Deliverance

The play “Medea” by Euripides portrays the tragic relationship between Medea of Colchis and Jason of Iolcus. Throughout the course of the play Medea and Jason have three confrontations. The first shows the dichotomy that has developed between the two because of Jason’s betrayal of their love. The second shows Medea’s deception of Jason: apparently accepting of his decision to take Creon’s daughter as a bride. The third depicts Jason’s hatred for Medea and her unremorseful attitude about the fate of their children and her actions. Medea is ultimately inescapably destroyed by her pride and unreasonable or even obsessive love for Jason.

The first confrontation between Medea and Jason is foreshadowed by Medea’s words of anguish concerning her forsaken love that she had for Jason and the Chorus of Corinthian women’s responses to her. Jason shows his callousness right away by beginning his conversation with Medea by saying, “This is not the first occasion I have noticed how hopeless it is to deal with a stubborn temper” (15). He speaks to her as if he is justified, not seeing that his actions are at all hurtful, but rather helpful and worthy of Medea’s praise. Medea neither finds his words helpful nor his actions justified, best exemplified by when she says to him, “Faith in your word has gone. Indeed, I cannot tell whether you think the gods whose names you swore by then have ceased to rule and that new standards are set up, since you must know you have broken your word to me” (16). She even goes on to further demonstrate her hatred for him by saying, “Why is there no mark engraved upon men’s bodies, by which we could know the true ones from the false ones?” (17). Jason goes on to give Medea three reasons for his decision to take a new bride: “…That we might live well, and not be short of anything…Also that I might bring my children up worthily of my position, and, by producing more of them to be brothers of yours, we would draw the families together and all be happy” (18). Whether or not Jason’s motives may have been honorable, Medea finds nothing but hatred in her heart for him. As their conversation goes on, Medea does not relent in her position that Jason betrayed her and ends their confrontation by telling him that he will “make the kind of marriage that you will regret” (20).

When Medea speaks with Jason again, she repents for her previous behavior and she tells him how she has changed. These remorseful words are but ashes. She is playing a part, acting, deceiving. She is getting Jason right where she wants him in order for her final revenge to cut the deepest wound. One good example of Medea’s ruse is when she says, “I think that you are wise in having this other wife as well as me, and I was mad. I should have helped you in these plans of yours, have joined in the wedding, stood by the marriage bed, have taken pleasure in attendance on your bride” (28). Jason believes her saying, “I approve of what you say. And I cannot blame you even for what you said before” (29). Medea uses Jason with the intention of doing two terrible acts. She plans not only to murder Jason’s bride with poisonous gifts, but to also take the lives of their own children. She is overwhelmed by obsession to the point that what was once fanatical love is now neurotic revenge. Her passion has blinded her.

Preceding Jason and Medea’s third and final confrontation, Jason arrives at Medea’s house to find the Chorus of Corinthian women. He came in haste to make sure of his children’s safety, but when he gets there he learns of their murder: “What! That is it? O woman, you have destroyed me!” (42). Medea finally got the revenge she wanted, but at a terrible price. She has to bear the burden of knowing that she took her own children’s lives. Nothing can ever change that, not even the “holy feast and sacrifice each year for ever to atone for the blood guilt” that she speaks of (45). Medea’s madness drove her to mad ends and her actions destroyed what little she had left of the human in her. Jason knows this, yet Medea denies it hotly, as seen in the passage:

                        JASON: You feel the pain yourself. You share in my sorrow.

                        MEDEA: Yes, and my grief is gain when you cannot mock it.

                        JASON: Oh children, what a wicked mother she was to you! (44)

Medea’s pride blinds her as does her passion. She is too proud to see that her decisions were appalling and that although Jason made a mistake, he never deserved what she did to him. To kill an innocent child is to kill one’s soul. Innocent blood spilt in the name of revenge is beyond reason, beyond rational. It is complete insanity.

            Euripides’ “Medea” is a disturbing look into the power of obsession and the danger of excess. Medea, driven by her pride and ardor, vows to mar Jason in the same vain as he to her. Jason is naïve and not fully conscious of the consequences of his actions, while Medea is aware and has malice of forethought. She believes to be justified through Jason’s wrongs against her, maybe even because she is only partially mortal. Seeking revenge on Jason feverously, she sends poisoned gifts to his new bride. They burn away her flesh and the flesh of her father when he attempts to save her. The murderess of her very own children, Medea is woman blinded by Jason’s scorn. Through the terrible act of taking her children’s lives, Medea successfully completes her goal of destroying Jason and reducing him to a frame of a man. She however, pays a large price for her actions. The play does not depict this, but one can infer almost intuitively that she will forever be burdened with her terrible action. She will always have that disturbing crime on her heart and she will always be empty. Euripides truly shows the power of obsession and pride through Medea’s actions and the consequences they bring through Jason’s response. “And so it happens in this story” (47).

