‘More a Victim Than a Villain.’ Do You Feel That This Is a More Accurate Description of Jason of Medea?
‘More a victim than a villain.’ Do you feel that this is a more accurate description of Jason of Medea?
‘Medea’ is a play about Jason leaving his wife Medea to marry a princess so as to further his social status. In revenge, Medea kills her husband’s new bride, her father and their sons before escaping to Athens. Both Jason and Medea have actions that are villainous and neither are completely free of blame for what happens in the play. ‘Medea’ begins with the Nurse and Tutor of the children discussing how Jason has ‘betrayed his own sons and mistress, for a royal bed’ after he took her from her family and home country. This creates sympathy for Medea by showing her as a wronged wife who has been betrayed by her fame hungry husband, making Jason out to be the villain. The Nurse also mentions Medea convincing Pelias’ daughters to kill their father to help Jason, showing how far she went for the man she loves and making the betrayal seem even worse; she’s given up everything for him and now cannot go home because of it. Jason’s attitude towards Medea’s distress makes him seem villainous. She is having her whole life destroyed by the man she loves and being forced into exile yet he appears to not care about her at all, unable to understand why she’s so uncooperative with his plan. This shows Medea as the victim as it makes Jason seem uncaring and unaffectionate despite the fact that they have been married so long and apparently so happily for years previous to this. However, this is more likely to be seen as Jason’s stupidity rather than his lack of care as he doesn’t seem to be being vindictive, just genuinely confused over why Medea does not think his plan is a good idea. The Chorus in ‘Medea’ are made up of a group of Grecian women and, as Medea is foreign, it would’ve been difficult to say at the start of the play who they were going to side with in the argument. However, they side with Medea and show her as a wronged, broken woman, creating more sympathy
‘Medea’ is a play about Jason leaving his wife Medea to marry a princess so as to further his social status. In revenge, Medea kills her husband’s new bride, her father and their sons before escaping to Athens. Both Jason and Medea have actions that are villainous and neither are completely free of blame for what happens in the play. ‘Medea’ begins with the Nurse and Tutor of the children discussing how Jason has ‘betrayed his own sons and mistress, for a royal bed’ after he took her from her family and home country. This creates sympathy for Medea by showing her as a wronged wife who has been betrayed by her fame hungry husband, making Jason out to be the villain. The Nurse also mentions Medea convincing Pelias’ daughters to kill their father to help Jason, showing how far she went for the man she loves and making the betrayal seem even worse; she’s given up everything for him and now cannot go home because of it. Jason’s attitude towards Medea’s distress makes him seem villainous. She is having her whole life destroyed by the man she loves and being forced into exile yet he appears to not care about her at all, unable to understand why she’s so uncooperative with his plan. This shows Medea as the victim as it makes Jason seem uncaring and unaffectionate despite the fact that they have been married so long and apparently so happily for years previous to this. However, this is more likely to be seen as Jason’s stupidity rather than his lack of care as he doesn’t seem to be being vindictive, just genuinely confused over why Medea does not think his plan is a good idea. The Chorus in ‘Medea’ are made up of a group of Grecian women and, as Medea is foreign, it would’ve been difficult to say at the start of the play who they were going to side with in the argument. However, they side with Medea and show her as a wronged, broken woman, creating more sympathy