Medea's Character Analysis

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.

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>Medea dwells in self-pity until contriving a scheme that will avenge her hurt. Wallowing in self contempt is generally a quality attributed to women by society. Medea is so unhappy with herself after her marriage with Jason ended that she wanted to die.

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

I don’t think that Medea will ever be able to escape the torment and unhappiness caused by this whole ordeal. In our inner circle, the question “Do you think she is happy with the outcome?” kept coming up. Everyone had their own opinions, but I think that we all eventually came to a consensus that no, she could never really be happy with this. That it will always torture her and she will always feel the guilt of what she and Jason have done. In this paper, I’m going to elaborate on why I think this.

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

In Diane Arnson Svarlien’s translation of Euripides’ Medea, the playwright encrypted a hidden message in the play Medea that portrays the same theme as J.K Rowling’s Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban which are: identity, and relationship. To back this up, the first half of the play is talking about the story of why Medea split up with Jason and Medea mentions that men, like Jason, treats women with betrayal. She then clarifies the idea by saying disgraceful things about her husband and ignores Jason’s reasoning on why he has to marry off with someone. The reason why she is considered as “other” is, she is misunderstood of the actions she had done such as murdering her children while she was a little paranoid.

As a mother, Medea on the surface is not the best, as she eventually kills her children, ignoring their pleas for mercy ("Mother, don't kill us"). However, we must not ignore the heartache and pain that Medea endures in killing them. It takes incredible conviction to carry it out ("parted from you, my life will be all pain and

ultimate act of revenge towards Jason. She is so set on getting back at him that she commits the most heinous of acts. She murders her two children. Jason's acts may have pushed her over the edge of sanity, but one can argue that even an insane person would take their own life over the lives of their own children. This brings the insanity to a whole new level.

Moreover, Euripides incorporates Medea into the relationship to convey the idea that females also possess power in an alliance, but the form of their authority is different compared to that of a male’s. Medea elucidates that even in arduous times, she assists Jason and supports their marriage. In a direct conversation with Jason, she tells him, “…after I’ve done all this to help you, you brute, you betray me…” (27). She explains that although she took care of Jason and supported him whenever he needed her help, he disabuses his power to overpower her and abandon her. Even after Jason abandons Medea, she thinks day and night of him. Medea demonstrates that the power females possess is not physical and totalitarian like the males, but rather is emotional and mental. She tries to keep the family together and in trying to do so, she does whatever Jason asks her to do. She is the important woman behind every successful man. Without her command, Jason would not be the person he is. Therefore, she can destroy Jason whenever she desires with her power. She can be a femme fatale and reduce Jason’s life to rubbles. Similarly, after Medea finds out that she is being cheated on, she quickly creates a malicious plan to obliterate Jason. She assassinates his new wife and his heirs. Although her love is “greater than

She does not know what to do or say to Jason when she finds out he has found someone else besides her. She betrayed her own father and home to be able to be with Jason and blossom their love. She feels envy for Jason’s new lover Glauce who is also the daughter of the King Kreon! The chorus, nurse and tutor feel sympathy for Medea due to how she was wronged but little did they know she is a raging woman out for revenge. All that matters to her is Jason and if she can’t have him, she will make him feel the same pain he makes her feel. She goes insane and says “ they will all pay for what they’ve done to me” almost getting executed but King Kreon has a change of heart and gives her one day to leave with her kids and not come back. She saw that as an opportunity to get her revenge and says “He could have thrown me out, destroyed my plans; instead he granted me a single day to turn three enemies to three dead bodies:” (755) literally stating she controls fate and will manipulate it from the palm of her hand. She pursues her evil plot to get revenge on Jason and manages to smuggle a gift with her children to Glauce, later realizing the gift was full of poison killing not just her but her father Kreon as well. Jason is devastated and in shook on what she has done, even the chorus, nurse and tutor question her ways now. She’s gone over the limit, but yet feels like there should be more justice done. This isn’t about all women being wronged in the Greek times, now it’s about her obsession to make Jason suffer more and more. She goes to drastic measures and for her to make Jason feel the pain she did, she kills her own children without any hesitation or remorse. Medea states before killing her children “So sweet the mere touch of you: the bloom of children's skin so soft their breath a perfect balm" (762) practically saying her goodbyes ready to end their lives just because of her heart

In Medea by Euripides, an unfortunate tragedy arose from devastating circumstances, centralizing around intense grief and rage. In the center of the horrific situation was Medea, who was the daughter of King Aeetes. She was the former wife of Jason until he decided to abandon his family and duties as the head of the household by marrying Glauce, the Princess of Corinth. She murdered her children, Glauce, and Creon, the King of Corinth to satiate her overwhelming lust for blood and revenge. Undeniably, Medea is the epitome of the phrase, “Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.” Her burning desire for vengeance and destruction extended far beyond intense passion. Thus, leading to the question: “Is Medea, simply, the face of insanity or pure evil?” Although her actions were horrific and barbaric enough to be considered an ailment of insanity, the reality was that she was the devil incarnate considering she strategically formulated a plan to achieve her demented agenda. Evidently, Medea was not insane and did not commit the murder out of insanity, but pure evil, which is fully crystal clear from her deranged actions and thoughts.