MEDEA Analysis Essay Example For Students

MEDEA Analysis Essay A monolog from the play by Euripides NOTE: This monolog is reproduced from The Plays of Euripides in English, vol. ii. Trans. Shelley Dean Milman. London: J.M. Gouge Sons, 1922. JASON: I should not to be careless, it appears, in speech,But like the skilful pilot, who, with sailsScarce half spread out, his bark all the more most likely guides,Escape, O lady, your ungoverned tongue.Since you the advantages on me conferredExaggerate in so glad a strain, I deemThat I to Venus just, and no godOr man adjacent to, my prosperous journey owe.Although a wondrous nuance of soulTo you have a place, twere a harmful speechFor me to make should I relate how LoveBy his inescapable shafts compelled youTo spare my life. I won't subsequently stateThis contention too pleasantly, however allow,As you aided me, it was sympathetic done.But by protecting me have you picked up moreThan you gave, as I will demonstrate: and first,Transplanted from primitive shores, you dwellIn Grecian districts, and have here been taughtTo go about as equity and the laws ordain,Nor follow the eccentricity of severe strength.By all the Greeks your insight is perceived,And you obtain prestige; yet had y ou stillInhabited that inaccessible spot of earth,You never had been named. I would not wishFor chateaus loaded with gold, or to exceedThe best notes of Orpheus enchantment lyre,Were those unfading wreaths which popularity bestowsFrom me retained by fortune. I along these lines farOn my own works just have discoursed.For you this terrible struggle of words began.But in embracing Creons imperial daughter,With which you have censured me, I will proveThat I in acting accordingly am insightful and chaste,That I to you have been the best of friends,And to our youngsters. Be that as it may, make no reply.Since here Iolchos land I came,Accompanied by numerous misfortunes, and suchAs couldn't be maintained a strategic distance from, what deviceMore invaluable would an outcast frameThan wedding the rulers girl? Not through hateTo you, which you censure me with, not smittenWith love for another associate, or a wishThe number of my youngsters to augment:For those we have as of now may suffice, And I grumble not. In any case, to me it seemedOf extraordinary significance that we both may liveAs suits our position, nor endure contemptible need,Well realizing that every companion keeps away from the poor.I likewise wished to instruct our sonsIn such a way as befits my raceAnd with their honorable siblings yet unborn,Make them one family, that along these lines, my houseCementing, I may flourish. In some measureIs it your advantage excessively that by my brideI ought to have children, and me it much imports,By future youngsters, to accommodate thoseWho are in being. Have I judged amiss?You would not rebuke me, except if your soulWere by an opponent stung. Be that as it may, your entire sexHath these thoughts; if in marriage blestYe regard nothing needing, however in the event that some reverseOf fortune eer betide the marital couch,All that was acceptable and stunning ye abhor.Far better were it for the human raceHad youngsters been created by other means,No females eer existi ng: subsequently may manExempt from each abhorrence have remained.