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Medea
Dec 4, 2002 15:50:53 GMT -5
Post by inhiding on Dec 4, 2002 15:50:53 GMT -5
We recently read Medea in school. What is everyone's thoughts on the characters?
Soemthing that interests me a lot, and was an issue with Shakespeare must have been about the setting. You obviously could not have this performance in a movie type setting, there were not many funds and it was on stage. When the king and princess were killed, it was up to whoever was playing the part of the messanger in the play to deliver the news to Medea, using a good enough description so that the audience could understand and envision the situation.
Also, if anyone knows, was Jason and the Argonauts ever in play form, or was it simply a story told and widely known?
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Medea
Dec 5, 2002 18:42:26 GMT -5
Post by shaxper on Dec 5, 2002 18:42:26 GMT -5
I've always meant to read Medea. Screw Hamlet. Medea is the ULTIMATE revenge tragedy. What it lacks in substance, it makes up for in blood and torment. Yes, the theatre back then worked very differently. Whether to avoid bad special effects or to protect audience sensibilities, gory violent stuff always happened off stage and was described by a messenger. I'd imagine the clarity of their descriptions became an art in and of itself.
Can't answer your question about Jason and the Argonauts. That's not really my time period, though I've never heard of such a play, so I'd guess it's probably just working from common cultural myth.
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Medea
Dec 5, 2002 18:53:13 GMT -5
Post by inhiding on Dec 5, 2002 18:53:13 GMT -5
Short, sweet, and to the point, that is nice, no beating the bush, she gets what she wants. We are also studying similar topics in Latin (actually, right now we are studying the Spartans). I think that my Latin teacher enjoys blood and gore a bit too much. ;D
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Medea
Dec 6, 2002 7:27:01 GMT -5
Post by shaxper on Dec 6, 2002 7:27:01 GMT -5
Ask her if she'sever read Gorbaduc (sp?). It's the bloodiest damn revenge play ever written.
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Medea
Jan 4, 2003 0:40:53 GMT -5
Post by rabagas on Jan 4, 2003 0:40:53 GMT -5
I believe Jason and the Argonauts began as an epic poem. The action takes place before The Siege of Troy described by Homer. There is a quite excellent Argonautica by Apollonius of Rhodes but it dates from the Hellenistic period I believe. There were probably many ancient plays on the subject, but none have survived except for Medea by Euripedes.Recently, John Gardner (Grendel) wrote an epic poem Jason and Medea.
If you know the history of Medea you have to think that Jason was the stupidest of all the Greek heroes. After seducing Medea and obtaining her help in stealing the Golden Fleece, Jason, Medea, and her younger brother fled by ship, but were hotly pursued by her father. In order to slow down her father, Medea killed her brother and cut him into pieces which she threw into the sea calculating correctly that he would stop to save as many pieces of his son as possible, thus delaying him and allowing Medea and Jason to escape.
I don't know about you, but I would think twice about crossing a woman capable of killing her brother in cold blood and using his body parts to distract her father. I don't think she's just going to have a good cry when you leave her for another woman. And then there's the fact she's a witch. She has real supernatural powers. And she's got your kids to use against you as a weapon. Dumb and dumber.
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