Medea Plot Analysis

Revenge is one of the few drives which pushes humans to perform the extreme. The central drive which Medea’s actions are constantly revolving around is revenge, the action of inflicting suffering to the cause of previous suffering. Medea gains suffering from her actions of revenge. Euripides, through Medea’s actions of revenge, illustrates the suffering which it is accompanied by. Medea is unwilling to compromise the revenge she desires to inflict on Jason, regardless of the suffering she will face in return.

Medea, an ancient Greek tragedy was written by Euripides during the classical era. This play focuses on Medea and how she plots the revenge against her unfaithful husband. Jason has left Medea and their children to go marry the princess of Corinth, Glauce. This was Medea’s motivation to kill Glauce and her own children. Similarly, in Hamlet, a tragedy written by William Shakespeare during the post classical era is about Hamlet and his revenge for his father on Claudius, Hamlet’s uncle, that took his father’s life, throne, and wife. Hamlet was motivated to take revenge after seeing the ghost which was his father in Act I Scene V. In both plays, the theme of revenge is present and is represented through the main characters. Medea and Hamlet are both characters who seek revenge on those who betray them to prove their control over their lives and to preserve their honor, which leads to death and suffering. In addition, both characters went mad in order to fulfil their plotted revenge. Also, while Medea successfully took revenge against her husband and lived, Hamlet received the ultimate price of death after his revenge.

Revenge is the predominant motivator for the psychological and corporeal action of the play. In the play, Medea is self absorbed into her misery, her determination of inflicting pain and suffering to Jason consumes her entire rationality and revenge is her only focus point in the play. She effectively draws the Chorus in, “to work revenge on Jason for his wrongs to

<br>Medea seeks vengeance with the same forceful determination to rectify the situation as a man would. A woman seeking revenge challenges society's view of women as weak and passive. Medea will go to great lengths to hurt Jason for the wrongs he has done to her.

Upon their return, she ruthlessly kills the children and retains their bodies. She hates her husband so strongly that she will not permit him to bury them. Even the image of her chariot seethes hate and revenge. The sun god's dragons on top of the house in the end of the tragedy paint

Commonly considered one of Euripides greatest pieces, Medea is an insightful depiction of how a woman’s love for her husband, churns into a gruesome revenge scheme against him. This tragedy illustrates a tale of a woman who challenges Greek societal norms. In the era that the story takes place; women are often seen in submissive roles. However, the play’s main character, Medea, challenges their customs through her actions against the Kingdom of Corinth and Jason.

In Euripedes’ play Medea, he depicts Medea as a woman who is consumed with vengeance and hatred after being betrayed by her husband Jason. This betrayal sparks a series of “unholy, horrible” murders. Medea’s actions can be justified through justice and revenge. Medea was motivated by Jason’s actions to pursue her own actions against Jason. Medea wanted revenge toward her husband for leaving her after she fully dedicated herself to Jason - and she also wanted to seek justice for the pain that he caused her. However, Medea went too far by killing her two children who were innocent in this matter. Ultimately, Medea’s final deeds are justifiable and outweigh Jason’s betrayal of his family.

On the other hand, the story of Medea exemplifies the adage "hell hath no fury like a woman scorned"! Medea's story is similar to Achilles' in that her actions are seemingly forced by the actions of another man, her husband Jason, and rage eventually overcomes her. Even though the issue of rage is not as prominent throughout Medea, it is essentially the most important aspect of the story. She sacrifices

Medea is a tragedy of a woman betrayed by her husband Jason and bent on revenge to the extreme of killing her own sons. Medea as the the main character we see her perspective on the story as to where she is the one being betrayed and view her actions before and following that. Medea feels betrayed by Jason, for him wanting a new woman and she lets the jealousy consume her. Medea bent on revenge so furiously that she will go to no extent to pursue what she feels just. First, she was angry, then cold and conniving.

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.

In Medea, a play by Euripides, Jason has numerous qualities that prompt his destruction. After Medea aids Jason in his journey to get the Golden Fleece, slaughtering her brother and bringing disgrace to her dad and her land all the while, Jason discovers another lady regardless of swearing a vow of loyalty to Medea. Medea is crushed when she figures out that Jason left her for an another women after two kids and now needs to expatriate her. Medea plots vindicate on Jason after he provides for her one day to take off. Medea later acts exceptionally as a subservient lady to Jason who is negligent of the malice that will be unleashed and lets the kids stay in Corinth.

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

Euripides’ ‘Medea’ is a play based on the myth of Jason and the Argonauts. The play was

Medea shows some inconsistency as she battles internally with her lust for revenge and her desire not to kill her own children. While Medea talks endlessly about exacting revenge and causing pain to Jason at whatever cost to her throughout most of the play, her resolve wavers as the reality of murdering her children approaches. As Molly has highlighted before me, Medea strengthens her resolve by changing her intentions and considering an argument for killing her children inconsistent with her previous thoughts, which is, as has been highlighted by Molly and the notes for the week, sadly all too common in those contemplating

She continues to describe her state, “A typically unfair attitude, I suppose…” (316). Later, in the tragedy, Medea boldly leaves the house after murdering her own children in pursuit of satisfaction. Medea shows audiences the horror that can come when one lets the desire for revenge rule his/her life.