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The character of medea
Medea by euripides essays
Medea by euripides essays
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In Euripides Medea, Medea is the morally ambiguous character. In part, Medea can be seen as good because she wanted to live with Jason and her two children in Corinth as a family and enjoy a happy life. So it is understandable that Medea becomes devastated and an emotional wreck after Jason leaves her for the princess. He claimed by marrying the princess, he could bring the children up in a well-being and make more royal children. Medea became a distressed. Hateful, and a bitter woman at Jason. Medea mentioned, “we women are the most unfortunate creatures.” Medea acknowledges that the women don’t have much choice in the marriage and if they want a good life, they need a man to control them. And that woman would be much better off if they had …show more content…
She gave the children the dress she made and the diadem, submerged with poison and instructed her to give these gifts to the princess under the false impression that she wants to please her so she may convince her father to allow the children to stay in Corinth. After the death of the king and the princess, Medea kills her two children. The only time the children have spoken and they plead to live. There is no future for the children, to escape their mother’s wrath and anger and her drive to hurt and destroy everything and everyone that Jason loves and cares about. Medea contributes to the work as a whole because we see her side of the story and understand the motives behind her action and the consequences as the result of her madness. Medea is the rising action and the climax of the play. We also see Jason side of the story from his conversations with Medea and his explanation was awful. He is the reason for the conflict and issues for Medea but Jason does not take care of the problems he created nor does he take the responsibility for the consequences of his actions. He married a sorceress and not a normal Greek
Later in the story, our sympathy transfers from Medea to Jason. Her revenge turns immoral, leaving readers with a sense of uneasiness. It is not so much the fact that she kills Creon and his daughter, but the fact that she slays her children in cold-blood.
Medea is a story about love, passion, fear, and most importantly revenge. Throughout the story the reader witnesses a odd connection between Medea and Jason, they are both quarrelsome, surreptitious, and vigilantes. The characters, Medea and Jason, share many similar traits that they do not even notice mainly because they are both so egotistical. These connection are what really makes the story prominent.
The problem set at the beginning of the play is that Jason has decided to marry another wife, Glauce. Medea is angered and will not let Jason off without punishment. The loss of Jason is not only a matter of passion; Medea has been completely humiliated by Jason's decision to take a new bride. Her pride shows again when she refuses Jason's aid. Though her situation is difficult, she would rather destroy all than accept help from one who has wronged her so horribly. Living as a barbarian among Greeks has made her more defensive, more full of hurt pride. To punish Jason, Medea had her children deliver poisoned gifts to the new bride, to kill her children, Glauce, and Creon. . Medea is not without feeling, nor is she a sociopath. She comprehends the difference between right and wrong, but chooses to follow the dictates of rage.
In the play Medeaby Euripides some would say Medea’s actions or retaliations to a conflict are gruesome and they would disagree with her, but every one of her actions she justifies herself. Medea justifies her actions in two main ways one that she was wronged in marriage and in that era women had no say in society and they always had to respect and obey their husbands. Also during and before the play she was only being used by her husband Jason so he could get what he wanted and achieve power in society. Before the play starts Jason and Medea didn’t just come to be together with no story behind them. Medea was living in her home city Colchis. Now Jason comes to her city in search of the Golden Fleece to take back the throne from his uncle Pelias so Jason can become the rightful king. Medea ends up falling in love with Jason and helps him acquire the Golden Fleece by betraying her father and helping Jason kill her brother. After Jason and Medea leave Colchis they go to Jason’s home city to claim the throne. When
She was the women that stood by his side and did anything for him. She lost everything just to be with him because they were in love. Medea felt so much love for this man the she stole and killed her own brother for him. Jason should have considered her feeling when he decided to leave her. I also feel Jason could have saved his children instead of abandon them. He talked about how he was trying to make better lives for them. I feel that abandon them was not the way to do it. When he divorced Medea, not only was she paying for it but the children where as well. The divorce effected them as
In the story of Medea, the author, Euripides, addresses the topics of foreignism and female roles in the ancient Greek society. In the play, Medea, a foreign born woman, marries Jason, a Greek man, and moves to Greece to be with him after leaving her homeland with death and devastation. Then, when their marriage fails, Medea lashes out against Jason, causing her own exile and murdering her children, to which she has no love connection, and Jason’s new wife in the process. The main character, Medea, confirms many of the alleged Greek prejudices against foreigners and creates some prejudices of her own in return. Medea’s foreign roots and misconceptions, as well as her familial and societal atrocities,
Jason was expecting her to continue fulfilling her role as a woman, and Medea got so upset that she wanted to be the exact opposite of all that Jason wished for. The idea of a “powerful woman” is progressive in this time, and dissed by tradition. Jason is a good example of a traditional figure, just wanting a good heir to his kingdom. Medea, although portrayed by Euripides as thinking without a brain, could possibly be viewed as a hero. Maybe we only view her as a tragedy because she defies every premise that is set forward for women: have a healthy husband, a healthy bank account, and healthy children. Maybe Medea does not want these things and only wanted to prove her strength. It took a lot of strength to kill her children. It also shows women’s short temperament, but that doesn’t necessarily mean they need to be dependent on men, as this play shows the non-loyalty of men. In a way, Euripides levels out the desires of man and woman, as he makes both of their wishes
She wants to be loved but does not take kindly to a man taking advantage of her. She blows things out of proportion when she’s not treated correctly, because she’s just as used to being in a position of power as Jason is, but unlike Jason, she has lost both her power and her reputation in Greece. She literally takes her anger at Jason out by murdering people. It’s almost reasonable that she would kill Jason’s new wife, and by extension her father. Creusa technically dishonored Medea almost as much as Jason did by agreeing to marry him despite knowing that he was already married to Medea. However, Jason is also at fault for this, as he described his marriage to Medea as a meaningless barbaric bond. But Medea also kills her own children. Why? Because she hates Jason more than she loves them. It took great struggle for her to do this of course, she’s a mother.
