Euripides constructs Medea to be a powerful voice in a world of silent women. All women of the time were treated the same way, and they weren’t valued. Medea was a King’s daughter, sorceress and Apollo’s granddaughter, so just those factors made her different. Medea was not herself when she was with Jason, she changed when she became Jason’s wife living as a foreigner in a ‘civilised’ land far from her native home. As “an exile,” Medea has been self-contained and submissive, she has “won a warm welcome from her new fellow citizens” and has been “complete support” to her husband. Despite this, Jason shows “criminal behavior” and leaves Medea for a “princess’ bed” in order to further his own social position. As Medea reminds Jason, he “owes his life” to her; she has helped him gain the Golden Fleece, even killing her own brother to ensure their escape and then tricking Pelias’ daughters into killing their father the King. Medea’s sense of betrayal is then amplified when Jason tries to convince Medea that he did it for…
Medea is driven mad by her love and hatred for her husband, Jason. In the story, Medea plans to kill Jason, Creon, and Creon’s daughter who Jason plans to marry. She wants to kill him because he betrays her love; Jason is in love with the power he could possess once he marries the new bride. Medea vows to make Jason suffer the same pain she had suffered. In three particular instances of the play, Medea could have stopped her ploy for revenge, but she chose not to.…
where she is thought of as repulsive. She felt no feelings of love toward him, but…
Medea’s relationship to Jason, as a Middle Eastern woman, provides for disaster if broken, for it is made up of Medea’s excessive sacrifices to be with a man of another race. She entered the relationship fully aware of the obstacles she’d encounter to be with Jason and of the fact that even if they managed to be together, the relationship would be illegitimate. This implies that her love for him was deep, clearly, she’d do whatever to be with him, but it makes her vulnerable if this love is tossed away. To lose Jason after all her efforts, such as “betraying [her] father for him, killing [her] brother, [and] making [her] own land hate [her] forever,” would prove that all of that was for nothing and that he never saw her the way she saw him. As with Addie and Sethe, her reaction is natural, her entire life was disrupted when Jason divorces her and thus her capacity to be a good mother is gone. She cannot be expected to be a good mother when all her life’s work is being unraveled before her eyes; she will lash out and attempt to regain a sense of herself. In the sorrow that Jason creates, Medea attempts to create the same sorrow for him and this plan incorporates killing their children. It is barbaric and vile, but it is irrational to label Medea as a bad mother for those murders. All her life before her, Medea was striving towards greatness, to…
One of the reasons as to why Medea is such a compelling character is because she does not have one particular tragic flaw. Her tragic condition is the result of a convergence of flaws. I think that these can be summarized by the idea of Medea not recognizing any balance in her emotions. She fled her father's home with an intensity of emotions invested in Jason that were never calculated nor any type of deliberation present. This same abandon is seen when Medea kills her brother. It is also evident when Medea cannot accept that Jason has stopped loving her and loves another. While Medea does consider the implications of killing her own children, it is to no avail as the intensity of her emotions overcomes all reason. When the Nurse understands…
1. We learn that medea and Jason both absconded from medeas home country, which meant betraying them and killing medea’s family in the process. Once they were in their current country they had two kids, then Jason left them for the princess of the lands. And now medea is heartbroken and murderous.…
In the play Medea, the main character Medea is extreme on seeking revenge on her ex-husband, Jason. Jason has left her and their two sons Creon and Creusa for the daughter of the Cornith King. Medea is livid with this action from Jason. Since Jason and the Cornith King(Ceron) are frightened by Medea they decide that her and the children are to be banished from the kingdom. This just makes Medea even more furious towards Jason. The nurse characterizes Medea as being in pain and anguish that she is suffering through the terrible time of Jason leaving her. She also says how Medea is so angry with Jason and his betrayal she is treacherous. This is shown to be true when she plans to kill Ceron and Creusa to punish Jason for betraying her. Heartlessly she kills them to seek revenge on him. She thought hurting Jason meant more to her than her children did even though she loved them. Her plan was to seek retribution upon Jason as she did. Her seeking revenge hurt everyone even though she was proud that she had accomplished making Jason hurt, she had and domestic conflict killing her own children whom she loved very much.…
