Transgressing Heroic Boundaries: Medea

Ian Reilly
"Revenge is Never a Straight Line":
Transgressing Heroic Boundaries: Medea
and the (Fe)Male Body in Kill BiU
Questions surrounding the permissibility and acceptability of violence perpetrated by men ag ainst men are seldom raised in implicit ways.
David Fincher's Fight Club (1999), for example, articulates how violence is the exclusive province of men,for men - in tones, colors and
dialogue that crystallize our need to question the values placed on violence and masculinity in contemporary culture. However, the operating
logic behind a film like Fight Club, one might argue, is to normalize and
naturalize depictions of violence and to concretize for the audience the
sense that excessive violence in many ways legitimates a man's standing
within a given (male) community. If women were to engage in similar
activities (were the doors of Fight Club opento them to begin with),
questions about the perpetuation of violence by - and against - women
would abound. In other words, the rules of the game do not apply in the
same way to women as they do to men. For this reason, if afemale Fight
Club wereto appear, we might ask how critics would respond to this shift
in gender, genre and representation.
Drawing from Euripides' Medeaand Quentin Tamntno's Kill Bill
(2003; 2004),1 this essay explores the relationship between motherhood
and heroism - and more generally benveen femininity and domesticity - in
an effort to bring into sharper relief the dehumanrzingcharacter of tradi-
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Medea and the (Fe)Male Body in
Kill Bill
29
dismissed the legitimacy of the female body - and its claims to heroic
achievement - in their pursuits of other female flesh. Their violently selfdestructive (typically male) impulses are triggered not only by their rejection and subordination at the hands of the male lover, but also by the need
to align themselves within a tradition of male heroism. Both Medea and
Beatrix exacerbate their situations because they seek revenge as the only
means available to them of salvaging their status as heroes;to fail in their
respective endeavors - Medea in destroying Jason and Beatrix in killing
Bill - would be to suffer the ridicule and dishonor of others. In order to
appreciate the full complexity of Thrantino's cinematic treatment of the
revenge ftagedy and how it informs his marked reconsideration of women
in Kill Bill, we must first consider the Euripidean concerns at work in
Medea.
Medea, heroism, and the heroic code
Medeahas received a wealth of critical affention in recent decades,
the best of which has been summarized in Donald J. Masffon arde' s 2002
preface to a recent edition of the text. The play is now arguably held as
the most widely read/known of Euripides. Early modern receptions of
Medea were mixed due to the "unAristotelian" nature of the play and the
exfemely shocking actions of its female hero. As Masffonarde notes, the
play has most recently attained a better reputation because scholarship
has shifted in scope from seeing Medea in purely psychological and/or
realistic terms to focusing on "issues like the problematics of the heroic
code, the religious and ethical aspects of revenge, oath, and supplication,
and the socio-political tensions reflected in the contest of genders and
ethnicities evoked by theplay" (vii). To understand the play, as Bernard
Knox and others have rightly argued, is to address the question of heroism and the problematics of the heroic code.
For Euripides, Medea becomes the vehicle through which male
models of heroism are reexamined: her unflinching resolve to desfroy her
enemies and her willingness to commit unspeakable crimes against her
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Kill BiU 3l
Euripides' revisionary practices point to the re-conceptualization
of the hero not only in terms of gender (the transference of heroic ability
from male to female), but more importantly, in terms of language. [n Homer,
heroism is defined in terms of the individual's pursuit of immortality through
the accomplishment of great deeds on the battlefield and in the assembly;3
in Sophocles, in the individual's unflinching resolve to uphold established
ideals in the face of a changing cultural landscape.a If, as McClure argues,
Medea emerges as a "heroic prototype" or ahybrid of the Homeric and
Sophoclean hero, she assumes her place among the pantheon of Greek
heroes precisely because she is a strict observer of the heroic code.
