectionate, and they always want their children to be superior to their spouses and to come to the fore with their motherhood. I don't think Medea just took revenge on Jason here. I think she took an act of revenge on Jason, on Eros, who made her fall in love, on her own father, and on her patriarchal worldview. She became a legend with her revenge.

As a result, when we examine this legend and answer the questions, we can easily say that the patriarchal worldview existed even before history, it was the subtext of the legends, but there was always a rebellion against it. On the other hand, as for Medea herself, she is a legendary female character, strong, indestructible, ambitious, and never a victim of this worldview. I can even say that it is hopeful to know that a woman who believes in her so much has lived before, even if it makes one's blood freeze at some moments while reading or listening to what she has done.