Unrealism in The Medea & The Odyssey

Unrealism is something unusual, which is usually illustrated as an exaggeration of a realistic phenomenon that leaps the boundaries of reality to present an improbable yet possible picture of life. It is a technique authors deploy in intensifying a particular situation through inherent exaggerations helping them to create the desired dramatic effect which tends to have a profound and enduring impact on the audiences. In the books, Medea by Euripides (431 B.C.) and The Odyssey by Homer (800 B.C.), the use of unrealism presents to the audiences an exaggerated manifestation of the situation, which tends to generate tension among the audiences and consequently intensifying the otherwise ‘realistic’ plot. In trying to achieve the aforementioned purpose, the element of unrealism reveals the characters, through their actions in those intensified situations which help the audience to comprehend their heroism or otherwise. Consequently this helps to shed light upon certain universal truths and inject a didactic element into the plot. Thus unrealism successfully binds the situations and characters in a manner that allows the audiences to elicit the underlying universal messages that the author wishes to share with his audience.
For instance, during certain situations, the element of unrealism presents to the audiences an exaggerated picture of it, creating tension and/or excitement among the audiences and subsequently intensifying the plot. In Medea, for instance, the pathetic condition of Medea has been dramatized to reflect the intensity of her unhappiness and misery from the start itself. The very first dialogue spoken by Medea “Oh, oh! What misery, what wretchedness! What shall I do? If only I were dead!” helps the audiences somewhat realize her feelings upon being betrayed by Jason. While the chorus’s description of her to be “sobbing and wailing” and “shouting shrill accusations” further dramatizes the condition of Medea as a result of which the plot is intensified and indulges the audience in sympathizing with her it also helps to highlight the profundity of the love Medea had for Jason. In the light of this, when Jason is later introduced into the plot, perhaps like Medea, the audiences too expect him to offer a substantial reason for betraying her. However, Jason’s self-contradictory explanation in the words “I long neither for hoards of Gold nor for a voice sweeter than Orpheus” and his declaration that he married the princess only to “not be poor” seems unreasonable and unrealistic. This intensifies the plot even more as something contrary happens to what the audience expect and probably they are left in a dilemma of a hope for a better explanation and apprehension of the possible doom. It also highlights Medea’s helplessness in the light of which the manner in which Medea was later utterly overtaken by rage and was able to “endure guilt, however horrible” but “not the laugh of her enemies” is perhaps comprehensible because her notion of revenge to the audience, seems as a sign of her revival from her helpless state. Although Medea’s decision to kill her children is repulsive, perhaps it is only an exaggerated act of revenge that serves both to highlight the enormous distress she suffered due to Jason’s betrayal to avenge in this manner and elicit her strength of character in her ability to bear it finally. Perhaps there is no doubt in the audience’s mind when Medea declares “I am of a different kind: dangerous to my enemies and loyal to my friends.”
In The Odyssey however the elevated character of Odysseus himself helps to elicit certain exaggerations and unrealistic elements. Odysseus in introduced as a man of strong and prudent character at start who “suffered many pains, heartsick on the open sea” and who has visited “many cities of men and learned their minds” which is in stark contrast to Medea who was introduced as a weak and inundated character. This immediately presents a highly exaggerated character of Odysseus to the audience, as it seems fantastical. The fact that Odysseus appears only to be a man of “sufferings” and “learnings” establishes the note of elevation in the plot to befit Odysseus elevated character and the title “The Odyssey” immediately adds intensity to it reflects in lieu with the audience‘s expectations over further ”sufferings” and “learnings” that await Odysseus in his odyssey. The audiences sometimes find Odysseus character even improbable, as in Calypso’s words he is “never at a loss”, and while they perhaps find it quite unrealistic that even at the time of being stranded helplessly on the shore of a river he “stalked out as a mountain lion exultant in his power strides through wind and rain and his eyes blaze” it is however, this extreme portrayal itself that lends him the quintessence of an epic hero. However, Odysseus encounter with Circe and her “fleecy cloaks and shirts” and “feasting halls” reveal the human underneath the cloak of an epic hero, as the “man of twists and turns” is suddenly lured by the brighter and easier side of his struggle. This renders a note of realism which de-elevates him as an epic-hero to just a man. The fact that it was only his comrades “urging” that brought his “stubborn spirit around” not only distorts his ideal image but also makes it more real and humanlike. This eventually creates intensity in the plot as this uncertainty in Odysseus character unlike an epic hero makes the audiences irresolute of what to expect from him and leaves them in anticipation.
These character revelations that are brought about with the element of unrealism leads the audiences to discover certain concealed universal truths and therby injecting a didactic element into the story.
In Medea, for instance, when the Tutor surprisingly provides an explanation for Jason’s actions by questioning the nurse about the guilt of common man and expressing that “these boys are nothing to their father: he’s in love” it distorts the overwhelming sympathy for Medea that had been developed in the audiences. Although the Tutor’s explanation seems quite unrealistic and unreasonable, since the audiences fail to see how Jason’s new love could have deracinated his love for his sons, it perhaps gives the audiences a chance to also indulge and view the other side of the coin unlike before where they were restricted by the opinions of the Nurse and the Chorus who supported and sympathized only with Medea. This reveals the tutor’s character as being rather blunt and being insensate to Medea’s suffering which is further strengthened when later in the play when Medea is grieving upon the fact that she would have to part with her sons, the tutor impassively remarks, “You’re not the only mother parted from her sons. We are all mortal.” What the tutor brings forth here is perhaps the innate human characteristic of being selfish and through this entire episode, and the revelation of the tutor’s character, the revelation of a bitter universal truth that “Everybody loves himself more than his neighbor.”
Similarly in Odyssey, although the manner in which Gods directly manipulate Odysseus helps to achieve his epic hero quality and emphasize the story as an epic with the injection of the divine, perhaps it seems strikingly unrealistic to the audiences because of its sheer incredibility and the implausibility of the manner in which Gods are shown to possess human-like qualities such as anger and lust. The extremity of the sufferings he suffered, just by considering the time frame for which he was away from home seems unrealistic. Infact unrealism is an overwhelming characteristic of Odysseus odyssey all along, but it is this element itself that helps to educe more intensely and profoundly the universal truth underlying this unrealistic veil because the truth being seemingly real and acceptable lies in stark contrast to the overwhelming unrealistic narrative. Perhaps this is why when Zeus says, “men with their own reckless ways, compound their pains beyond their proper share” in the backdrop Odysseus miseries, has a profound impact on the audience. At the same time, Odysseus struggle to overcome those miseries despite the many odds gives the audience a moment to reflect on their own struggles as after all, even “Our lives, our moods and mind as we pass across the earth turn as the days turn”.
Eventually the use of unrealism in both the aforementioned books, perhaps is used not so much to add the element of fantasy, but rather to render realism in it. At every “unrealistic” moment, the framework of realistic notions that binds it allows the readers to further explore the world presented to us in the books. Probably it is safe to say that these situation are simply moments where the characters are suddenly presented with such overwhelming situations that they seem unrealistic, a feeling not uncommon to even the readers today. Perhaps, how the characters react, only determines them being “heroes” and otherwise, but these “unrealistic” circumstances are what help draw out emtions from the audiences and helps them identify with the characters, because probably we all are fighting seemingly unrealistic situations in our day to day lives!