Medea's adherence to these heroic codes challenges normative views of
behavior and raises broader questions related to gender. Like Achilles
andAjax, Medea's heroismis tiedtoherarete (sometimes translated as
honor),that is, her ability to do outstanding deeds, a male quality of heroic excellence. As Arthur W H. Adkins (1960) notes in Merit and
Responsibility, awoman's arete is traditionally defined inAntiquity in
terms of "beauty, skill in weaving and housekeeping, chastity, and faithfulness," (36) or in Homeric terms, a Penelopean model. More importantly,
however, Adkins observes that "it is men who determine the nature of
arete for both men and for women; and clearly" he adds, "it would be
easier to live with a Penelope than with a woman manifesting the aretai of
aHomeric hero" (37).
How Medea defines her arete in the play is crucial to ourunderstanding of the Euripidean shift in gender dynamics, concretized in her
unyielding pursuit of heroic kle o s. A number of critics have pointed to
Medea's intellect as the primary source of her arete. Pietro Pucci (1980)
argues that "[t]he arete of theherolinMedeafbecomes sophia, an improbable heroic virtue, especially in the ambivalent meaning that it carries
here, encompassing both'cunning' and'schemin g"' (9 4). That Euripides
structures the play in such a way as to enable his female hero to display
her excellent rhetorical gifts points to the importance ofher sophia and
how her deviousness and cunning intelligence allow Medea to carry out
her plans as they unfold.
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Medea and the (Fe)Male Body in KiU
Bill
33
of the hero, she still achieves heroic k/eos, and as Elizabeth Bryson Bongie
(1977) has argued, "[w]hen she appears, therefore, in the chariot of the
Sun, she is in total conffol of herself and master of the situation . . .. The gift
of the chariot from her grandfather the Sun symbolizes the recognition, the
glory she has won in the eyes of the gods" (54). For Medea, the dissolution of her ties to the domestic is complete when the hearth becomes the
site of filicide and she emerges from the domestic space untouched with
the bodies of her slain children; she reappears in the final scene of the play
above Jason and the audience in Helios' chariot, her heroic reputation
intact, her apotheosis complete. Tiansgression, forMedea, then, signifies
the female's appropriation of male models of heroism and how the female's
adherence to these models problematizes our view of women who have
long been relegated to the domestic space and who wish to free themselves from the tyranny of domesticity; more importantly, however, these
transgressive modes of behavior raise questions about the nature of heroism itself and whether the adherence to - and preservation of - these
models can continue. That similar questions about heroism, domesticity,
and motherhood are raised throughout Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill is
significantin mapping - and unpacking-how theseEuripidean concems
appearin the film.
The Bride's version: bushi.do and the way of the samurai
Just as Medea's actions are driven by an insatiable desire for revenge and her deeds are governed by a heroic code of conduct that lead
Kill Bill.
Tkantino's
her to commit unspeakable crimes, so too are Beatrix Kiddo's rn
Although Beafrix is consistently regarded as a female assassin,
female hero should be recast as a samurai figure6 who subscribes to a
specific set of ethical and moral systems that inform the heroic code of the
samurai. This reappraisal of Beatrix's status in the film is significant because assassins and samurais are on significantly different ideological footing.
30.1 October 2007
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Medea and the (Fe)Male Body in
Kill Bill
35
and Beatrix appreciate the extent to which they see themselves as heroes
of the first order * Medea in her retelling of her exploits with Jason; Beatrix
in her truth serum-induced confessions to Bill or in her post-pregnancysurvival rhetoric, "I'm the deadliest woman in the world" - they remain
obsessed with the vindication of their heroic reputations. Any slight on the
hero's honor precipitates the wrath of an overtly determined
summately skilled - woman.
