OCR AS F384: Greek tragedy, 6 June 2014
anyone else out there got the exam on friday? how are you revising? what questions do you think will come up?
(edited 9 years ago)
I'm doing the exam, I've revised by making summaries geared towards the ten markers, and by making quote sheets for key characters and themes. My teacher has said from the pattern it should be Agamemnon and Trojan Women for the comment questions and Medea and Ajax for the essays 
Doing summaries for Trojan Women and Agamemnon. Making notes on how characters are portrayed in Trojan Women, Agamemnon and Medea. (Leaving out ajax) This is what my notes for Medea look like:
For Medea- Her "feminist" speech- highlights the patriarchal society that that she was in. Her speech casts herself (a women) as inferior, she is expected to give birth, she is supposed to obey her husband (the nurse says that this is what a wife does). She IS a women, her maternal love for her children is evidence of this (she hesitates before killing them) and she also has to live with the pain of having no children.
Cunning+manipulative- Makes Aegeus swear an oath to receive her in Athens. Says to Creon that I, as a women, am in no position to harm a King (this also reinforces the patriarchal society) and gets a one day reprieve. Medea manipulates Jason into thinking she has forgiven him; she tells her children to go towards their father. (Using the children to make Jason trust her). Uses the gown to poison Glauce and ends up killing Creon too.
Medea's godlike portrayal lies in the end of the play where she is above the roof, a place normally reserved for the Gods. She also uses commanding vocabulary in her final encounter with Jason. Perhaps this godlike portrayal means that Medea is not to be despised, despite all that she has done. It doesn't matter what you think of her, you cannot discount her.
Jason- He doesn't appreciate what Medea has done for him; the Nurse tells us that she made Pelias' daughters kill their father for Jason. She was the reason Jason achieved the golden fleece, she also killed her brother on their getaway. Jason says it was Aphrodite (who helped him get the golden fleece), he doesn't value Medea even though she left her homeland and family for him. Jason is not understanding of the plight of Women- he maintains even at the end that Medea did everything out of sexual jealousy. Jason says to Medea that all women are the same and without women there would be no troubles- he is being portrayed as a misogynist and he is symbolic of Greek society. We do see a better side of Jason when he offers to give Medea and his children anything they need and when he attempts to convince Glauce to allow the children stay in Corinth.
However, Jason says he married for the good of her and his sons (not because of faults with Medea). He also says she should be grateful for arriving in Greece. In Greek society, marriage wasn't about love, it was a relationship for the betterment of two families. A 5th century Athenian audience would not consider a marriage to a foreigner (Medea- Greeks were xenophobic) as legitimate and would think that Jason is well within his rights to marry Glauce as she will give him high status, wealth, (these are important for Greeks) as well as legitimate children. We could despise Jason for leaving Glauce but we could say that he is doing what was considered the norm- not anything atrocious.
We do sympathise with Jason, he doesn't get to bury his sons, his bride is dead and the possibility of future children is over. Medea has Athens to escape to, Jason is lost, his life may well be at risk at Corinth. Medea has won, she is above Jason in her chariot with no way of him reaching her. He has no way of avenging the deaths of Glauce and his children.
Chorus does not do anything to affect the action of the play. They are a group of Corinthian women, surely they would attempt to stop the murder of the royal family when Medea tells them what she is planning? No. They don't. Perhaps their inactivity can be explained by the dissatisfaction of the treatment of women in their society. Maybe Medea is an outlet for their rage. Euripides use of the chorus is another example of him going against the status quo of his day; they sing of the destructive nature of love, the pain of exile and the horror of Medea's actions- it is a way for him to explore key themes.
For Medea- Her "feminist" speech- highlights the patriarchal society that that she was in. Her speech casts herself (a women) as inferior, she is expected to give birth, she is supposed to obey her husband (the nurse says that this is what a wife does). She IS a women, her maternal love for her children is evidence of this (she hesitates before killing them) and she also has to live with the pain of having no children.
Cunning+manipulative- Makes Aegeus swear an oath to receive her in Athens. Says to Creon that I, as a women, am in no position to harm a King (this also reinforces the patriarchal society) and gets a one day reprieve. Medea manipulates Jason into thinking she has forgiven him; she tells her children to go towards their father. (Using the children to make Jason trust her). Uses the gown to poison Glauce and ends up killing Creon too.
Medea's godlike portrayal lies in the end of the play where she is above the roof, a place normally reserved for the Gods. She also uses commanding vocabulary in her final encounter with Jason. Perhaps this godlike portrayal means that Medea is not to be despised, despite all that she has done. It doesn't matter what you think of her, you cannot discount her.
Jason- He doesn't appreciate what Medea has done for him; the Nurse tells us that she made Pelias' daughters kill their father for Jason. She was the reason Jason achieved the golden fleece, she also killed her brother on their getaway. Jason says it was Aphrodite (who helped him get the golden fleece), he doesn't value Medea even though she left her homeland and family for him. Jason is not understanding of the plight of Women- he maintains even at the end that Medea did everything out of sexual jealousy. Jason says to Medea that all women are the same and without women there would be no troubles- he is being portrayed as a misogynist and he is symbolic of Greek society. We do see a better side of Jason when he offers to give Medea and his children anything they need and when he attempts to convince Glauce to allow the children stay in Corinth.
