Medea: Innocent or Evil?

Medea

The Character of Medea can be seen as many things. I believe Medea is a crazy woman that cares a lot and and solemnly about Jason's betrayal. She is hurt of what he wants even when it comes to him asking her to be his mistress, and when he tries to explain what happened, she is still bothered. She goes on trying to hurt Jason, and i feel she is just made of pure evil, that there is no question about her evilness.

Medea killing her kids

Medea has a problem, maybe a mental problem, an obsession with Jason may be the correct wording for it. She kills her kids not for any other reason, but to hurt Jason. She also tries to poison Jason's wife. She shows makes Jason see all of his loss and then she leaves, as if the victim of what happened. Yet indifferent of what happened she is the only one to blame, because as much as a betrayal could hurt, she went to an extreme. To kill another being, not just one, but several, or even to kill those who have your own blood, who she gave birth to, its all simply inhumane.

Medieval vs. Japanese

Medieval theater was very well known, and it was very well recognized, yet it was easily confused by other acts, and others were lost because they lack literary sources. At that time most plays hardly consist of  written scripts because few can write, and about the same could read. At that time a lot of the plays related to religion, or it portrayed morality, and the importance of morals. One of the most notable types of theatre was the pageant wagons. The actors were on a moving stage and they moved around the quad.

Pageant Wagons

Japanese theater has several variations, but the most famous is the "kabuki". As stated in Wikipedia, "Kabuki is a type of theatre that combines music, drama, and dance." It was a great success with the use of real swords and such a "real-life" experience. Another type of art is the "bunraku" which consist of puppet-like shows. the audience sees the characters being controlled by actors/performers who are underneath a black cloak. At times, the cloaked actors would control humans, as puppets as well.

Bunraku

Nowadays we can see more work from Japanese theatre than Medieval theatre not necessarily because its better, but because in japan, more people were literate, and in medieval times literacy was a big issue. 

[edit]

Silent Movie, more than text

In the play, Silent Movie by Jessica Hagedorn, Emma and Lucy are united in a relationship of pleasure and authority. It is evident they please each other in companionship and sexually, but its not certain if they are both there in free will. Emma has the authority over Lucy by title, but towards the end it seems the other way around almost as if Lucy could have manipulated Emma into doing what she had done.

Class differences

Both characters shape the class differences in that Lucy is Emma's maid,  and when things come down to it, Emma loses her head, and Lucy controls the situation. This shows that even though things tend to be easier for Emma, she cant control her emotions under pressure, which makes it almost evident that Lucy has been in situations similar to this, or that she has something to do with it all.

Racial differences

The racial differences depicted by these characters in the play is and can be very questionable. A noticeable racial difference is how they refer to the older Chinese man as the "chink". Also, they refer to him as a harmless old man, as if he couldn't even consider touching them. He was close to nothing in the women's eyes, therefore marking the difference and setting up a "White Racial Frame" in which the whites are above all the "non-whites"

External Links:
http://www.jessicahagedorn.net/about-2
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jessica_Hagedorn