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Ending of Medea--------is it more contrived than inevitable?



                              
                          

                                The criticism labelled against Euripides in Medea is not merely for the exceptional portrayal of the heroine as an immoral, almost inhuman woman, but also for the unsatisfactory ending the play has. Here the playwrights has been accused of striving after spectacular effect by restoring the techniques of Deus ex machine or ‘god on the machine’, a cheap device used by the unskilled dramatists failing to bring natural conclusions to the plays which was criticized by classical authors like Aristotle ,Horace and Aristophanes. The appearance of machine-gods in Euripides plays occurs too often, as notes Gilbert Murray and such a contrived device is employed to round off the story of Medea also
                       
                      Medea is the tragic story of a barbarian woman who has extraordinary psychological and emotional power. She loved Jason, and to achieve him she went against her own father and her own country. Gifted with different magical tricks, Medea helped Jason to become the king. Sacrificing everything for the sake of Jason, she started living with him. But Jason marrying another woman for achieving power. This brought conflict between Jason and Medea and total neglect to Medea, forces her to turn violent. Medea's fury, jealousy and desperation lead her to revenge by poisoning Jason's new love Glauce and her father Creon. But this does not satisfy her revengeance and she broods over more violent act to shatter Jason completely. She has  now got a promise of shelter from the Athenian king, Aegeus and she kills even her children by Jason.
          
               When Jason tried to save his children from Medea's wrath, he sees her in a flying chariot of winged dragons on top of the house with the dead bodies of their two children mounted on the chariot. The completely wrecked Jason appeals Medea piteously for a chance to cares the dead bodies of his  children.
                  But Medea is quite indifferent. Jeeringly she says: "Go thou, and lay thy bride to sleep." The play ends with the magic chariot slowly carrying Medea away andJason cast on the earth.
                         
                  Such a rugged ending by the use of deus ex machine has invited criticism from the scholars and readers alike. Nevertheless, Euripides's use of deus ex machine has some distinctions. He not a naïve dramatist seeking divine invention for his inability to complete a tale or untie knot. The ending serves his own purposes; First, he gains considerable time which would be necessary in revealing the plot. Secondly, he could not cast away the myths altogether, but got rid of them as much as possible by relegating them to the Prologue and deus ex machina. Euripides's novelty also lies in the fact that on the chariot that he does not present a god, but his heroine Medea.

                                 The catharsis is not as pervasive in Medea as it is in Oedipus Rex. Medea's suffering is not so awful, although her acts are bloody and dreadful. The play evokes more of awe at the sight of revenge which a wronged woman might be prompted to take in desperation and dejection. In her revenge motive by the result of Jason's infidelity and injustice to her, Medea becomes representative of all women and the ending brings poetic justice.
                                   This ending of Medea is often levelled as more contrived than inevitable and is devoid of aesthetical values as well. But Euripides is not the sole dramatist to use deus ex machine on the Greek stage .It creates quite a sensational and striking effect for the spectators and fills them with tragic pity and fear. As Grube notes, Euripides's device, however incredible to the contemporary and modern spectators, serves to remove Medea out of Jason's reach.
                                    The concluding scene is too much effective from symbolic point of view as well once looks at the episode of Aegeus's co-incidental appearance for seeking help from Medea. This is turning point for Medea, has got a promised by the king to stay in  Athenian.  As Conacher said, as it transforms the human heroine into the folk-lore metaphor of magic From this view point the ending of the play given relevance and would appear less contrived.

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