Nothing

            In Ernest Hemingway’s short story “A Clean, Well-Lighted Place”, Hemingway depicts the contrasting perspectives of two waiters, one younger and one older. With little exposition, other than that the story takes place in a café in Spain, we as readers are placed into almost what seems to be the middle of a scene. Hemingway uses three characters; the younger waiter, the older waiter, and the old man at the café, to evaluate one another and show the differing opinions about life that come with age and experience.

            Hemingway uses the waiters to judge the old man. The young waiter attacks the old man saying, “An old man is a nasty thing”, while the older waiter defends him saying, “Not always. This old man is clean. He drinks without spilling. Even now, drunk. Look at him” (275). When the old man leaves the bar, being turned down after asking for another drink (Likely by the young waiter), he was “walking unsteadily, but with dignity” (274). This portrays Hemingway’s feelings about drinking, more specifically that one can be a drunk and still retain one’s dignity. The old man exemplifies this by drinking without spilling, respecting the waiter’s wishes for him to leave, leaving a tip, and walking steadily and upright down the street on his way home. The older waiter can sympathize with the old man knowing that he will be him someday, while the younger waiter is ignorant and overly-confident and wishes that he would “have killed himself last week” (274).

            Some believe that confidence is an illusion of youth. This was probably a belief that Hemingway held and is illustrated when the young waiter states, “I have confidence. I am all confidence”, to which the older waiter replies, “I have never had confidence and I am not young” (276). This part of their conversation begins with the older waiter making a joke about the younger waiter’s wife: “And you? You have no fear of going home before the usual hour?” to which the younger waiter becomes defensive and replies, “Are you trying to insult me?” (276). The older waiter assures him that he was only joking. This conversation shows that the younger waiter doesn’t really have confidence and that the older waiter knows this. That is why he says that he never had any and that he is not young. The significance of saying that he is not young is that it validates Hemingway’s assertion that youth creates an illusion of confidence.

            The café plays perhaps the most important role in the story. To the three characters, the café holds a different meaning and purpose in their lives. The younger waiter takes the café for granted, not fully understanding the purpose it plays in society or the feelings of the other two characters about it. In his conversation with the older waiter, he says,  “Hombre, there are bodegas open all night long”, in reply to the older waiter speaking of his want to keep the café open later for all the people who need it (277). The narrator comments, “He disliked bars and bodegas. A clean, well-lighted café was a very different thing. (278)” This demonstrates that the older waiter’s opinion about the café. The café is all he has. It is a place of refuge for him. A place where he can spend his time productively and give others what little he has to offer. He knows that drinking by yourself at home is too depressing and if you are out at a café all night you succeed in escaping the loneliness and nothingness that is all around you. The old man’s opinion of the café can be understood by his actual presence there at two in the morning. He has even less than the waiter, as well as less to offer others. He is at the café until all hours of the night to escape loneliness and nothingness. He is there to at least be with other people and to get out of the darkness.

            The purpose that nothingness holds in the story is just as important as the purpose that cafe holds in it. While the younger waiter, having a job, wife, and “confidence”, feels like he has a purpose in life, the older waiter has nothing but his work. Throughout the story, the older waiter sees more of himself in the old man. He realizes that both of them are engulfed in the nothingness of everything. Hemingway is portraying an existentialist idea when the older waiter says, “I am reluctant to close up because there may be some one who needs the café” (277). The older waiter is talking about the existentialist idea that meaning is ethereal and that the purpose of things is subjective, having whatever meaning the individual chooses to give it. The older waiter cares about the old man, while the younger waiter wants to shut him out and even wishes he was dead. As the older waiter walks to a bodega after he closes up the café, he recites the Lord’s Prayer, replacing all of the words of “meaning” with “nada”. This further depicts his existentialist viewpoint of subjective purpose.

            “A Clean, Well-Lighted Place” is ultimately an exploration of the meaning of life. The younger waiter shows us the naïveté of young people and their opinions of meaning. He has hopes and a purpose. He has a wife and a house to go home to. He sees the old man and is disgusted by him. The older waiter has begun to see the nothingness that is everything. He feels sympathy for the old man because he is beginning to feel what he feels. The older waiter has trouble sleeping at night because he fears his end and he fears life itself, because he knows that he will ultimately descend into the same person as the old man. The version of the Lord’s Prayer that the older waiter recites as he leaves the café shows his loss of faith even in essential meaning. The old man shows us the end of a life that’s later half was consumed by nothingness and alcoholism. Perhaps the fact that the old man is deaf plays a part in the story as well. It could represent him being even further removed from the world than either of the waiters.  He is the end product of a life of nihilism, meaning that he is devoid of any implication at all and sees no purpose in or specific result of anything. The only thing the old man cares about is to be able to escape from the dark night. He doesn’t want to be alone because he knows that if he is, he will swallow himself whole.

