In ancient Greek literature, there are two types of drama’s. There was the comedic drama, and the tragic drama. The difference between these two dramas would be decided by the fate of the hero at the sisation of the play. Tragedy being the most popular, was the biggest part of Greek society. This is proven by all of the plays, stories, and works the Greeks created concerning this topic. Tragic plays were so heavily conducted that all of them began to share common traits. These similarities are present in two of the most popular Greek tragedies, Oedipus the King and Medea.
Both Oedipus the King and Medea have the protagonist’s exhibit excessive stubbornness and steadfastness in their stories which ultimately leads to their downfall. In Oedipus the King, Oedipus’s stubbornness is evident from the very beginning of the play. Oedipus is immediately searching for answers by sending Creon to Delphi to seek divine guidance from Apollo. Once Creon comes back, Oedipus starts questioning him furiously and declares a search for Laius’ murderer. Oedipus’ unyielding mind soon gets the best of him and he starts to curse the murderer, which leads to detrimental consequences.
He curses the perpetrator by saying: And on the murderer this curse I lay — Wretch, may he pine in utter wretchedness! And for myself, if with my privity he gain admittance to my hearth, I pray the curse I laid on others fall on me. See that ye give effect to all my hest, for my sake and the god’s and for our land, a desert blasted by the wrath of heaven. (Sophocles 244-53) The curses uttered by Oedipus exhibit his intense willpower to discover the mystery of Laius’s murderer. This in turn ironically causes him to set up his demise.
His ruin is brought on by his stubbornness to learn the truth. Oedipus’ bullheadedness is what makes him ignore Tiresias warnings. This is displayed when Oedipus declares, “Yea, I am wroth, and will not stint my words, but speak my whole mind. Thou me thinks thou art he, Who planned the crime, aye, and performed it too, All save the assassination, and if thou Hadst not been blind, I had been sworn to boot That thou alone didst do the bloody deed” (Sophocles 345-50). This exhibition of Oedipus’s stubbornness, forces Tiresias to speak the truth unwillingly.
Hubristic Oedipus, fails to see Tiresias’s premonitions. He stubbornly threatens Tiresias and banishes him from his presence. Overall, Oedipus’ strong belief that the truth will lead to a cleansing of the city of Thebes, results in Oedipus stabbing his own eyes out and ruining the reputation of his family. Oedipus’ arrogance teaches that a lack of knowledge and a prominence of ignorance causes negative effects in one’s future. In Medea, Euripides’s uses the theme of stubbornness throughout this classic. Euripides makes Medea’s hunger for revenge irresistible.
Not only has Medea been cheated on by her husband, but the king of Corinth has also banished her from the city so he doesn’t have to worry about his daughter’s life in danger. Medea can also no longer go back home because she betrayed her family in aiding Jason’s quest to retrieve the Golden Fleece. This leaves Medea in despair, being emotionally wounded, and uncontrollably outraged. All these emotions fuel Medea’s insatiable fire of revenge. Medea’s illogical mental state can be seen in the very beginning of the story when the nurse feebly says, “[Medea] hates her sons [… I dread to think of what is hatching in her mind” (Euripides 1).
Euripides includes this quote to show foreshadowing in the story. Medea’s path of revenge is pretty clearly set even from the opening moments of the play. Medea let’s her stubborn anger get the best of her and decides to murder her own children to leave Jason an unhealable wound. Medea’s hatred for Jason is so fierce that she’ll go to any lengths to hurt him. She feels that her revenge wouldn’t be complete if the boys are left to live. Euripides writes, “But, my lady, to kill your own two sons [… ]? It is the supreme way to hurt my husband” (Euripides 140-41).
This cogent reasoning cannot dissuade Medea from her stubborn goal. Even though it is difficult to defend murder, especially of children, to Medea, her reasons are perfectly sound. At the final moment when Jason realizes his punishment, he screams in one of the most significant moment in Medea, “Oh God, do you hear it, this persecution. These sufferings of this hateful woman, this monster, murderess of children? Still what can I do that I will do: I will lament and cry upon heaven, calling the Gods to bear me witness how you have killed my boys” (Euripides 1405-10).
Jason’s misery over the homicide of his children completes the vengeance of Medea. It would not have been enough for her to have just killed Jason in retaliation for his abandonment of her. Medea wanted to make him suffer and leave him to live in the world that was now devoid of all the things he cared about. Since Jason cared about his own selfish ambition and royal bloodlines, Medea left him with none of these things. If it weren’t for Medea’s persistent action then Jason would not have been dealt this tragedy. Overall, both Oedipus the King and Medea displays stubbornness of their main characters at work.
Oedipus was so intent on finding out the truth that he failed to realize how it could affect him and his family. Medea was also stubborn because she was focused on hurting Jason that she ended up killing her own children. Also in both tragedies, we notice the cleansing element in the end of the story; showing that the audience must first be able to relate to the tragic hero before they can feel sympathetic and sorry for them. These stories relate to modern times by teaching that being excessively stubborn and arrogant can destroy an individual’s life.
