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They all characterize her in different ways from the way she reacts to the problem with Jason to the way she felt and went about her vengeance on Jason, to what the writer chose as the main focus, and how Made was presented. In each of the works, the writers chose to produce the character of Made in intonating ways.
Ovid, the Roman poet, presented Made as much more Of a lover In his version of the Greek play. “His beauty would move a heart of stone- at least it moved mine”(Ovid, 154), Ovid portrayer her with more of a “little girl” crush and admiration for Jason, someone who is kinder and more loving. In Euripides writing, the original play, Made is seen as supernatural, a sorceress. She is very manipulative and proud, she is a woman who is feared, “A frightening woman; no one who makes an enemy of her will carry off an easy victory’ (Euripides, 28).
In this version of the story Made is also seen as intelligent and she is respected for her intellect, “certainly; a brain like yours is what is needed” (Euripides, 37). These two portals are very different because in one case, Made seems like this heart broken lover with not much else to her, while Euripides almost makes her seem like a monster. The similarity between the two is that Ovid does recall how she used her power to help Jason, so it gives us the idea that she is powerful; however in Ovoid’s poem she does not seem to recognize her power in the current day.
In Lars von Trier’s elm, Made seems to be changed a lot from the way Euripides intended. In the film, Made is not presented as much as a powerful princess Euripides had made it to be. Viewers get a sense of the character more through physical expression than verbal expression, while Euripides had her saying long monologues of enraged dialogue. Lars von Trier creates the character with a sense of calmness to her, which seems very different to the other characterizations.
Finn Shaw, the actress who played Made in one of the many productions, seemed to take a more human approach to Made, aging it seem like she was more human and normal than anything and all of her actions or emotions were justified and typical. Even with the same story line, the writers and actress were able to characterize Made in different, yet accurate, ways. Ovid, Lars von Trier, and Finn Shaw all took Euripides original play and kept it, for the most part, the same. However, each creator decided to take the events from the play and they all had different focal points.
Shaw perception of the play seemed to focus mostly on Made having to kill her children. The reaction of the murder scene and how to build the audience up to it was the main talk of “Theater Talks”, where she and the director discussed their production of Made. The one thing about that focal point is that it does not really add and variety because all of the writers focus on the killing. In the film by von Trier, he decides to focus on the relationship between Glance and Jason, which we do not even really see in the original play by Euripides.
This central point is different from Ovoid’s take on the play because his poem is based off of Media’s love for Jason. The poem almost sounds like a love utter, where she writes about her love for Jason, “l am wondering whether this maybe the thing called love, or something like it” (Ovid,153). These four dramatists have taken little bits and pieces of Euripides play and centered their work around. These details that they have chosen to work with help them characterize Made in their own way because each aspect shows a different side to her.
The most known detail of Made is that Jason leaves her and she is beyond upset and her goal is to get vengeance on Jason ‘for the wrongs they have to dared to do to [me] unprovoked! (Euripides, 18). The writers all had different takes on how Made felt about the vengeance by killing her sons and how the murder was done. In Ovoid’s poem, it says Made attempted to persuade Jason to return to her by saying how he owes her for all she has done to help him, “Jason will you, always, one thing, himself, and he will join you to him” (Ovid, 154).
The actual revenge she did to Jason is only briefly mentioned, “Jason, by then, had a new bride; Made killed her with burning poisons, and dyed the sword red in her children’s blood, a dreadful vengeance… ” (Ovid, 165). This is different than the other versions of Made because the others focused more and gave more details to her vengeance. For instance, in the way Finn Shaw represents Made. In theater talks, what they talk about most is Made killing her children.
Finn Shaw sees Media’s decision to kill her sons as something she has to do, rather than just for retaliation. She says Made does it “because she loves them” (Shaw), she could not have them suffer in exile with her. This take on the event in the play matches the most closely to Lars von Trier because in his film you can see how hard it is to kill err kids and he represents her as a loving mother. It pained her to murder her kids and it took her a while to complete the murderous task.
These versions are all very different from Euripides original play. In Euripides rendition, Made is filled with passion and rage and she takes joy in Season’s suffering. She naturally has a vengeful, ruthless, nature, “Yes, I can endure guilt, however horrible; the laughter of my enemies I will not endure” (Euripides, 21). In this play, she does not execute her sons for their own good (at least that is not apparent) but she does it because she has to have the last ugh and she cannot go down without a fight.
This take on her revenge shows how powerful and cruel Media’s character is, while the other adoptions show her as more of a sufferer, “Let no one think of me as humble or weak or passive; let them understand am of a different kind: dangerous to my enemies, loyal to my friends” (Euripides, 47), this displays the character Euripides intended for Made to be. Out of all of these contrasting characterizations of Made, Finn Shaw depiction of Made is the most believable and logical. Shaw justifies her actions more than any of the other creators.
She says Made did no wrong, she is not a psycho, and she just made a “spar of the moment” (Shaw) decision. This is more logical than what the others see her as, a sorcerer, a madwoman, evil, etc. Finn Shaw characterization is rational because she says that Made is just a mother, a woman who is “in emotional difficulty’ (Shaw) and people who have problems like Made “aren’t mad, they just are extremists” (Shaw). This explanation of Media’s character also helps the audience understand and maybe even relate to Made and her decision to kill err sons.
As a mother, she had to do it for her children, not only to get revenge on Jason; she is deeper and more civilized than that. Authors Ovid and Euripides, filmmaker Lars von Trier, and actress Finn Shaw all have diverse interpretations of Media’s characterization. This is done through how she is perceived, what the author chooses to focus on, and how or why she does what she does to get revenge on Jason. Made is a convoluted person and ever since the original play Made, was written by Euripides, she has been presented in many altered ways.