A Crazy Woman In Shakespeare's Medea

In the beginning of the play, in Corinth, we find out that Medea’s husband, Jason, has a new bride. We then discover that Medea is known to be cunning and can be ruthless when she is mad. Later, it is revealed that Medea and Jason are in Corinth because they had previously been exiled from Iolcus. Once again, Medea is facing exile. She must leave Corinth along with her two sons, while her husband will stay behind with his new bride. For Medea, all she can see is her anger over Jason, and it overwhelms her sense of responsibility. Meanwhile, without a stable home that she values, it has become easier for her to contemplate killing her own two sons.

In Medea, a play by Euripides, Jason possesses many traits that lead to his downfall. After Medea assists Jason in his quest to get the Golden Fleece, killing her brother and disgracing her father and her native land in the process, Jason finds a new bride despite swearing an oath of fidelity to Medea. Medea is devastated when she finds out that Jason left her for another woman after two children and now wants to banish her. Medea plots revenge on Jason after he gives her one day to leave. Medea later acts peculiarly as a subservient woman to Jason who is oblivious to the evil that will be unleashed and lets the children remain in Corinth. The children later deliver a poisoned gown to Jason’s new bride that also kills the King of Corinth.

The play starts with Medea reacting to her ex-husband Jason breaking up with her. Medea says “If only a lightning bolt from heaven would go through my head! What good does it do me to remain alive?” (Euripides, 2005, p. 18). Medea brings up death several times, and it is clear that she is extremely upset about her husband leaving her. This situation was the period of high stress that triggered her episode with mixed features. Medea starts to feel suicidal, worthless, and depressed, which are all symptoms that are connected to bipolar disorder. Medea's bipolar emotions can clearly be seen in the scenes where she speaks to Jason. When she first speaks to him after they break up, she is enraged and she is very aggressive towards him. She insults Jason and calls him out for ruining their family. The next time she talks to Jason, her mood is the polar opposite. Medea pretends to forgive him and apologizes for the previous conversation they had. She acts very friendly and makes Jason believe that they are now at peace. These contrasting conversations show that Medea has bipolar emotions. In the first conversation, Medea is extremely angry and upset, and in the second, she is accepting and friendly. Medea also expresses poor decision making and risky behaviors throughout the play. She makes some baffling decisions when she devises her violent plan to get revenge on her ex-husband. She thinks that

For example, when she hears that her plan to kill Glauce the Princess and the Creon the King, she tell the messenger it "would give [her] double pleasure of their death was horrible". This clearly indicates that Medea is happy to hear such grim news, and would be even happier to hear their gruesome deaths. Medea has obviously gone mad and her villainess is overtaking her mind-frame. Furthermore, Medea is shows as a horrifically evil person when she kills her children. That is achieved through Euripides use of dramatic irony to showcase the horror and evilness of Medea's actions and Jason's anger. While the audience would know that Medea has done the evil deed, Jason does not and that creates further fear as to what other evil crime Medea could have committed without anyone knowing, creating suspense and fear. Euripides also frequently uses strong and emotive words to describe Medea such as "bloody-handed fiend of vengeance", "living curse" and "polluted fiend, child murderess". Through the use of such words Euripides aims to describe Medea in the most vile way possible, which would give modern and have given ancient audiences, a very clear insight into Medea's character and awful

First, we will look at the motive in this case. What could have possible motivated Medea to murder her children? Medea has been scorned by her husband, Jason, who left her for another woman (Puchner 529). You see, Creon has arranged for Jason to marry his daughter (Puchner 529). Jason, believing this would be the best decision he could make for his children, accepted Creon’s offer (Puchner 543). Medea could be heard wailing and crying out in rage from this betrayal (Puchner 532). So, Medea decides to break her husband’s heart, as he had broken hers, by killing their sons (Puchner 548). She could have easily left, after being exiled by Creon, and started a new life for herself and her children (Puchner 535). In a time where Medea could have

