This Fearful and Necessary Wrong

"[M]y grief is gain when you cannot mock it."
Euripides' Medea

Points for Reflection

Euripides' Medea (431 B.C.)

1. prior to this play’s events, whose lives has Medea taken, either directly or indirectly?
2. what does the Nurse think of her mistress’s temperament and character?
3. what commentary does this play provide concerning traditional gender roles?  Do the Nurse and Medea, for instance, agree on what constitutes proper femininity?
4. in his distress, Jason calls Medea “an evil thing” (43).  Do you concur?
5. which characters invoke the gods, and why?
6. the Chorus celebrates Athens for its wisdom (27), and Jason judges human actions (his own and Medea’s) by employing the same concept--along with a distinction between reasonable and unreasonable choices. What does the play, as a whole seem to suggest about the concepts of reason and wisdom?
7. do you find Jason's justifications for marrying a second time convincing (17-18)?
8. what type of marriage does Euripides’ Chorus ratify?
9.  if a modern director accurately filmed every detail in this play, what would it be rated, and why?
10. what special connection does Medea have to the gods?
    

Lars von Trier's Medea (1988)

1. does von Trier include a Corinthian Chorus of women, as did Euripides?  How does the inclusion or omission of this group of commentators affect our experience of the play’s deepening tragedy?
2. to which does Lars von Trier grant more prominence and volume, character dialogue or the sounds of Nature?
3. why does Creon chose to give Jason the reigns of the city, and what does Jason promise to do as leader?
4. some film critics see Medea as a force of Nature, one tied to one of the four classical elements.  With which element does von Trier associate her most frequently?
5. how do you interpret the rainbow’s appearance amidst Jason’s and Medea’s loom-divided conversation?
6. in an essay entitled “Rebel and Martyr” (2013), Annette M. Baertschi suggests that Lars von Trier tempers the vengeful Medea of Euripides’ play by infusing her with Christ-like characteristics and employing Christian visual iconography.  Can you identify any images in the film that would support this argument?
7. in what various ways do Glauce and Medea provide a counterpoint for one another?
8. does von Trier rely on gore to create a sense of horror?
9. do you agree with film critics Susan Joseph and Marguerite Johnson that Von Trier's use of montage in this film--his combining disparate and reordered images--creates an experience for the audience "similar to the flow of time" (Orchid 14)?
10. how does Von Trier attempt to capture not only the actions but the internal, emotional states of his titular character?
11. does Von Trier render Medea's horrifying acts of violence in such a way that they seem like avoidable crimes for which she should be punished, or the inevitable consequences of actions outside her control?
12. is Medea, as characterized by Von Trier, an entity unified in person and action, or a woman divided against herself?
13. Von Trier has purposefully degraded both the sound and visual acuity of his film. What effect does this have on the film's tone? Its atmosphere?
14. why might Von Trier has shot so much of the film outside, instead of staging the film primarily indoors?
15. does Medea love Jason? (Provide yourself an operational definition of love when considering this question.)
16. does Medea emerge, finally, as a victim or a victor? What of Glauce?
17. why might Von Trier have chosen for the characters to wear primarily white and black?
18. do the specific types of violence perpetrated by the vengeful Medea seem appropriate to the tale?
19. does von Trier's characterization of Medea make her more sympathetic than Euripides' version of the character?
20. what does this film add to our ongoing conversation about gender roles and issues of representation in patriarchal cultures?
    
    

After Harvest (1988)
Poul Anker Bech

Dr. Paul Marchbanks
pmarchba@calpoly.edu