As the play opens, we hear Medea wailing in misery, “I…want to die…leaving behind this loathsome life.” Whether Medea is making an attempt to gain sympathy from the Chorus and the audience or she is genuinely in despair, it becomes apparent that Medea’s previous life with Jason was forged in circumstances of violence and betrayal, sowing the seeds for tragedy. The Nurse strings together a sad story of all Medea has done for the sake of Jason and their relationship, making us witnesses to how unjustly Medea has been treated. While Medea bears a sad history, Medea and the Nurse’s recount of the facts demonstrate how personally Medea has taken Jason’s actions, “I want you to die, along with your father.”…
play explains that Medea has no objection to murdering when it suites her, as she has killed both her brother and Jason's…
Euripides and Ovid present two entirely different sets of motivations for Medea's behavior which surface through her attitude towards Jason. In the Athenian tragedy, it becomes clear from the onset that Medea harbors an unnatural and overwhelming hatred for Jason and anyone he is connected to. Granted, anger is a natural response when one spouse leaves his or her mate for another partner, but it should not consume the abandoned person's life. As the Chorus notes, "It often happens...You must not waste away" (156-158). Medea's stern rejection of this advice is puzzling to the reader, but her reasons soon become clear in a soliloquy following a meeting with Aegeus in which she states "Let no one think me a weak one" (807). Medea is a proud character whose self-image reflects an important person, but as was the case with her anger, she takes this idea to an extreme. The rage that follows Jason's threat to her authority motivates her to think and act destructively. Ovid, on the other hand, saw Medea behaving for a different set of reasons.…
In most circumstances, it is difficult for one to feel sympathy for a character that is the cause of their suffering; however, in Medea, this is not the case. Although Jason can root the causes of his sufferings to his own wrongdoings, with the loss of innocent children, he certainly suffers the most out of the characters in Medea.…
In the play the Nurse says, “Jason has betrayed his sons and her, takes to bed a royal bride, Creon’s daughter.”(Euripides pg. 337) The text explains that Jason has left his two sons and Madea just to marry a princess. Jason left Medea because he said he will be able to have money to support his children, which is selfish because he can find other ways to get money. Medea also thinks Jason is being selfish and just wants a new wife because he was tired of her. A tragic hero has a tragic flaw, and Jason’s selfishness is his flaw because, after Madea learns what he’s going to do, he begins to lose…
Arguably, Medea is not referring to Jason’s co-dependence on Medea during that time. Instead, she considers his complete betrayal to his family the true mark of a coward. “Chorus: Jason, you have put a fine gloss on your words. But – I may not be wise to say this – I think…
Thus her actions are not completely under her control. The love spell is so strong, that the protagonist decided to kill even her own kids. She wanted him to feel the mutual pain, she went through after the betrayal. At the end the story Jason stays without descendants or wife, and on a foreign land, what makes him unable to improve his social status. At this point of the story the reader understand, that Medea is not completely mentally healthy, so they don’t judge her as harshly, as an absolutely conscious…
Medea and Nora mutually share a traditional outlook on marriage. They believe in sacrifice and enduring anything to protect and honor their spouse’s reputation or life. The situations of both characters hold similar to each other because both wives risk everything, their own honor and dignity, to uphold the respect that is required in a marriage. In the play Medea, in order for Jason to retrieve the Golden Fleece, he needs Medea’s assistance to complete his conquest. Medea willingly kills her own father and brother to show her commitment to her marriage vows of protecting her husband. She regrets the sacrifices she makes because “[She][herself] betrayed [her] father and [her] home, and came with [him] to Pelias’ land of Iolcus” (Euripides, l 483-484), and in return Jason left her to suffer. Medea proves her love to Jason when she goes to the extreme of killing her family members and ruins her own reputation in her mother land. With Medea’s “heart on fire with passionate love for Jason” (l 8) she thinks giving Jason her everything was the right thing to do but now that she is suffering in Jason’s land, she realizes her wrongs. Medea carries her marriage vows solemnly because she believes “this is indeed the greatest salvation of all--/ for the wife not to…