Comparative Essay: Medea and Antigone

There is a popular saying that claims, “well behaved women do not make history.” Though not necessarily true, it does apply to the heroines of the plays Medea by Euripides and Antigone by Jean Anouilh. In both Medea and Antigone, the main character is a woman who rebels against authority in the name of her beliefs. At the beginning, the reader empathizes with these characters and supports their boldness, but both plays have a turning point in which the actions of the character cause the reader to emotionally dissociate from her. This is done intentionally by the authors to emphasize the message of each piece. Though both protagonists’ exceptional qualities are encouraged in the beginning, they persist to such extremes that eventually the reader must step back and re-evaluate who is the true antagonist. Despite being written in different time periods, both Medea and Antigone make similar points on resistance, revenge, and going too far for unreasonable desires.

Making comparisons between these works is not difficult, mostly due to the very similar characterization. Both main characters are bold, stubborn, outspoken females with extreme, impulsive tendencies. Medea’s actions show that she is exceptionally clever, temperamental, and manipulative. At the start ofEuripides’ one act play, Medea is consumed with desperation and misery over her husband’s betrayal. Here the author arouses sympathy from the reader by recounting everything she has given up for him and how “she herself helped Jason in every way”(Euripedes 1), from killing her brother in order to escape her father to convincing Pelias’ daughters to brutally murder their own father, leaving her with “no mother or brother, nor any relation with whom [she] can take refuge in this sea of woe” (Euripides 9). This emotional appeal is an example ofEuripides’ use of pathos to persuade the reader that Medea’s resentment is justified. Her absolute sorrow and tragic tales of what she has been through for him convince the reader that Jason deserves punishment for his infidelity. In the text, theChorus’ lines serve as a type of outside commentary or guidance for the reader. The role of the Chorus takes effect when the it expresses encouragement in the lines, “You are in the right, Medea, in paying your husband back. I am not surprised at you for being sad” (Euripides 9), implying that the reader should support her vengeance. Thus, in this segment Medea’s revenge and empowerment is made to seem valiant.

Characteristics found in the role of Antigone are very similar to those of Medea. Like Medea, Antigone is outspoken, manipulative, and will persist in getting what she wants despite whoever she must hurt in the process. The tragedy of Antigone is brought about by the death of her brothers,Eteocles and Polynices. After killing each other over a power struggle, Eteocles was portrayed to the nation as “the virtuous brother” (Anouilh 5) and was provided a proper funeral while Polynices’ body was left out to decay on the open ground as the king’s threat against rebels. Aggrieved by this display of disrespect for the brother she cherished, Antigone plots to bury the body herself despite knowledge of the king Creon’s decree that “anyone affording him proper burial rites will be mercilessly punished, with death” (Anouilh 5). After being denied assistance from her sisterIsmene , Antigone’s commitment does not falter and she attempts to bury her brother’s corpse. She is seized by the guards in her second attempted, but even when she has been caught and Creon is offering to let her live if she keeps quiet, Antigone remains steadfast in her resolve that she “must go and bury [Polynices]” (Anouilh 34). Initially, this devotion to her brother and her fearless acceptance of imminent death are seen as acts of courage by the reader and bold personality and persistence seem admirable. Using similar tactics as Euripides in Medea, in this piece Anouilh uses emotional appeal to persuade the reader to support Antigone before suddenly causing an emotional dissociation once the reader realizes that she has crossed the line.

In Medea there is a similar point at which the reader recognizes that her vengeance has gone from a simple punishment for Jason to uninhibited violence. Like Antigone, Medea does not care who she must hurt if they are standing in her way, even her own children. After conspiring the murder of Jason’s new wife and kingAegeus , Medea decides that she must kill her own children. This horrifying revelation causes the reader doubt their support for Medea. Although we are given hope when she later begins to question herself and proclaims, “I cannot bear to do it. I renounce my plans I had before… Why should I hurt their father with the pain they feel…?” (Euripides 34). Yet this moment of mercy is short-lived, for once news reaches her of the death of the princess and king, Medea disregards theChorus’ voice of reason and resolves to kill her children in order to prevent them from being “slain by another hand less kindly to them” (Euripides 40). In this moment it is made clear that Medea’s desire for wrath at all costs has driven her tosociopathy . Although at first the Chorus had encouraged the reader to sympathize with Medea, now it prompts us to oppose her with its cries of “O you hard heart, O woman fated for evil!” (Euripides 41). At the end, Medea leaves Jason distraught over the death of his children and escapes without allowing him to touch them one last time. This final scene leaves the reader with the impression that in her obsession with avenging Jason’s injustice, Medea consequently ends up committing much more injustice against innocent others. On top of that, her plan for “sweet revenge” essentially backfires because after killing her children she feels twice as much sorrow as before. Ultimately, Medea’s misuse of cleverness and persistence causes her sudden transformation from protagonist into antagonist.

The end of Antigone is similar in the way that the heroine’s once admirable traits are taken to unhealthy extremes which cause the reader to lose the empathy that was initially established. At first, the reader feels sympathy for Antigone because of the sacrifice she’s willing to make for the sake of her brother. Yet when Creon reveals that her brothers “were just two common crooks, cheating one another at the same time as they cheated us” (Anouilh 44) and Antigone loses the belief she felt such conviction for, she still insists that she must die even if for nothing. The point of dissociation in this tragedy comes after Creon’s truth breaks Antigone’s ideal vision of dying courageously as a martyr. She continues to argue with the king, trying to convince him to sentence her to death with naïve arguments such as “I want to be sure of having everything, now, this very day, and it has to be as wonderful as it was when I was little. Otherwise I prefer to die” (Anouilh 47). The farther into the dispute the characters go, the more the reader is swayed to support Creon. Childishly, Antigone insists that if life can not always be lived to the full, then it is not worth living and refuses to understand, purposely choosing to remain blissfully ignorant. She also remains adamant in dying alone, as seen whenIsemene claims that she has found bravery and will die with her sister. Antigone’s response is, “Oh no! Not now! I’m on my own now. Don’t think you can just muscle in and die with me now! It’d be too easy!” (Anoilh 48). These lines imply that Antigone is no longer acting out of love for her brother and perhaps never truly was (though she may have convinced herself otherwise), but for her own pride or glory. “She may not have known it herself, butPolynices was only an excuse” (Anouilh 49). Thus at the end of the novel Antigone’s composed acceptance of death is no longer seen as admirable, but merely childish and completely unnecessary. Just as in Medea, Antigone tries so hard to get what she wants that in the end it all backfires on her.

Both Euripides’ Medea and Jean Anouilh’s Antigone share the major theme of the danger of going to extremes to achieve your goals. To emphasize this message, the playwrights chose to encourage the reader to empathize with the women before employing an abrupt turning point in which the heroines suddenly become the enemies. The purpose of this in the play is to criticize irrational and impulsive actions in the face of tragedy. Though both women technically got what they wanted in the end, it turned out to be much less pretty than they pictured.

Works Cited

< Euripedes, Medea. Mineola: Dover Publications, Inc., 1993. >< Anouilh, Jean. Antigone. London: Methuen Publishing Ltd, 2000. >