-
and con-
Framing the revenge story: the complicit audience
Inthefilm's opening scene,The (pregnant) Bride's story seemingly
as it is beginning, with the unseen, self-touting "masochistic" Bill
putting a bullet in Beatrix's head. Here Tarantino plays with/elicits the
audience's sympathies in a way that makes the audience complicit in all of
ends just
The Bride's future endeavors. The audience's identification with Beatrix
is important because the viewer recognizes two things that are reinforced
at length in both volumes: The Bride has been brutally wronged, and those
responsible for her predicament should be punished. Of course, the
audience's emotional investment in Beafrix's characterbuilds with every
injustice she suffers - from being rented out indiscriminately by a hospital
orderly to would-be rapists, to being buried alive - which ultimately
problematizes how viewers respond to The Bride's heroic project. As an
audience, we also take delight in Beaffix's smallest triumphs, like the wiggling of her big toe and her use of chopsticks following her extensive
training period. Part of Tarantino's project here is to create an ideal audience, one that will support Beatrix's actions as the film progresses, irrespective of how violent or shocking those actions may be.
Tarantino's narrative strategy is interesting because it touches on
Euripidean concerns at work rn Medea. The Nurse's speech that opens
the play alludes to a number of pertinent details that at once invoke Medea's
heroic past and also elicit sympathetic responses from the audience. With
allusions to Medea's heroic exploits in the land of Colchis where "she
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Medea and the (Fe)Male Body in
Kill Bill
37
ences to The Bride's eyes restrict the audience's point of
view. The best
example of this is when the camera pans to the fighters, the Crazy 88
emerging in the restaurant scene: a number of quick cuts from The Bride's
eyes to a sea of sword wielding, Kato-mask-wearing killers establishes
her point of view which, in turn, becomes the audience's point of view.
This sense of the audience's identification withThe Bride is reinforced at
length throughout the narrative, but it is only concretized for the viewer
when Budd buries her alive. With every nail that is driven into the wooden
box that contains her and with every shovel of dirt that buries her, the
audience is forced to occupy the same space that Beatrix does. The
sustainedblack screen simulates forthe audience whatit wouldbe like to
be buried alive. It is not until Beaffix uses her flashlight that we see anything of our surroundings: we are entrapped just as she is; her survival is
oarsurvival.
Here the exftemity to which Tiarantino makes explicit the audience's
relationship with Beatrix is important when we consider what that relationship means within the context of an ultra-violent narrative. Liks the
Chorus in Me dea,Tarunttno's audience is manipulated into supporting the
heroic endeavors of the female hero, even if those endeavors go against
the moral precepts to which the audience subscribes. What makes Beafrix's
story so engaging is the relative ease with which she secures the assistance
of others. Philosopher/retired sword-maker Hittori Hanso (played by
Sonny Chiba) willinglyhelps The Brideby makingherasword soperfect
that if God were to cross paths with Beatrix, even He/She would get cut,
despitehis knowledge ofherintentions toredress the wrongs doneto her.
InKB2,Bill's first fatherfigure, Esteban, aretiredpimp, also helps Beatrix
locate Bill. Finally, Beatrix entreats and persuades her hotel assassin,
Kim, to leave on her own terms without killing or being killed because she
fears forthe life of herunbom child. In this context, Beatrix, like Medea,
most resembles the Sophoclean hero in her ability to persuade, to bend
others to her will. Of course, Beatrix's methods for securing information
regarding Bill are also quite brutal in her head-crushing interview on the
hospital floor with the orderly-turned-pimp and in her victimization of the
30.1 October 2007
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Medea and the (Fe)Male Body in
Kill Bill
39
Anotherway Tarantino identifies revenge as the most dominant,
over-arching theme in the film is through The Bride's fascination with revenge narrative. In the film's first voice-over narrative, The Bride tells the
story of O'Ren Ishii, who witnesses the deaths of both her parents at the
hands of Japanese warlord Boss Matsumoto. We learn, of course, that
O'Ren avenges the death of her parents at the tender age of eleven by
killing the paedophile Matsumoto in bed, along with two other members
of his mafia set. InKB2,we learn thatit is Bill who inspires in Beatrix her
love of revenge narratives. In his retelling of the "inconsolable" Pai Mei's
Massacre of the ShaolinTemplelegend, Bill, whose masteryof thebamboo flute and his charming delivery aestheticizes the revenge story turns
the story into a playful meditation on the nature of revenge. In these
examples, we see the fundamental roots of the revenge story in the film
and how Beatrix both understands and appropriates the revenge story in
the telling of her own. Like Pai Mei, she, too, is inconsolable.