From the beginning of the play the conflict between good and bad where Medea and Jason are concerned has been ambiguous. Both characters have done terrible things in order to attain what they want. Nothing could stand in the way of them including Medea’s father, whom Medea betrayed and to pile on the grieve she kills her brother and drops parts of him into the sea so as to delay her father thereby ensuring that Jason and his Argonauts could fulfil their quest to attain the Golden Fleece. When Jason betrays Medea and walks away from their marriage we immediately identify him as the villain, yet the reader fails to understand that during that time when this play was written it was still socially acceptable for the man to walk away from his marriage provided he gives back the dowry he attained from the wife’s father. In this case Medea did not bring any such items so it was even easier for him to leave her so as to empower himself. It was Medea’s role as a woman belonging to that age to accept Jason’s decision however she feels betrayed that he would break a vow made in front of the gods, and apparently she was not a regular woman even by the standards of that time as she had an intellect that could rival that of scholarly men. So to exact her revenge she destroys everything Jason loves leaving him to regret ever betraying the marriage.

Once she learns that Jason has married another woman, Medea's personality turns completely around. The strong loving wife turns into a barbarian huntress in search of revenge. After plotting and changing the course of her revenge a few times, she perpetrates an attack that will certainly kill the new bride. Her method is focused on the woman, but it may or may not affect others around her target. Medea knows that the poisoned dress and head adornment will be lethal to Jason's bride, but she cannot possibly know what will come of Jason, their children, or the king. Her rage knows no bounds and she sends Antigone and Ismene on with the poisoned gifts. Weigel describes the revenge of Medea in his critique of the writing: "Jason becomes entangled with a force that crushes his dignity and detachment, that tears his successes to tatters. At the end he is in exactly the same position as Medea. Both are bereaved of mate, children, and friends. Both are free to grow old without comfort. And both are utterly empty inside, except that Jason is now filled with the same burning hatred that possessed Medea" (Weigel 1391).

Ever since she found out she had been betrayed by Jason, she has had “no pleasure left” in living. The only purpose left in her “cruel” and “accursed” life is to “strike dead” Jason, Creon and Glauce. Medea ends up killing Creon and his daughter but doesn’t make any attempt to kill Jason. To “perish his whole house” and “work revenge on Jason for his wrongs to [Medea]”, Medea plans to kill her two son as “it is the supreme way to hurt [her] husband”. Although Medea feels sad as shown by her “dewy eyes” and “these tears”, the audience are positioned to feel less sympathetic towards Medea due to her murderous actions towards her “own little

Euripides also carefully reveals the elements of Medea's past that demonstrate her readiness to violate solidarity of family ties in order to pursue her intractable will; Jason and Medea's original tryst, for example, required that she kill her own brother, thus choosing marriage ties over blood ties. Secondly, Medea's selfishness provides power to her fatal flaw. Medea's selfishness and lack of humanity is displayed through the act of killing her own two sons. Medea understands that the slaying of her children will make Jason miserable. During this time, the chorus recognizes her self-worship and states, “But can you have the heart to kill your flesh and blood” (Euripides, The Medea, 816)? Medea does not stop to think what pain she may cause to herself by murdering them. She is only concerned about her happiness that will be derived from Jason's grieving. Medea comes to the conclusion that it is worth the suffering just to see her ex-husband unhappy. Medea states, “Yes, for this is the best way to wound my husband” (Euripides, The Medea, 817). This exhibits Medea's selfishness by the slaying of her sons just to cause sorrow to Jason for her own pleasure. Medea's rage also leads to her fatal flaw of excessive passion. Her excessive passion, fed by rage, leads Medea to do uncalled-for acts of violence and murder.

