Close Reading Essay #1 The play of Medea reminds me a lot of two movies one being “The Diary of a Mad Black Woman” and the other “Waiting to Exhale.” In the movie “The Diary of a Mad Black Woman,” the main character was cheated on by her husband and then put her out of their home and she was left with nowhere to go. In the movie “Waiting to Exhale,” another woman was also cheated on by her husband and also went through a deep depression just like Medea. After she came out of her depression she set all of her husband’s clothes and car on fire. Medea shares many similarities with both of these women such as going through a depression, seeking revenge, and having their trust betrayed. One passage that particularly stood out to me was lines 200 -220 on pages 849 and 850. Medea finally came out of her house but instead of crying and being deeply upset about Jason and Glauce, she was very calm and showed self-control. In beginning of the passage she spoke about how a person could be judged for being quiet. She went on to add that “There is no justice in the world’s censorious eyes.” In modern day language these two sentences happen so much in everyday life. Too often people are judged based off irrelevant things such as the clothes they were or just from they’re physical appearance. How many times has a Middle Eastern person been labeled as a terrorist? Or how many times has it been assumed that all Asians are good at math? People are constantly being labeled and judge without knowing and without having their story being known. Furthermore in the passage Medea says, “ I accept my place; but this blow that has fallen on me was not to be expected. It has crushed my heart. Life has no pleasure, dear friends. I want to die. Jason was my whole life; he knows that well. Now he has proven himself the most contemptible of men.” Some people would consider this section to be an over dramatic since Medea wanted to die after Jason left, but Jason was the one thing that she cared about more than anything. I think her words showed passion and deep emotion. Not only did her situation affect her mentally, but physically as well because she refused to leave her bed. Medea was so in love in with Jason that when he left her she did not want to do anything except cry and end her life because she as felt as though her world had ended. To be in love is a wonderful thing and to share that love with another person is even better, but unfortunately this did not apply to Medea and Jason. It is clear that Medea was in love Jason, but Jason’s heart was not in their relationship. For Medea a life without Jason was not worth living and to her Jason proved he was the most untrustworthy man in the species of man. Starting from lines 213 -216 Medea, expressed her feeling about women and burden of finding a husband. She says, “Surely, of all the creatures that have life and will, we women are the most wretched. When, for an extravagant sum, we have bought a husband, we must then accept him as a possessor of our body. Then the great question: will the man we get be bad or good? For women, divorce is not respectable; to repel the man, not possible. ” I took this