            Quite possibly the three characters are actually one person, split apart into different stages of one person’s life. Hemingway keeps this to himself though, perhaps to further strengthen the existentialistic and nihilistic element of the story. The two waiters and the old man show the development of the opinion of life and its ultimate purpose and value throughout one’s life. With “A Clean, Well-Lighted Place” Hemingway truly crafts a disturbing look into the winter years of life, and perhaps it is Hemingway's own terror of old age and frailty that he is trying to communicate to the reader.

           In Ernest Hemmingway’s short story, “A Clean, Well-Lighted Place”, Hemmingway depicts the contrasting perspectives of two waiters, one younger, and one older. With little exposition, other than that the story takes place in a café in Spain, we as readers are placed into almost what seems to be the middle of a scene. Hemmingway uses three characters, the younger waiter, the older waiter, and the old man at the café to show the difference in opinion about life an alcoholism that comes with age and experience. Quite possibly the three characters are actually one person, split apart into different stages of one person’s life.

            Hemmingway uses the waiters to judge the old man. The young waiter attacks the old man saying, “An old man is a nasty thing”, while the older waiter defends him saying, “Not always. This old man is clean. He drinks without spilling. Even now, drunk. Look at him” (275). When the old man leaves the bar, being turned down after asking for another drink (Likely by the young waiter), he was “walking unsteadily, but with dignity” (274). This portrays Hemmingway’s feelings about drinking; more specifically that one can be a drunk and still retain their dignity. The older waiter can sympathize with the old man knowing that he will be him someday, while the younger waiter is ignorant and overly-confident and wishes that he would “…have killed himself last week” (274).

            Some believe that confidence is an illusion of youth. This was probably a belief that Hemmingway held and is illustrated when the young waiter states, “I have confidence. I am all confidence”, to which the older waiter replies “I have never had confidence and I am not young” (276). This part of their conversation begins with the older waiter making a joke about the younger waiter’s wife which sets the younger waiter off. The older waiter assures him that he was only joking. This conversation shows that the younger waiter doesn’t really have confidence and that the older waiter knows this. That is why he says that he never had any and that he is not young. The significance of saying that he is not young is that it shows that youth creates an illusion of confidence.

            The story also depicts the progression of alcoholism. The three characters serve to represent the different stages. Representing the younger years of an alcoholic (Maybe one who is not yet an alcoholic), the younger waiter says,  “Hombre, there are bodegas open all night long”, in reply to the older waiter speaking of his want to keep the café open later for all the people who need it (277). The narrator comments, “He disliked bars and bodegas. A clean, well-lighted café was a very different thing. (278)” This signifies that the older waiter is more experienced than the young waiter. He is a symbol of the later years of alcoholism. He knows that drinking by yourself at home is too depressing and if you are out at a café all night you succeed in escaping the loneliness and nothingness that is all around you. The old man represents the result of alcoholism. He is at the café until all hours of the night to escape loneliness and nothingness. He is there to at least be with other people and to get out of the darkness.

            The purpose that nothingness holds in the story is just as important as the purpose that alcoholism holds in it. While the younger waiter, having a job, wife, and “confidence”, feels like he has a purpose in life, the older waiter has nothing but his work. Throughout the story, the older waiter sees more of himself in the old man. He realizes that both of them are engulfed in the nothingness of everything. Hemmingway is portraying an existentialist idea when the older waiter says, “I am reluctant to close up because there may be some one who needs the café” (277). The older waiter is talking about the existentialist idea that the universe is not a personal one, and that the only thing that can possibly have meaning is the individual. The older waiter cares about the old man, while the younger waiter wants to shut him out and even wishes he was dead.

            “A Clean, Well-Lighted Place” is an exploration of the meaning of life, and an alternative to life, alcoholism. The younger waiter shows us the naivety of young people and there opinions of meaning. He has hopes and a purpose. He has a wife and a house to go home to. He sees the old man and is disgusted by him. The older waiter has begun to see the nothingness that is everything. He feels sympathy for the old man because he is beginning to feel what he feels. The older waiter has trouble sleeping at night because he fears his end and he fears life itself, because he knows that he will ultimately descend into the same person as the old man. The version of the Lord’s Prayer that the older waiter recites as he leaves the café shows his loss of faith even in religion. The old man shows us the end of a life consumed by nothingness and alcoholism. Perhaps the fact that the old man is deaf plays a part in the story as well. It could represent him being even further removed from the world than either of the waiters.  He is the end product of a life of nihilism. The only thing the old man cares about is to be able to escape from the dark night. He doesn’t want to be alone because he knows that if he is, he will swallow himself whole.