Medea is the tragic story of a woman desperate for revenge upon her husband, after he betrayed her for another woman’s bed. It was written by Euripides, a Greek playwright, in 431 B.C. Throughout the play each character shows us their inconsistent and contradicting personalities, in particular, Jason and Medea. The play opens with the Nurse expressing her anxiety about Jason betraying and leaving Medea for another, wealthier, woman. Our initial reaction is to feel empathetic towards Medea, who has been abandoned so conveniently. But towards the end of the play, when Medea takes revenge on

Medea was mentally ill, and we can see this in the Euripides play Medea in lines 791-795. “I weep to think of the deed I have to do Next after that; for I shall kill my own children.” This explains that Medea wanting revenge so bad would go to such lengths as to kill her own children. She also is very depressed and angry when Jason first leaves her. “She lies without food and gives herself up to suffering, Wasting away every moment of the day in tears. The illness Medea has is Clinical Depression. The website that had all the symptoms that medea has was MayoClinic.The most common signs of Clinical Depression are “feelings of sadness/ hopefulness” Medea shows this sign when she says “ Ah, lost in my sufferings, I wish, I wish I might die.”( Euripides, line 98). To diagnose clinical depression the symptoms have to be severe enough to cause noticeable changes in their personality. Which Medea does show on multiple occasions. Another sign of clinical depression that medea show is impaired indecisiveness. Medea shows

In addition to the interactions between Medea and the Greek Chorus, it is important to explore the scenes preceding the tirade. The nurse’s opening monologue offers great insight into Medea’s state of characterization prior to her newfound interactions. The nurse anaphorically describes Medea’s actions towards Jason. The Nurse begins, “She wouldn’t have made the daughters of Pelias kill him, she wouldn’t have had to flee to Corinth here, she wouldn’t have done all that she did for Jason, She wouldn’t have been so darned complaisant to Jason” (311). Euripides’ use of anaphora creates emphasis on everything Medea has done for Jason. The Nurse believes that upon meeting Jason, “she wouldn’t have” fallen in love with Jason. Medea’s motivation was a clear passion to woo Jason. Formerly, Medea completes Jason’s task of achieving the Golden Fleece, originally a man’s task. With her cunningness, she uses her witch supremacies to her advantage, acting on her desire for Jason. Furthermore, the Nurse foreshadows Medea’s shift in characterization from anguish to dexterity in her

The theme of betrayal in the play Medea first makes an appearance when the Nurse informs the audience that “Jason has betrayed his sons and [Medea], and takes to bed a royal bride.”

The play sheds light on the familial bond of marriage between Medea and Jason. He treats her as if she’s “something won in a foreign land” who, since he no longer has use of her, can be disposed. In her misery Medea tells us that she not only eloped with Jason but also betrayed her father and her household in doing so. (74:476-484) Thus, we are forced to see her torment as a punishment for her previous actions. It seems pretty clear that Jason and her share a “diseased love” and their relationship has been built upon exploitation and lust. The realization that the play is trying to draw is that one cannot replace familial bonds with those of infatuation and that betrayal of your family has terrible consequences. Medea was the cause of pain for her father and in return receives pain from her own family as well. She eventually is able to see her wrong doings (86:799-802) yet the sexual jealousy that encompasses her drives her to revenge. It is clear that Jason must suffer for his actions yet the innocent slaughter of the foolish king and his pure daughter portray her as a wicked spiteful creature. She seems to be driven by a value system that is inconsistent with that of the tragedies i.e. the beliefs of an epic hero. But in the world of tragedy, epic has no place and we see the nurse trying to wish away its existence.

Medea shows hints of her insanity throughout her prior actions as well. We see Medea begin with the nurse giving us background information on Jason and Medea’s flight to Jason’s home Iolcus. Even before the story begins, her love for Jason has already led her to kill her brother to slow down pursuers (Medea, line 169) and trick the daughters of Pelias, Jason’s uncle and rival king, into murdering their father. (Medea, 12) Later in the play, Medea says she regrets having done this in her love for Jason, as she can now no longer return to her homeland (Medea, 508-514).