Medea

[Farayin]

Hi,
Can someone help me breakdown this prompt?
"Medea's inability to communicate is at the heart of the tragedy."

[clarke54321]

Hi,
Can someone help me breakdown this prompt?
"Medea's inability to communicate is at the heart of the tragedy."

Hey!

First of all, welcome to AN

This is quite a tricky prompt in my opinion. But within the prompt there are two implicit statements:

1) Medea cannot effectively communicate
2) This ineffective communication causes tragedy

So it is your job to assess the validity of each.

For no. 1 you could have a think about the following:

-In the early stages of the play she is so immersed in her own thoughts/feelings that she fails to take note of her environment (ie. what the Chorus/Nurse are telling her- refuses to respond to them. Won't give up passionate indignation)
-She turns her conversation with Jason into an argument (dwells on her own circumstances/misfortunes---> refuses to listen to his justification)
-Communicates in a manner that is cunning (doesn't communicate for the sake of help. Think of some of her conversions with the Chorus/Aegeus)
^^^Ineffectiveness----> Violent outbursts (manifestation of unspoken pain perhaps?------> Deaths/Self-torment (Tragedy)

These are just some rough ideas. They'd have to manipulated further to be relevant to the prompt.

Hope this gives you some guidance

[meganrobyn]

Fully endorse the logical breakdown above.

But!! I just had to say that this prompt makes me so mad. It's more of the victim-blaming bullshit and double-standards for men and women. Medea arguably goes too far at the end, but that doesn't retroactively invalidate her. I, frankly, can't see how she communicates poorly at all. She hears what people like Jason and the chorus are saying, but just disagrees with him. And well she should, because Jason is gaslighting all over the place and trying to deflect blame - she refuses to let him get away with most of his bullshit, and brings the conversation back. He's lying through his self-indignant little teeth about being a selfish, insecure man-baby, and the only way anyone could communicate "effectively" with him would be to say, "Yes, yes, you're right, of course, I'll go, you're right, yes, yes." That's the only response he (or Creon) will accept. Seriously, though: how is she supposed to "communicate" better without just backing entirely down and invalidating herself for them?

In the meantime, she manages to buy an extra day from Creon, access to Glauce from Jason, *and* no-questions-asked sanctuary when she flees. I'd say that's pretty bloody good communication.

[TSEtuition]

Fully endorse the logical breakdown above.

But!! I just had to say that this prompt makes me so mad. It's more of the victim-blaming bullshit and double-standards for men and women. Medea arguably goes too far at the end, but that doesn't retroactively invalidate her. I, frankly, can't see how she communicates poorly at all. She hears what people like Jason and the chorus are saying, but just disagrees with him. And well she should, because Jason is gaslighting all over the place and trying to deflect blame - she refuses to let him get away with most of his bullshit, and brings the conversation back. He's lying through his self-indignant little teeth about being a selfish, insecure man-baby, and the only way anyone could communicate "effectively" with him would be to say, "Yes, yes, you're right, of course, I'll go, you're right, yes, yes." That's the only response he (or Creon) will accept. Seriously, though: how is she supposed to "communicate" better without just backing entirely down and invalidating herself for them?

In the meantime, she manages to buy an extra day from Creon, access to Glauce from Jason, *and* no-questions-asked sanctuary when she flees. I'd say that's pretty bloody good communication.

I love this! I have to say that I'm not a fan of this prompt either, but I think you could definitely incorporate this into your essay. I'd suggest expanding on that idea of communication - communication implies messages being sent and received, ie, it takes 2 parties! In Medea, there are lots of characters sending messages, but hardly anyone is receiving them (everybody pretty much ignores what everybody else is saying), which enables Medea to do everything she manages to do.

~Shirlaine from TSEtuition