Classic English Literature
At first glance, it seems that there is nothing in common in the Euripides’ play “Medea” and the Shakespeare’s play “The Tempest”. But is that really so? In this essay we will examine this issue and will show that they have a similar theme, by drawing a parallel between these two dramas.
First of all, I want to stress that both plays are psychological tragedies. “Medea” is a tragedy with a pronounced psychological orientation, due to the great interest of Euripides to the identity of the person with all her contradictions and passions. As a good psychologist, Euripides shows a storm of anguish in the soul of Medea, who plans to kill her own children. Inside her struggle two opposite emotions: jealousy and love for children, passion and sense of duty to the children. Jealousy suggests her a solution to kill children as the revenge for her husband Jason, but love for children makes her brush a terrible decision away and make another plan to run away from Corinth with children. This painful struggle between duty and passion, is shown by Euripides with a great skill, this is the culminating point of the whole chorus of the tragedy. Euripides reveals the human soul, tormented with inner struggle between duty and passion. Featuring the tragic conflict, by not embellishing the reality, the playwright finds that passion often overrules duty by destroying the human personality.
In Shakespeare’s “The Tempest” are shown the inner feelings and the transformation of a personality and judgments through the character of Prospero. The tempest of feelings generates in Prospero figurative judgment about life: one day everything in the world will melt away as this vision, and even the great globe will vanish without a trace. Prospero renounces his magic powers. This decision does not mean the reconciliation of the wise man with the evil, it’s just a recognition that human life has a limit that even the wisest men will one day disappear as all that exists in this world. Prospero managed to realize his goals - he has restored justice, made men better, punished the crime, returned to the human’s world and has given happiness to his daughter and to the young prince, ones he ruled over the elements and people, but now he recognizes that human forces are not unlimited, that is the sad finale of this magic and poetic tale. Thus, we can say that both tragedies have different themes, but the implementation of the two is made due to psychological analysis, by showing the psychological state of the characters.
The second common feature of “Medea” and “The Tempest” is that these dramas have mythological basis. It is noteworthy, that Euripides choose the fragment of the myth, when the heroic past of the heroes is behind and shows a personal, family drama. The dynamics of feelings and passions is one of the favorite themes of Euripides. For Euripides the myth is not the sacred history of the people, but the material for creativity. He is the first man in ancient literature who clearly poses a psychological problem, especially the problem of female psychology, and Euripides significance for the world literature is based primarily on his female characters. In general, the philosophical idea of Shakespeare’s “The Tempest” is more complicated. It is an allegorical poetic tale, in which Shakespeare explores the question of the means of transforming the world and human society, this is kind of “dramatic utopia”, reflecting the ancient ideas about the best political system, the role of science, art, love and poetry in society, customs, social inequality and the property. That is, the two works, at first glance, are written simply as a myth or a fairy tale, but the authors’ intention and the realization of their ideas are much more complex and difficult.
In the third place we compare the characters of the dramas. Medea can be compared, both with Prospero and Caliban from a “ The Tempest”. Medea in tragedy is a sauvage sorceress, for Jason and the rest, she lives far away in a foreign country where there is no family or congenial people. In “The Tempest” in the image of the evil savage depicted Caliban. Shakespeare’s Caliban is not one-dimensional and not prime, he has a natural, wild force, he has his own rightness of all. Prospero is the master of Caliban sage man and magician. The confrontation of Prospero and Caliban is the most dramatic of all the struggles of the play. Thus, we can say that both plays have both similarities and differences. In Euripides’ the conflict occurs inside of the character, and in Shakespeare’ - between the characters. Image of Medea has similar features with Caliban (savagery, wildness) and with Prospero (sorcery).
Another similar feature is the issue of justice in both tragedies. The tragedy “Medea” carries a sense of the absurdity of life: in the world, there is no justice, there is no boundary between good and evil, there is no truth, there is no happiness. Medea casts doubt on the highest values - the existence of gods (she calls for their help, but they did not help her), in the view of the world. Prospero manages his goals - he has restored justice, made men better, punished criminals, but he realizes that human forces are not unlimited, and that justice does not always triumph.
As a conclusion, we can say that both “Medea” and “The Tempest” are psychological tragedies in the center of which there is a conflict between the individual who faces the realities of life. The Euripides’s conflict is shown within the main character, the fight is inner, Shakespeare shows this struggle as a struggle between two principles, two opposite characters - Prospero and Caliban. It should be stressed, as well, that the image of Medea is more complex, as it shares a lot of similarities with both characters Prospero and Caliban. Also, the both plays is concerned one of the eternal themes, the theme of justice.
Works Cited
Shakespeare.mit.edu,. “The Tempest: Entire Play”. N.p., 2016. Web. 20 Feb. 2016.
Classics.mit.edu,. “The Internet Classics Archive | Medea By Euripides”. N.p., 2016. Web. 20 Feb. 2016.
