Euripides' Medea and Sophocles' Antigone

Euripides' Medea and Sophocles' Antigone are two of the most famous women in Greek tragedy. It is the purpose of this paper to compare and contrast these two tragic figures. In the interest of organization, each woman will be generally analyzed and then the two will be criticized together.

Medea is generally considered to be Euripides' masterpiece, and it deals with a woman whose love turns to hatred when she is betrayed. Euripides is very skillful at shifting the audience's feeling for Medea throughout the play. In the beginning she is a woman who has sympathy because Jason has deserted her, who marries Glauce, the daughter of Creon.

Medea is revealed to be a woman of revenge. At first she plots to kill Jason, his new wife, and Creon, but she decides against that. "This much then is the service I would beg from you: If I can find the means or devise any scheme To pay my husband back for what he has done to me--Him and his father-in-law and the girl who married him--Just to keep silent" (Euripides 67).

Medea is successful in helping to bring about the deaths of both Glauce and Creon: they are both poisoned by a deadly drug and they suffer a great deal before they die. Medea might have stopped at these events, and assumed that she had punished Jason enough for what he had done to her. The messenger tells Medea of the death of Glauce and Creon: "It was a fearful sight; and terror held us all from touching the corpse. Her wretched father came suddenly to the house and fell u

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the response can be worse than the original wrongdoing? In Antigone Sophocles tells the story of the daughter of Oedipus. Antigone was born into a tragic situation, as she was the offspring of the man who murdered his father and married his mother. There is upon her house and Antigone has a sense of determinism: she can feel that it is her purpose to become a martyr and in some way show dignity through her family. Her opportunity arises when her brother, Polynices, is killed, and Creon refuses to allow him a proper burial. (Creon is Antigone's uncle.) Antigone decides that she will fight to give her brother a decent laying-to-rest, or she will perish in the task. As Sophocles sees Antigone, she is the embodiment of great character because she is motivated by duty stemming from family ties. She has a fierce loyalty toward her brother that transcends her own happiness or satisfaction. She is unlike Medea in her self-less motives. The conflict between Creon and Antigone is the centerpiece of the play, and it showcases the world of physical power and the world of spiritual, idealistic commitment. Their exchange is very highly charged with emotion. "Creon: Your act of grace, in his regard is crime. Antigone: The corpse below woul

Category: Literature - E