Saturday, September 27, 2014
Persistence in Oedipus and Medea
A quality that I notice Medea and Oedipus to both have in common is their persistence. Oedipus has great persistence. When he is trying to find out more about the murder of Laius, he tells the messenger "What-give up now, with a close like this? Fail to solve the mystery of my birth? Not for all the world!" I think Oedipus' constant drive to find out the "mystery of his birth" reveals his great persistence. Oedipus has this constant drive to discover the mystery of who killed Laius, a drive that he has throughout the whole play until the secret if finally uncovered. Medea is similar in her pursue to get revenge of Jason, for regardless of the chorus discouraging her, she still fails to hesitate and lose this desire. The chorus tells Media "... I both wish to help you and support the normal ways of mankind, and tell you not to do this thing." Medea responds: " I can do no other things..." Medea possesses I believe this same persistence that Oedipus has. Euripedes and Sophocles both have their characters have this drive, which gives momentum and meaning to both plays.
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3 comments:
I think that Oedipus's persistence can be considered positive, but also leads towards his rash actions. Medea's persistence can also be considered negative as it leads her to kill a lot of people. This ties into the conversation that we were having in class about how many of Oedipus and Medea's characteristics can be considered both negative and positive.
I think that persistence is mostly negative in most situations because people are persistent to get their way. And only caring about your own needs can be conceived as bad.
To Bre: But what about people who are persistent on the behalf of others? Like people who fight against violations of civil rights?
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