Medea

Grillparzer, Franz, 1791-1872Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

4.0

Word count: 116K words
Chapters: 12

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today. Medea by Franz Grillparzer. Author: Grillparzer, Franz, 1791-1872. Language: German. Class: PT: Language and Literatures: Germanic, Scandinavian, and Icelandic literatures. Release Date: Apr 1, 2005

Editor's review

Medea is a major play in which Grillparzer handles classical material, focusing on Medea's loneliness, abandonment, and revenge in a foreign land. Compared with Euripides' tragedy of the same name, this play emphasizes the character's psychological struggle and identity predicament in an unfamiliar environment, giving the ancient story an inner dimension closer to modern drama. The language is taut and the conflict concentrated, making it a good specimen for understanding how German-language drama rewrites Greek tragedy. As you read, attend to the dialogues between Medea and Jason that gradually break down, and how the judgments of the chorus or bystanders shape the audience's stance. For readers studying images of women, the experience of exile, or the history of classical reception, this work offers a text for in-depth discussion; read against Euripides' version, it reveals even more clearly how different eras understood the same figure.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Readers interested in adaptations of Greek tragedy and the evolution of the Medea figure
Students wishing to study women and exile in German-language drama
Literature lovers with some German who are willing to read character dialogue closely
Scholars who need to read Grillparzer against the classical original

Not a good fit for

Readers hoping for light entertainment who find tragic conflict oppressive
Beginners who rely entirely on modern annotations and introductions and are unwilling to look up allusions themselves
Readers with no German who do not intend to use a translation

Reading tips

Read a summary of Euripides' Medea first, then this play, to compare how the figure is handled.
Read closely the dialogue scenes between Medea and Jason, noting shifts in each side's position.
Make brief notes by act, tracing Medea's situation from dependence to rupture.
After reading, write a short response on exile and identity to test your grasp of the themes.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

FAQ

How does Grillparzer's Medea differ from Euripides'?

Both draw on the Medea legend, but Grillparzer focuses more on Medea's isolation in a foreign land and her psychological conflict, with the dramatic center on inner life and identity; the Euripidean version is known for its tragic structure and divine background. Reading them together reveals the adaptive approaches of different eras.

Can I read this directly without having read the original?

You can, since the play's plot is complete in itself. But knowing beforehand the basic outline of the Medea legend makes it easier to understand her relations with Jason, Creon, and others, and to enter the core of the conflict more quickly.

Does this edition have annotations and an introduction?

According to the available information, this is a public-domain German e-book released by Project Gutenberg; the text is the play itself, with no stated modern scholarly annotations or introduction. Classical allusions may require a mythological dictionary or related research materials.

Is it suitable for classroom discussion?

It is suitable as a discussion text for courses in drama or comparative literature, especially for analysis of images of women, exile, and classical adaptation. Teachers should supply background materials, however, and note that the edition has no annotations, so students should prepare knowledge of the myth and the author in advance.

Comments

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About the author

Grillparzer, Franz, 1791-1872 Author

Franz Grillparzer (1791–1872) was an Austrian dramatist and novelist. Publicly available information on the details of his life is limited, but the works he left behind are enough to show his important place in the history of German-language literature. Many of his plays draw on history and classical legend: König Ottokars Glück und Ende and Ein Bruderzwist in Habsburg deal with the rise and fall of dynasties and conflicts over power, while Das goldene Vließ and Medea retell ancient Greek myths. He also wrote works such as Die Jüdin von Toledo, which involves entanglements of love and politics, and Der arme Spielmann, which portrays with delicate strokes the fate of ordinary people. His plays are tightly structured and written in concise language, and he was skilled at revealing his characters' psychological conflicts and moral dilemmas within historical frameworks, exerting a lasting influence on the later development of Austrian drama.