Medea herself. It is about the society she lives in, the values that surround her, and the context of Western Civilization as we have discussed it. To what extent does her life reflect or contradict the values and ideas of her contemporary Greek society? Think about everything we are reading and discussing about the Greeks—laws, values, family, gender, the individual, the state. You cannot just say Medea is “bad,” any more than you can say she did the right thing. Why? What is the judgment based on? The play is a complex argument, often sympathetic to women. The Chorus is also an important factor, a “conscience” expressing itself.