The play Medea by Euripides was written to entertain readers with the intriguing story of the revengeful Medea and her unfaithful husband Jason. The play begins with Medea being betrayed by Jason and being filled with this revengeful rage and murderous thoughts. Medea does whatever she possibly can to satisfy her need for payback, even if it means hurting her own flesh and blood. In her eyes, no vengeance would ever make up for the pain inflicted upon her by the one person she risked it all for. While the play portrays Jason as egotistical, Euripides presents Medea as devious in order to prove that at some point they both are very similar because they are both out to achieve a personal goal and they both only care for their own gain. Yet, they
The play Medea is written by Euripides, and it mainly centers on the action of tragic heroes and their lives as they unfold into a state of conflict. The main beginning of the play starts with conflict itself, where the main character Jason, has abandoned his wife Medea, as well as the two children. He basically wants to marry the daughter of Creon, who is the king of Corinth. Her name is Glauce. These are the parties who are the central characters of the play and the plan unfolds into their lives, as well as how the two characters of Jason and Medea turn out to be tragic heroes. (Williamson, 1990)
He was curious into how human nature worked. He explored this with Medea by having her be a tragic figure, one who is possessed by her tragic actions. She thought not of just getting her revenge through killing Jason, that didn’t seem enough for her; she needed to make him pay for hurting her. She first thought of killing his new bride and his children, the fact that they were her children as well did not stop her for long. She is more driven by her passion than her rational, which would have been satisfied with Jason’s end. To Euripides Medea is “not merely the betrayed and vindictive wife, but as the impersonation of one of the blind and irrational focus in human nature” (Kitto pg. 202). Euripides concentrated on the passion of human nature in Medea. He showed what a person who is ruled entirely by passion is like. He made Medea a person who is all passion and nothing else. She is a person who is easily swayed by her feelings and almost never thinks out her actions and when there is an obstacle in her way she overcomes it. For Medea the human characteristic that Euripides wanted to show was mainly passion, Medea is ruled by her passion and that is the reason everything happens in the
Medea’s illegitimate marriage and the betrayal of Jason drive Medea to extreme revenge. Medea chooses to act with her immortal self and commit inhumane acts of murder rather than rationalize the outcomes of her actions. Medea see’s this option as her only resort as she has been banished and has nowhere to go, “stripped of her place”. To create sympathy for Medea, Euripides plays down Medea’s supernatural powers until the end of the play. Throughout the play Medea represents all characteristics found in individual women put together, including; love, passion, betrayal and revenge. Medea’s portrayal of human flaws creates empathetic emotions from the audience. The audience commiserates with Medea’s human flaws as they recognize them in themselves. Medea plays the major role in this play as she demonstrates many behavioral and psychological patterns unlike any of the other Greek women in the play; this draws the audience’s attention to Medea for sympathy and respect.
This mutual suffering between Medea and the Chorus raises issues such as the treatment of women at the time when this play was written. When Medea married Jason, she married herself to him for life. She was expected to be totally obedient and to accept whatever her husband willed. For her to look upon another man other than her husband would have been totally unacceptable. Whereas Jason marries another woman while he...
... takes matters into her own hands and doesn’t wait for a man to handle things for her. Also, her internal conflict that is visible throughout the entire play signify that she actually thinks for herself, and is strong enough to need to make serious decisions on her own, regardless of her gender. All of this goes back on the traditional Greek society, and helps make Medea into a play that is ahead of its time. With Euripides challenging the notion of misogyny, he creates Medea to show how powerful and dangerous a woman can be in a story, even though it was never heard of in the modern eras.
Medea's plan was set into motion. She has nothing to loose. She is even angrier because she betrayed her own father and her people for him. She even bears the burden of having Pelias killed by his daughters for Jason. She decides to take revenge out on Jason's bride and poisons her. She also doesn't want Jason to take the children from her. She decides to kill them, but agonizes over this decision before killing them. Some critics view this as a pathetic attempt at motherhood. I know there is a certain bond between mother and child. She just wants to hurt Jason as much as she has been hurt. "She first secures a place of refuge, and seems almost on the point of bespeaking a new connection. Medea abandoned by the entire world, was still sufficient for herself." (blackmask).