Bertha Mason wreaking havoc upon Thornfield Hall, Edward Rochester's home.
From the beginning, Medea is introduced as a fast-paced story telling the tumultuous woes of women living in a patriarchy. Euripides opens the story with an application of in medias res. In just a few pages, the story's protagonist, Medea, has her very life stolen from her on a whim by her husband Jason, who has decided to devote his sentiments to King Creon's daughter, a more "powerful" woman. "Royal sheets enfold him now but she weeps away her life" (138-139). The situation that Medea is in embodies the struggles that women face in patriarchal societies. The lives of women mean absolutely nothing as Jason is able to throw Medea away as if she never existed. Medea's struggle is very similar to that of Bertha Mason in Jane Eyre. Character Edward Rochester is forced to marry Bertha to obtain money from her affluent family. When Bertha exhibits signs of instability and mental illness, Edward hides her away from the world, posing as a bachelor, looking for his own personal gain. Just like Bertha, Medea is disregarded by her husband and begins to develop hateful intentions towards Jason and the children they have together. "What will it do -- her raging spirit, so hard to quell, now that it is battered with abuse?" (108-110). Already, Medea begins to prove her deceitful cunning by compelling King Creon to pity the children she hates: "It breaks my heart if they are to suffer deprivation" (346). She reveals this trickery to be the practice of women's most "skilled craftsmen of all that is evil" (408). What more will Medea do to get revenge for Jason's gross act of misogyny?
Medea also uses her deceitful cunning to convince Aegeus to offer her "a home in Athens...by the fire of thine own hearth!" (27). During their conversation, Medea acts as if she is still heartbroken when her heart is clearly filled with hate. She needs an asylum because her acts of revenge will surely warrant Jason's wrath.
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