Heroism In Medea And Antigone Plays English Literature Essay

Heroism is about portraying qualities of courage, bravery, and valor along with sacrifice and readiness to risk life. They regarded intelligence as one of the highest gifts that all heroes must possess along with courage. In the two plays ‘Medea’ by Euripides and ‘Antigone’ by Sophocles, both the protagonists, Medea and Antigone, have been portrayed as heroes and they display heroic qualities which is ancient Greece was associated with the males. Women in ancient Greece of whatever class they belonged to were supposed to follow traditional gender roles and conditionings by staying in their homes, keeping quiet about matters, and acting in a passive and obedient manner. However, both the playwrights defied this view which favored patriarchy by redefining the strength of women.

Heroism, involves a lot of selflessness and courage. The play ‘Medea’ revolves around Jason who was the leader of the Argonauts and had won the dragon guarded treasures of the Golden Fleece with the help of Medea, who was a sorceress having superhuman powers. Jason married Medea and had two children with her until he abandoned her for the daughter of king of Corinth, Creon which was a more favorable match. Euripides convincingly describes Medea’s motives for seeking revenge against Jason who had betrayed her in return for her selflessness and sacrifice which is shown when she betrayed her state and family for Jason as she was madly in love with him. On the other hand ‘Antigone’ is about the protagonist Antigone, who is trying to bury her dead brother Polyneices who had gone against the state. Creon, the king and her uncle is preventing her from doing so. This is because of their contrasting views regarding supremacy of the state and the divine laws. She is convinced of the righteousness of her stand and resolves to bury her brother Polyneices, slain in his attack on Thebes under threat of death as she will disobey the state and still be “pure and innocent for all my crime” [1] . She is caught in the act by Creon’s watchmen and brought before the king. She justifies her action, asserting that she had to obey the eternal laws of right and wrong in spite of any human orders. Creon is unrelenting, though. His son Haemon, to whom Antigone is engaged, pleads in vain for her life and threatens to die with her. Her rebellion as well as the extravagance and grandeur of her emotion, her pain, hate is heroic.

In Medea, we see that at the beginning, the nurse’s soliloquy describes Medea’s character and not just the background of the play. Euripides has depicted Medea’s character linked with foreshadowing beautifully. “Oh, I wish that lighting from heaven would split my head open. Oh, what use I have now for life? I would find my release in death and leave hateful existence behind me” [2] . The image of unbearable suffering is built up. From this we can declare that her language and action, mark her as a heroic character, one of those characters whose purpose .was specific, whose audacity towards threats and advice, is quite commendable. Euripides has portrayed Medea as a rebel with superhuman powers because the Greek audience liked to see their heroes and heroines with strong emotions: Medea is a larger than life character. Whereas in ‘Antigone’, Sophocles shows the difference between Antigone and her sister, Ismene through their agon which makes Antigone immediately stand out as a character of great strength. Antigone has more of masculine qualities than feminine qualities. This is proved when Ismene who disagrees with Antigone’s decision says that “We must remember that by birth we’re women, and as such, we shouldn’t fight with men” [3] .She says “it would be fine to die” [4] for her disgraced brother, Polyneices even though he went against Thebes. This is another courageous quality in her as “my honours for the dead must last much longer than those up here” [5] . This shows that she has the courage to fulfill strong moral duty.

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Coming back to Medea, she enters the stage for the first time with her Nurse and says to the women of Corinth a little later that “I would very much rather stand three times in the front of battle than bear one child” [6] (pg no.9). It indicates her rather masculine qualities and quest for their masculine expression. Her grief “twists back her white neck and moans”; her rage “for her heart is violent”; her strong sense of betrayal “a soul bitten into with wrong” and her thirst for revenge is evoked. Her definition of heroism is her ability to “hurt my enemies and help my friends” and which conforms to the Greek idea of a true hero. The true characteristic of a heroine of being courageous and aggressive has been shown here. So Medea can rightfully be called the protagonist as Euripides has portrayed her to be. Being a hero unveils various qualities. Antigone fearlessly breaks laws of King Creon. “Zeus did not announce those laws to me. And justice living with the gods below sent no such laws for men” [7] . From this we can conclude that she is unrepentant, audacious and therefore heroic. According to Antigone, divine laws are eternal and needed to be obeyed, not the laws made by any king if it is someone like Creon who fights for the better of state. We also see that both the protagonists are resolute and have firmness of purpose. Medea in her second speech says to chorus that “even though death is certain, I will take the Sword myself and kill, and steadfastly advance to crime” [8] (pg 13) from this we can make out that she is a heroic character ready to die fearlessly for revenge. She is more than willing to murder her enemies like Jason and her new bride for vengeance, even though morally it is very much a wrong path to take. She has such strong determination that she also uses her children to complete her task as she justifies that she can’t take care of them in the future especially after the manner she will kill the king and his daughter as revenge for Jason’s betrayal. Whereas in Antigone, when Creon finds out about Antigone’s deeds, Antigone in reply says “Then why delay? There’s nothing in your words that I enjoy – may that always be the case! And what I say displeases you as much. But where could I gain greater glory than setting my own brother in his grave?” [9] From this we come to know the resolution of Antigone to bury her brother is firm and she is going to stick with it facing certain death courageously.

Heroism in female characters goes against the traditional construction of heroism which involves the exploits of a male warrior – something which Jason was before the play. Within the action of the play itself, Jason comes across as a coward who plans to use his second marriage to the daughter of a king and the children resulting from their union to consolidate his social position. He wants prestige not through his own struggle and enterprise but would rather use his children as ‘defense shields’. These actions and speech belong to a coward not a hero. King Creon in Medea also behaves like a coward – fearing Medea’s cleverness and banishing a woman and her children from his kingdom. Even King Ageus, who is leading a country, another possible heroic figure as per traditional definition of heroism comes across as impotent and weak, not capable of either bearing children – pg 21″I went to inquire how children might be born to me” [10] , nor able to decode a prophet’s advice and pg 22 “words too wise for a mere man to guess their meaning” [11] . In fact seeking aid from Medea, a woman.pg 23 “for the birth of children which you promised.” [12] 

In Antigone, Creon comes across as unheroic in his attempts to enforce his authority over Antigone and state using the power of his throne. His heroism crumbles in the face of tragic deaths in his family (“Aaaii… My fear now makes me tremble… How miserable I am … aaiii…” [13] (line1453-1459).This in contrast to Antigone who has seen her family wiped out by a divine curse, seen her brothers kill each other, buried her dead brother’s decaying body against the order of the king and yet face death courageously.

Thus both plays challenges the traditional conception of heroism as the qualities and destiny that belong to only males and overturns it to show men as unheroic and weak and females as heroic and courageous.