However, Jason says he married for the good of her and his sons (not because of faults with Medea). He also says she should be grateful for arriving in Greece. In Greek society, marriage wasn't about love, it was a relationship for the betterment of two families. A 5th century Athenian audience would not consider a marriage to a foreigner (Medea- Greeks were xenophobic) as legitimate and would think that Jason is well within his rights to marry Glauce as she will give him high status, wealth, (these are important for Greeks) as well as legitimate children. We could despise Jason for leaving Glauce but we could say that he is doing what was considered the norm- not anything atrocious.
We do sympathise with Jason, he doesn't get to bury his sons, his bride is dead and the possibility of future children is over. Medea has Athens to escape to, Jason is lost, his life may well be at risk at Corinth. Medea has won, she is above Jason in her chariot with no way of him reaching her. He has no way of avenging the deaths of Glauce and his children.
Chorus does not do anything to affect the action of the play. They are a group of Corinthian women, surely they would attempt to stop the murder of the royal family when Medea tells them what she is planning? No. They don't. Perhaps their inactivity can be explained by the dissatisfaction of the treatment of women in their society. Maybe Medea is an outlet for their rage. Euripides use of the chorus is another example of him going against the status quo of his day; they sing of the destructive nature of love, the pain of exile and the horror of Medea's actions- it is a way for him to explore key themes.
Original post by Limbo270
yeah my teacher said the same predictions so hopefully they are right! i'm making quote sheets for characters but there are so many of them and theres no way i'll learn them all...
Not necessary. Don't get hung up on quotes. As long as you can reference specific details of the play, it does not have to be a quote. Remember that they are translations, the analysis of specific words is rather pointless.
I've got this exam too! I'm quite nervous about timing and such. I just hope I'll be able to answer the questions without coming across like an idiot.
Original post by Everythingstupid
Not necessary. Don't get hung up on quotes. As long as you can reference specific details of the play, it does not have to be a quote. Remember that they are translations, the analysis of specific words is rather pointless.
I second this, I use quotes because I find it faster than paraphrasing but they're not necessary if you know the play well enough, though a couple for each character/theme can be a good way to go? Don't panic whatever you do!
Edit:
BUT if you are learning quotes an absolutely fantastic way of getting them stuck in your head is to read through them aloud before you go to bed, ticking off the quotes as you say them. I've used it for every exam I've had and its really worked
(edited 9 years ago)
Original post by clairellette
I second this, I use quotes because I find it faster than paraphrasing but they're not necessary if you know the play well enough, though a couple for each character/theme can be a good way to go? Don't panic whatever you do!
Edit:
BUT if you are learning quotes an absolutely fantastic way of getting them stuck in your head is to read through them aloud before you go to bed, ticking off the quotes as you say them. I've used it for every exam I've had and its really worked
Edit:
BUT if you are learning quotes an absolutely fantastic way of getting them stuck in your head is to read through them aloud before you go to bed, ticking off the quotes as you say them. I've used it for every exam I've had and its really worked
Agreed. I guess its about the individual. I find it easier to just make mind maps of key things that take place and analyse the events in different ways. I'm not even revising Ajax and don't know Agamemnon well enough. I NEED trojan women to be a context question and Medea to be an essay question or im truly ****ed.
Don't worry its basically dead set that they'll be on that way round (touch wood) as thats been the pattern since even before 2009 when the spec changed, and even if it's not apparently the Agamemnon questions as fairly obvious to answer normally?
Original post by clairellette
don't worry its basically dead set that they'll be on that way round (touch wood) as thats been the pattern since even before 2009 when the spec changed, and even if it's not apparently the agamemnon questions as fairly obvious to answer normally?
I did Trojan Women and Ajax, how about you guys? I think it went pretty well, hopefully, almost ran out of time on the essay questions and I think it was a bit waffly 
Original post by klytemnestra
I did Trojan Women and Ajax, how about you guys? I think it went pretty well, hopefully, almost ran out of time on the essay questions and I think it was a bit waffly
Trojan women and Medea. I think TW's C question wasn't the easiest, what did you talk about?
I thought the questions were really weird
I wrote about how Helen did and didn't deserve sympathy from modern and ancient perspectives, like modern audience would feel sorry for her because she's being killed for the actions of Menelaus and Paris, and an ancient audience would be familiar with the Judgement of the apples that Hecabe denounces as false, so they would feel sorry for her for that, stuff like that. I barely remember now, I've repressed the traumatic memory!
Did anyone do Ajax for the essay? I wrote a load about how his death was a necessary plot device used by Sophocles to communicate to the audience the importance of community and comment on the shift of the traditional Homeric hero mode of masculinity and world view to the democracy of modern Athens, and how Athena needed him to die but with honour intact so he could have a hero cult with members such as Militiades and Cimon to help her city
Original post by Everythingstupid
Trojan women and Medea. I think TW's C question wasn't the easiest, what did you talk about?
Hey, I did the Medea essay too. How did you find it? Pretty sure I ****ed it up.
I answered Agamemnon and Ajax and am now terrified because I knew nothing about the hero cult/relation to contemporary Athens.
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