Could someone please mark my tragedy of a Medea essay?

[spaaaacccee]

Hi,
Would anyone be able to read and give feedback on my medea essay?
This was initally handwritten and under a time constraint, I did very minimal editing when I typed it up.
Thanks!

IS MEDEA’S TRAGEDY CAUSED BY A WOMAN’S LACK OF REASON AND SELF-CONTROL?
Perhaps the most unorthodox of the three great ancient Greek tragedians, Euripides crafted his infamous play Medea (431 BCE) envisioning a grim society hyperbolic of the audience’s own patriarchy, where which women are perceived as inferior, overly emotional beings, incapable of logic and reason, and upholding the sophrosyne values which men proudly endorsed. In his play, Euripides discusses the impact that passion and emotion, allegedly hallmarks of women, have on one’s ability to reason and maintain self-control. On another level however, Euripides suggests that the tragedy in his play, presumably caused by his titular character’s raging desire to enact revenge, can be attributed to the ongoing oppression and mistreatment of women, reflective of his society. However, the playwright ultimately does not wish for his play to be simply labelled as a tragedy – it is also a narrative of triumph and victory against one’s fate and societal role imposed upon them by an oppressing force. In essence, not only is Medea’s tragedy fundamentally not the consequences of the lack of reason and control demonstrated by its focal woman (it is one founded upon oppression and injustice), Euripides also suggests that Medea is not simply a tragedy at all, but a morally captivating narrative that sparks revolutionary thinking.
Euripides bring to the fore the negative impacts that immense passion and uncontrolled desires have on One’s ability to reason and think logically. His protagonist, Medea, is characterised by her hamartia – her insatiable desire to enact revenge upon the “oath-breaker” Jason. She exclaims how “passion is the master of my reason,” powerfully overriding the chorus’ plead to “not do this (her homicide)”, suggesting the ability for passion to supersede one’s decision making. Her characterisation as a “lioness, with her claws in [Jason’s] heart” creates powerful imagery, both dehumanising Medea and creating a sense that her immense passion has brought her status down to the level of animals – that intense emotion can lead individuals to being less human. Furthering this idea, Euripides accentuates the immorality that underlies Medea’s act of filicide, in order to emphasise the power that can originate from these uncontrollable desires. Although Medea claims that her murders were a “necessary deed”, the audience is more inclined to believe the chorus’ words that she is in fact a “wretched woman” who can be seen to be “made of rock or iron” for her behaviour. The audience is strongly positioned to feel injustice and groundlessness of these actions, actions that was most clearly presented as the corollaries of her ambitions. Thus, it is clearly established that even when one is “fully aware of [their] crime”, one’s passion and emotions can lead to an overridden ability to make informed, rounded decisions.
On a higher level, Euripides highlights that the ‘tragedy’ in his play should not be solely attributed to the lack of self control in women – it is the consequence of the oppression and mistreatment experienced by women, like Medea, from the patriarchal societies of ancient Greece. The audience is strongly positioned to view most male characters of the play as foolish or feeble: Jason who was “deceived in [his] destiny”, or Creon in his beliefs that the woman can “barely accomplish” anything. Though this positioning, the play accentuates the incompetence of men in its society. This is further built upon through the acquirement of sympathy for Medea, the ‘hero’ of his narrative, who, representable of women, was about to be “driven without rights to exile”. The chorus repetitively regard Medea as “poor” and “troubled”, establishing empathy and pity for this particular character. Furthermore, this “necessary deed” of Medea’s is stressed to be the response to Jason’s betrayal of her, and that she simply cannot “let her enemies off scot-free”, or “suffer the mockeries” of them, accentuating the idea that she is not solely liable for her actions: they were based upon the wrongdoings of her oppressors. Thus, her actions that ultimately led to what is widely regarded as the tragedy in the play, is essentially the result of prolonged subjugation and mistreatment of this class of people.
On a larger scale, Euripides did not wish for his play to be simply regarded as a tragedy either: It is a narrative that explores the triumph and of an oppressed, powerless woman over injustice. Throughout the play, Medea is portrayed as a woman fighting primarily for justice; the chorus agrees that “[she] should take revenge upon [her] husband,” and that indeed she is “treated unjustly”. Rather than submitting to her fate as a powerless, non-standing woman in a society of men, as the Greek audience may expect, the audience leaps over the expectation of the masses through foreshadowing and dramatic irony her actions throughout the play – she “will make corpses of her enemies”; she will “use poison”… These procedures highlight a sense that Medea is acting under light and public scrutiny, associated with justice and righteousness, as opposed to acting under nondisclosure until she eventually commits her murders. Evoking a sense that not only will she come out victorious, the playwright ensures that she will be ultimately seen as a hero. As the play comes to a close, the deus ex machine sequence as Medea rises “in a chariot drawn by dragons” reveals her semi-divine nature, as she triumphs above Jason and society of men. Euripides exploit this scene, where Medea is almost held as a god, to establish the sense that Medea’s actions were ultimately justified and she is freed from her guilt. Thus, the play aims to be a work more than simply a tragedy, but a work with a greater symbolic meaning of challenging and being triumphant against fate.
In essence, not only is Medea not simply a tragedy of oppression and the nature of women, it is an inspirational work captivating change and upbringing of new social standards and cultural beliefs. Through the playwright’s exploration on the effects of emotions and passion and the ability to control oneself actions, the discussion of the tragic impacts the treatment of women can incur, and also the journey to fight for one’s respect and moral rights, Euripides endeavoured to make the society around him see woman in a completely new light.