Pitting women against women?
Having established the presence of Euripidean concems/discursive
strategies rn Kill Bill -the heroic codes to which the female hero abides,
the ways inwhich the audience/viewercomes to identify/sympathize with
The Bride, and the way the centrality of revenge narratives shape the
singular concerns of the wronged woman - the question of motherhood
and violence must now be addressed. However I will not address the
critical debates surrounding the question of excessive violence in the film,
nor will I consider the cross-pollination of genres and styles Tarantino
employs - from Spaghetti Western to Japanese anime - to tell Beatrix's
story;my interesthere lies inthe construction of the femalebody andhow
female bodies interact on screen. The treatment of motherhood in both
texts figures prominently, and for this reason, an examination of how motherhood is complicated by and complicates the female's role as hero will
follow: inMedea's case, the murderof herchildren will seal herheroic
reputation, whereas for Beatrix, the quest for revenge and heroic reputa30.1 October2007
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Medea and the (Fe)Male Body in KiU
spite the prowess each female member of the Deadly Vipers squad
Bill 4l
might
show, they remain Bill's subordinates. When Elle Driver is sent to the
hospital to murder the coma-induced Beatrix, Bill calls and cancels the
mission, citing (as he strokes and pets his sword, a phallic symbol that
needs no introduction) that he would rather entertain the idea that if she
were to awake from her coma, they could make her suffer all over again.
Having said that, Elle enjoys litfle if any agency next to Bill and must do as
he says. Like a good submissive partner, she is to return home promptly.
Where does this leave us in terms of assessing Tarantino's treatment of
women?
The film's first fight scene dramatizes the problematic nature of
pitting women against women. The Bride confronts Vemita Green in her
cookie-cutter suburban home. The fight takes place in the living room, or
the hearth, where they proceed to destroy everything in sight. The fight
scene is prematurely pre-empted by the daughter's return home from school
to find the living room completely ruined. Both women retire to the kitchen
where Vemita offers to make coffee and their ensuing dialogue infroduces
some of the back-story to the audience. Just as they agree to settle their
differences in a night flght, Vernita fres a hidden gun through a cereal box
and misses (a scene reminiscent of the act-of-God scene inPulp Fiction), rnresponse to which The Bride finishes her off with a knife to the
chest. In the end, this scene serves to reinforce our understanding ofthe
destructive nature of male heroism: because the daughter is present to
witness the aftermath of their confrontation, according to the unwritten
rules of the heroic code already embedded in the narrative, the cycle of
female violence - particularly, the cycle of violence committed by women
againstwomen - will continue.
Tarantino's women: violent aesthetics
With images of other women with disfigured bodies (Sophie Fatale),
gouged eyes (Elle Driver), and scalped heads (O'Ren Oshii), the
30.1 October 2007
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Medea and the (Fe)Male Body in
acts of vengeance.
Kill Bill
43
InKill Bill,however,
overriding sense of loss -
the narrative invokes The Bride's
her prolonged loss of conliteral
sense
in a
sciousness spanning a four-year period, but more specifically, in her loss
of honor, her loss of name, and the emotional loss of her daughter - and
hou, the only way for her to recuperate her identity is through the enactment of violent revenge. It is significant that Uma Thurman's character
occupies two-thirds of the narrative arc of both combined films without a
name. She is referred to as The Bride and The Black Mamba (what is
referred to elsewhere in the f,lm as "death incamate '); whenever any mention
of her real name is invoked, it is drowned out in a loud beeping sound.
