Woman Destroyed/Medea Essay

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College English After centuries and centuries of fighting for equal rights, many people believe that women have achieved equal rights in the world. This is a great misconception. There are many places in the world today where women can be stoned to death for being raped, on the other hand there are places in the world such as the United States, where women can be the CEO’s of large corporations. It is extremely interesting to see the double standards, expectations, and restrictions placed on women throughout history portrayed in two works of literature that were written in two different time periods. Euripides’ “Medea” and Simone De Beauvoir’s “A Women Destroyed,” are works of literature that were written centuries apart yet they both identify the same problems and clichés that associate with women’s rights. These two stories prove that even if women decide to handle their business differently they are still faced with the same sort of restrictions and expectations that they have been held to for centuries. In Sophocles’ play “Medea,” Medea is cheated on by her husband Jason. Jason was offered hand in marriage with the princess of Corinth by the king, Creon. Right away double standards are put into effect. Jason claims that Medea should feel honored that her husband is leaving her for the princess, giving him some sort of nonsensical idea that he is doing something noble. He tries to make her believe that she should be glad that her children are now going to be royalty. Meanwhile if she was the one who had cheated it would have been a much different scenario. This points directly at the double standard that men are allowed to cheat and get away with it but a woman is labeled a complete whore and in many cases could be exiled or killed. It is extremely interesting to see that this double standard is timeless. Although it may have been more extreme in the past and in other countries, the same ideas apply to relationships in many ways even in modern times. The idea is shown in the play that women are good for nothing more than to have children and raise their children. Medea expresses how she gave up her whole entire life just for
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