Medea Analysis

Euripides is sympathetic to the plight of women in Greece. In Medea most of the characters are women. The male characters in the play do not seem to portray as much depth as the women featured. Jason, Medea’s husband, is leaving her for the king’s daughter. He shows himself as well versed in rhetoric and very self-serving. Creon is the king who openly admits that he is afraid of Medea and her clever ways. Even Medea’s sons seem to serve the purpose of pawns in Medea’s master plan of revenge.

The mistreatment that both receive from Jason and Agamemnon despite all that they do for them contributes heavily to their vengeful actions as well. Medea used her magical powers, defied her father, and killed her brother to devote herself to Jason, is still treated coldly and is neglected by Jason, who abandons her and their two sons and leaves her for Creon’s daughter. She realizes that “to annihilate the past is not possible: but its fruit in the present” can be used at her disposal to fulfill vengeance (Medea 1.364-5). She decides to channel the woe she

However, no one in the play except the Nurse thinks for a second that Medea could bring herself to murder her children. Medea even has an internal debate over whether she could bring herself to commit such a crime, showing once again that she is not completely in control of her emotions. In the end, she decides to go through with it rather than leave them “to the mockery of my enemies” (78). In the end, Medea appears in the sky in “a chariot drawn by dragons” (84). She has already killed the boys and she attributes their death to Jason’s “weakness” (86) and his “lustful heart and new marriage” (86). The play ends with Medea disappearing from view with the children.

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

<br>We learn that Medea has killed her brother. Medea does not have any guilt about planning and carrying out the murders of king Creon and his daughter Glauke. As the

Medea’s version of justice is taking matters into her owns hands. She wants to take revenge on Jason by murdering his fiancee and his children. Medea killed her children to make Jason pay for his wrongdoing. Though she did feel regret, she still carried on and committed sacrilege against her children. Her actions was not justified in the court of law and in the eyes of men and women. She also not only killed her children, she killed Jason’s fiancee. The Corinthian princess, Glauce, died a brutal death by the gifts that Medea had given her. “She changed colour, staggered back and sideways, trembling, then fell into her chair again, almost collapsing on the floor” (Euripides 43). The messenger who went to Medea gave in full detail, a vivid description of the what happened to the princess of Corinth. Medea held no remorse for Glauce or the

In Euripides’ Medea, Medea is very furious because Juno left her and her children to remarry the princess. Medea does not accept the betrayal and demands punishment for leaving her after all she has done for him. Creon is aware “I’m afraid of you. You could hurt my daughter, even kill her. Every indication points that way”(793). Medea knew she was going to exile and pretended to be a victim and swore that all she said was just out of anger. Little did the king know that she had a vicious plan to kill his daughter and Creon as well. Medea indeed got what she wanted. She obtained revenged by killing her children on top of the bride and the king.“Forget your children. Afterward you’ll grieve. For even if you kill them, they were yours; you loved them. I’m a woman cursed by fortune”(817). This shows how woman did not have power over their children. Medea’s husband was the owner and that’s why she killed them because her children were not in reality hers, she just gave birth to them.

When Medea’s husband, Jason, plans to marry Glauce, a daughter of King Creon, for wealth and power over the kingdom, Medea becomes angry with Jason for breaking their vows of eternal love. She decides the best way to hurt Jason was by murdering his bride-to-be and their own two children.

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

The three heroines of the plays have reasons for their actions and doing what they do, so it can be explained why they are in the right. Their crimes in Greek culture include Medea killing her children, Antigone burying her brother while disobeying a ruler, and Lysistrata condemning sex from men in war of their wives. Medea is the wife of Jason, who she has supported all through her life by killing her brother, betraying her father, and making her own homeland hate her. All of this for the benefit of her husband, giving him fame and success.

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.

She helped him in every way possible in his quest for the Golden Fleece, “Her heart on fire with passionate love for Jason... But now there’s hatred everywhere. Love is diseased.” (1) However, in a tragedy, the hero is supposed to make a single mistake which ultimately leads to their downfall. In this case, Medea is not a heroic character as she is a sorceress, murders her brother, and her own children. The hamartia is intended to bring down a character of high morality, but Medea can be viewed as a wholly evil character who is not guided by any moral principles. She is also manipulative and deceptive in the way that she treats the men around her, Creon, Aegeus, and Jason, while involving them in her plan for revenge. Euripides has shown this aspect of her personality through lines such as “Do you think that I would have fawned on that man unless I had some end to gain or profit in it?” (12) and “by a trick I may kill the king’s daughter” (25)

However, once again though, we see this sharpness behind her veil of weakness ("no bloodier spirit"). With this said though, it is not a murderous, maniacal rage. She makes clear reference to the fact that she is part of the group of wretched women and that she is simply striking back as a woman "scorned". When Creon comes on the stage, she continues with the pitiable appearance, begging ("I kneel to you, I beseech you"). She tries to persuade Creon that he has no threat from her, using the fact that she is a woman to make him disregard her power ("I'm in no position - a woman - to wrong a king"). However, after this scene is where the image of Medea as a feeble woman ends. The Chorus indicate their pity and that Medea's plight "touches our hearts". But at this point, Medea becomes the murderous and dangerous woman that will kill her children and cackle with glee at the thought of Glauce's death. She declares that she manipulated Creon, fawning on him "to gain my purpose". She still holds our pity but not in the same intensity (until eventually she finally loses pity almost completely in her double-infanticide).

In the Greek tragedy of Medea there are many twists and turns throughout the story causing many to question who is more of the victim of the story. This essay will discuss who is the bigger victim of the story. Medea was the victim because she killed her children even though she didn’t want to & she also when she was under the spell of Aphrodite killed her brother so her love was able to get what he wanted and then disowned her family these things proved that Medea was the victim.

Soon after this, Medea is able to manipulate Creon as well. When Creon banishes her, she tells him of her great concern for her children and eventually convinces him to allow her to stay in Corinth for one more day. This allows Medea to continue with her plan to take out revenge on Jason. Medea acts and speaks like a Homeric Greek warrior, but tricks Jason by acting submissively like the ideal Greek woman Jason wished her to be. Medea approaches Jason with gifts for his new wife, apologizes, and tells him that she realized he was right. This move allowed Medea to remove all skepticism from Jason's mind, and he willingly took the poisoned dress to his bride. In the course of a few hours, Medea's ultimate manipulation skills enable her to exploit four individuals who are crucial to her murder plot.