Her access to an identity that is hers alone is stripped from her. Any
reference to Beatrix as The Bride points to her violent removal from the
possible realm of matrimony, as it invokes the "Massacre atTwo Pines
Wedding Chapel"; references to Beatrix as the Black Mamba define her
in terms of her former occupation, as a member of the Deadly Vipers.
The nameless bride spends most of her time on screen, as she so succinctly puts it at the beginning of KB2, "roaring and rampaging."
ln fact, if The Bride has any sense of identity in KB1 , it is reflected
to her in the image of her eyes in her Hattori Hanso sword. Her identification with Japanese steel and to what end that steel earns her heroic glory
inform who she is within the context of the first film - as a samurai. Because she has no name from which to draw any personal or historical
background (aside from the details rendered concretely in the master revenge narrative) she comes to identify herself through the instrument that
best defines her - her sword. She at once assumes the role of samurai
andmoumingmother.
When Budd is murdered and Elle is led to believe The Bride has
been buried alive, only then does she earn a name. In a short sequence,
the scene cuts to a grammar school classroom in which The Bride's full
name is frst announced, to which Beafrix replies,'here." Beafix's arrival
in thenarrativefinds hernearing the completion of herdeath list, butmore
importantly, signals a marked shift in Beafix's role from a samurai to that
of a mother. Swords figure prominently in KB I ; in the sequel, however,
30.1 October 2007
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Medea and the (Fe)Male Body in KiU
Bill's realm of violence and money, a life
Bill
45
Arlene Plimpton working
behind the counter as a used record store clerk, would have been impossible to sustain, she would have made that sacrifice in the interests of
protecting her daughter from such a comrpted world. Beatrix Kiddo,
therefore, chooses motherhood in the film's final statement on the meditation of women as both heroes and mothers.
But how successful will Beatrix be as a mother? The notion that a
woman so investedinthe samurai tradition andwho at one timeenjoyed a
prosperous career as an assassin can erase her past is questionable, ifnot
totally implausible. BB's bedtime request to watch ShogunAssassin and
Beaffix's approval of thefilmpoints to the mother's enffapmentwithinthe
realm of revenge narratives. At the same time, Beatrix also exhibits some
maternal instincts. In a scene that diffuses the weight of the ultra-violent
restaurant scene, Beatrix spanks the last member of the Crazy 88, an
innocent-looking boy whose sword has been whittled down to nothing.
The scene is effective in that her symbolic castration of the boy does not
end in violence, but in matemal punishment. Only when Beafix has killed
Bill and crossed off every name on her "Death List Five" can she devote
herself to motherhood. In the final motel room scene, Beatrix assumes the
role of mother, embracing her daughter as they w atch H e ckle and J e ckle.
Thatthe film ends with both mother and daughterwatching acartoonthat
exists outside the realm of revenge narrative is significant because it points
to a pronounced shift in Beaffix's role from trained assassin and samurai
as
to mother.s
ln Medea,the female appropriation of male models of heroism
complicates the notion of femininity to such an extent that the roles of
motherhood areblurred andthe only means through which a woman can
earnheroic kleos is in the murder of her own children. Though Tarantino
is hardly a feminist, he may have feminist sensibilities, andin Kill Billltts
treatment of women finally evolves. Here the female similarly subscribes
to amale heroic system of conduct and in so doing, contributes to her
own dehumanization in the process of gaining revenge. At the same time,
however, the lines of motherhoodcome clearly into focus inBeafrix
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Medea and the (Fe)Male Body
in Kill Bill
47
dominating the story arc of any given film, Tarantino is contributing to an
importantre-evaluation not only of problematic depictions of violence,
but more importantly, to a reconsideration of gender roles in contemporary cinema.e If Death Proof s final scene reveals anything about
Tkantino's evolving treatment of women, it tells us that female empowerment rests on women's ability to kick ass - without apology.
