Comparing Medea And Tennessee Williams Cat On A Hot Tin...

A common theme in Euripides’ Medea and Tennessee Williams’ Cat on a Hot Tin Roof is that both Medea and Maggie are to varying extents insane. For example, in Medea, the title character is driven to insanity by her love for Jason and also by her fury at being abandoned by him. This insanity leads her to murder their children together and his new wife. Similarly, in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, the two main causes of Maggie’s insanity are her love for Brick and his indifference towards her. From the beginning, Brick’s character is shown as stoic and indifferent towards her. While Maggie’s insanity never reaches the magnitude of Medea’s murderous hatred, her mood swings through the entire play. Medea shows hints of her insanity throughout her prior actions as well. We see Medea begin with the nurse giving us background information on Jason and Medea’s flight to Jason’s home Iolcus. Even before the story begins, her love for Jason has already led her to kill her brother to slow down pursuers (Medea, line 169) and trick the daughters of Pelias, Jason’s uncle and rival king, into murdering their father. (Medea, 12) Later in the play, Medea says she regrets having done this in her love for Jason, as she can now no longer return to her homeland (Medea, 508-514). This is all being revealed while the nurse is telling us that Jason had abandoned her for a new wife. The nurse is sorry for her while at the same time being fearful of what her fury might unleash. The chorus (the