Messenger s speech

In Euripides s Medea, in accordance to the principles of Greek drama, when the protagonist Medea takes revenge on her ex-husband Jason by using her children to deliver poisoned gifts to his new wife, the Princess Glauce, the audience does not witness the horrible sight of Glauce being burned alive along with her father, Creon. Instead, the murder is recounted to the audience and to Medea via a monologue delivered by a messenger, as was traditional in Greek drama. This monologue not only serves the purpose of relating the gruesome details of Medea s successful act of vengeance, but also reveals another alter of Medea s multifaceted personality; this time revealing her chillingly bloodthirsty nature, which contrasts with the desperate, loving mother the audience sees in the last episode The monologue also conveys to the audience one of the play s most important messages-- that the Greeks motto of an eye for an eye would inevitably lead to death, decay and destruction. Being a didactic drama, Euripides Medea takes this opportunity to convey to the men of that time that if such horrendous acts seemed repugnant when carried out by a woman, they were just as obviously wrong when carried out by men. The messenger s speech is thus of utmost significance to the plot of the tragedy, with various literary devices like foreshadowing,simile, metaphor and distinctly horrific visual imagery used to convey the full horror of Medea s regicide, accompanied as always with customary didacticism. The messenger s speech is structured in a way that presents a contrast between the happiness and marital bliss of Glauce and her household, and the eventual violent death of Glauce and her father. This contrast only serves to heighten the feeling of pity and horror that embraces the audience upon hearing the narration of the murder, making the beginning of the speech , which introduces the character of Glauce for the very first time, all the more deliberately significant. The messenger describes the scene as joyful and reconciliatory as the servants rejoice in Medea s apparent blessing of the newlywed couple One of us was kissing the children s hands, another their golden heads. The word golden especially paints a fair, almost holy scene of peace and bliss, as do the words pleased and delighted in the same passage. Glauce too is described as looking lovingly at Jason, but upon seeing his children, she shows revulsion and turns away her white cheek. The colour white, although here used as a depiction of fairness, seems almost a forewarning of Glauce s coming death and the pallor of her corpse. Jason s conciliatory words, however, bring her attention to the gifts the children bear, and all thoughts of enmity are dispelled for the moment. Glauce s immediate attraction to the gifts the children bring to her has didactic undertones to it. As a character, she seems weak, shallow, vain and overly feminine, contrasting strongly with Medea s almost masculine turn of personality. Euripides uses Glauce s greed and vanity to exemplify the fact that such flaws in character are sinful and lead to one s downfall. He also uses Glauce to demonstrate the ephemeral, fleeting nature of beauty. The colours golden and white recur in this passage, reiterating the divinity of Glauce s beauty and the inevitable reality of her coming death. Moreover, Glauce is described as casting smiles at her lifeless reflection, and stepping delicately with her feet so white as she revelled in her gifts, and time and again stopping to stare back down at her ankles, thus conveying her vain nature to the audience. The use of the word

lifeless strikes another note of foreboding, while reflection and gleaming mirror emphasize the illusory nature of the whole scene, soon to fall apart. The following description of what happened when the effects of the poison kicked in is slightly melodramatic, and yet highly effective in creating a visual image of the princess s tragic and untimely death. That Glauce lurched backward towards the throne and collapsed on to it emphasizes once more the didactic message of the passage, that greed is often the downfall of us all, because Glauce effectively dies on the throne of her own kingdom. The description of Glauce s plight spares the audience no detail, so that even if the customs of Greek drama prevented violent acts from desecrating the holy ground of the theatre, the audience is by no means left without a visual of the murder white foam trickling over her lips, her eyes rolling and protruding, and a bloodless pallor invading her flesh. Each word of that description brings to life the agony of the death Medea had planned for Glauce, and the lines following it remind the audience that the princess had just been married she had had a new husband and was yet a bride, thus emphasizing the tragedy of her death. Medea s wrath, however, does not let Glauce off so easily, and what follows the poisoninduced seizures is even worse. The description becomes even more vivid, with short sentence structures conveying the fast pace of action, like Every room in the palace echoed to the sound of constant running, a line which brings to mind the thudding of the runners footsteps and the last beats of Glauce s heart. The coronet (again described as golden ) lets out a wondrous stream of devouring fire and the dress starts burning away the wretched girl s white flesh. The use of the word golden creates a parallel between the finery and the destruction of the fire, both somewhat golden in colour, while white is again used to emphasize death. The girl s actions upon being attacked by the flames ironically mimic her original actions when she was admiring herself in the mirror, again creating a parallel between greed and ultimate downfall she took to her heels, tossing her head and hair this way and that in her desire to get rid of the crown. The poison s action is further described, with phrases like blood congealed with fire, and flesh melted away from her bones like resin from a pine-tree, the latter a simile, jumping out in their horrific detail. When Creon enters, he embraces his daughter s corpse, upon which the poison begins to act upon him as well, again described almost enthusiastically by the messenger, who is given the chance at last to voice his opinion instead of merely narrating the twofold tragedy. The king at first cries out in pain and asks to share his daughter s fate, but when he stuck to her fine dress, as ivy clings to laurel branches, (another example of simile, used to bring the king s predicament to life before the audience), the king struggles to pull away. This demonstrates that even this great and noble king who proclaims his love and grief so loudly is flawed he does not really love his daughter so much as to die with her. Again his struggles are brought to life with the use of particular phrases like withered flesh, awful predicament and gasped and breathed his last. The messenger ends his speech eloquently with customary didacticism, taking this opportunity to preach unto the audience the hopelessness of life For no one in this life of ours knows happiness, and describes the life of man as being but a shadow. On this grim note, the messenger concludes his speech and departs, leaving the audience to ponder the uselessness of the pain and death Medea s wounded pride has wrought.

The messenger s speech has an ironic quality to it, as he does not realize that what has transpired is but the first part of the revenge Medea has planned, and that this precursor is not nearly as horrible as the worst Medea can do to destroy Jason. However, the messenger unwittingly spurs on Medea to action as she takes his words to mean that the guard of the deceased king are coming to capture her. She seems to believe that it is inevitable that the children will die, and so takes this opportunity to kill them mercifully, i.e. sacrifice them, rather than have them be killed slowly and tortuously by the Corinthians. Thus the messenger s monologue has great significance in this episode and its conclusion signifies the beginning of the end of the great tragedy of Jason and Medea.