Ian Reilly
University of Guelph
Notes
Both volumes of the film are discussed at length in the essay. References to particular volumes are noted hereafter for purposes of clarifi1
cation.
Depictions of women in Tarantino have evolved, however slowly.
lnReservoir Dogs (1992), with the exception of the woman who gets
shotwhileMr. Pinkis tryingto escape afterthebankrobbery, women are
entirely absent on screen. In P ulp Fiction (1994),women fare no better:
2
the female body becomes the site of drug abuse and excess (MiaWallace),
comrptive behavior and criminal intent (Honey Bunny). Jackie Brown
(1997),however, announced the arrival of a more sophisticated representation of womenin the figure of JackieBrown (playedby Pam Grier),
a sympathetic character whose numerous trials are rewarded in the end
with abig shopping bag fulI of money. Finally, Tarantino's "virtual intoxication" (Tonguette) with his female subj ect is fully realize d rn Kill B ill,
pointing to a marked shift in his treatment of women on screen.
3
For an encapsulation of the heroic code in Homer, see Sarpedon's
famous speech, Iliad, XII, 315 -328.
a
For the clearest articulation of what a fragic hero is in Sophoclean
tragedy, see Knox's The Heroic Temper: Studies in SophocleanTragedy,5.
30.1 October 2007
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Medea and the (Fe)Male Body in KiU BiU 49
Works Cited
Adkins, Arthur W. H. Merit and Responsibility: A Study in Greek Values. Oxford:
ClarendonPress, I960.
Bloom, Harold. Shakespeare: The Invention of the Human New York: Riverhead
Books, 1998.
Bongie, Elizabeth Bryson. "Heroic Elements inthe Medea of Euripides." Transac'
tions of the American Philological Association 107 (1977):27 -56.
Gleason, Robin. "The Unbearable Lightness of Being Cool: Appropriation and
Prospects of Subversion in the Works of Quentin Tarantino." Bright Lights
(Aug. 2004) 24 }r4ay 2007 <http:/ lwww.brightlightsfilm.com/45l
toilets.htm>.
Green, Peter, trans. The Argonautika: The Story of Jason and the Quest for the
Golden F I e e c e. Berkeley; London: University of California Press, 1 997.
Himes, Stephen. "ls Kill Bll/ Obscene? Ask James Joyce." Flak Magazine 23 Oct.
F ilm J oumal 45
2003.May 24, 2007 <hryiilwww.flakmag.com/film/killbilll.htrnb.
hooks. bell. Reel to Real: Race, Sex, and Class at the Movies. New York, NY:
Routledge,1996.
Inness, Sherrie A. Action Chicks: New Images of Tbugh Women in Popular Cultuire. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2004.
"Kill Bill Is Feminist Statement, Says Tarantino." The lrish Examiner2Oct.2OO3.
<http://archives.tcm.ie/breakingnews/2003 I lOl02/ story 1 1 5794.asp>.
Knox, Bernard. The Heroic Temper: Studies in Sophoclean Tragedy. Berkeley:
University of California Press, 1964.
Word and Action: Essays on the Ancient Theater. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins
-. University Press, 1979.
Lattimore, Richmond, trars. The lliad of Homer. Chicago: University of Chicago
Press,1951.
Mastronarde, Donald J., ed. Medea. Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press,
2W2.
McClure, Laura. "'The Worst Husbandity': Discourses of Praise and Blame in
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Nitobe, Inazo. Bushido: The Soul of Japan: An Exposition of Japanese Thought.
Rutland: Tutle Company, 1969.
O'Day, Marc. "Beauty in Motion: Gender, Spectacle and Action Babe Cinema."
Action and Adv enture Cinema. Ed. Yvonne Tasker. New York: Routledge, 2004.
201-218.
Pucci, Pietro. The Violence of Pity in Euripides' Medea.Ithaca: Cornell University
Press, 1980.
30.1 October 2007
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