The Concept of the Tragic Hero: an Analysis of Jason and Medea in Euripides' 'Medea'

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.

Both Fifth century B.C. playwright Euripides and Roman poet and dramatist Ovid tell the story of Jason ditching Medea for another woman; however, they do not always share a perspective on the female matron's traits, behavior, and purpose. Euripides portrays a woman who reacts to injustice by beginning a crusade to avenge all who harmed her which she is prepared to see through even if it means resorting to the most contemptible methods. Ovid, on the other hand, tells of a much less extreme figure whose humble goal is only to persuade Jason to return. Despite these differences, both Medeas create trouble by acting with emotions instead of with reason, and as a result, put

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.

Throughout the entirety of the play, Medea, there are multiple victims of other people’s actions as well as their own. This raises the question: out of all the people who suffer in this classic play, ultimately, who is the tragic figure? Although many people have to suffer slow, painful deaths in the play, the answer is narrowed down to the two main survivors: Medea and Jason. While Jason is the victim of his children getting murdered by Medea, the tragic figure still remains Medea due to how she is the one who suffers the most throughout the play because of Jason and societal expectations.

Euripides' characterization of women is considered unique in the play Medea because the tragic Hero/ine - in this case Jason and Medea in each one's

Medea in Apollonius’ Argonautica (aka Jason and the Golden Fleece), portrays a young day-dreamer, who is a helpless victim of love to Jason. Naïve and innocent, Medea must make the decision to either stay with her family or betray them and leave to live with Jason. It is read that she bantered with her thoughts, and was indecisive in which decision she out to make. She desired to be thoughtful and loyal to her family, but she possessed a destructive love for the Argonaut, and in the end, decided to run away with him. Medea’s magic is shown as well in this passage, devising her as bewitching, for even her glance put a dragon

The shocking addition of having a mother slaughter her own children makes a dark story even darker, it deepens the revenge and shocks the moral of the audience. Euripides manipulates the audience through traditional Greek play techniques to increase the intensity of the revenge, by playing with our thoughts and inviting his audience to question the way their society lives. Through the Chorus of Corinthian women Euripides directs the audiences view of Medea. Throughout the play the Chorus voices their opinion, influencing the audience to their point. Originally the Chorus celebrates Medea's desire for revenge, chanting “To punish Jason will be just” (line 267, p. 25), the audience agrees with the Chorus, Jason should be punished. Once the Chorus become aware of her intentions they turn against her, attempting to make her see reason and in the final ode they condemn her while acknowledging that her actions are the manifestation of a greater power and thereby re enforce Euripides tragic theme. The Chorus's 5 stasimons and short interventions during the play direct the audience's thoughts and opinions. As a tragic heroine Medea is a creation unique to Euripides, the psychological study of a woman entirely consumed by love and hate. He reminds us that her love for Jason resulted in the betrayal of her father, the murder of her brother and the murder of Pelias. Rejected, mocked and betrayed, her pride and hatred of Jason cause the destruction

Medea of Euripides is an ancient Greek tragedy play written by Euripides, grounded upon the legend of two characters Medea and Jason. Euripides wrote Medea of Euripides in 431 BC at a time in Greece, when males were governing, and women had limited rights. Medea, the protagonist, was the daughter of Aeetes of Colchis, she was driven by passion and committed horrendous crimes for the love of Jason. In the opening act, Medea is standing outside of Jason house in Corinth as she explicates to the Chores how she was victimized by Jason. The Nurse, Chores, and Medea give a history of Medea and Jason’s relationship, and the inciting incidence begins. Medea describes how she is distraught and shattered because she sacrificed everything for Jason,

1. In Euripides’ play Medea, summaries Medea’s attack on Jason in their First confrontation. a. Medea flat-out accuses Jason of becoming very cold with her she tells him all the things she has done for him like saving his life, leaving him and even going as far as killing for him. even with all this he still has chosen to leave his wife and two sons and wants to try to remarry to up his station and has left her and the children with nowhere to live.

Medea, written by Euripides, is a play laced with elements of Greek theater. The play centers around Medea, whose husband, Jason, has left her and their children for the princess of Creon. Medea must struggle with these events and the course of action she decides to take; killing her and Jason's two sons in order to make him feel her misery. These events employ several elements of Greek theater, including; transcending cultural and temporal boundaries, specifically that of difficult relationships and painful decisions, women fighting misogyny and the patriarchy, and the use of chorus in order to give insight into events and characters.

The Greek myth of Jason and Medea is complex and changing. Having developed orally, the story differs based on sources, but the main narrative stays the same. The story can be broken up into two parts. The beginning is the oral myth that starts with Jason when he was a baby and tells the story of his journey on the Argos, quest for power, marriage to Medea, betrayal of his wife, and, eventually, his death. Secondly, the play Euripides wrote, Medea, picks up near the end of the story, after Jason has already betrayed Medea. The story of Jason and Medea can be considered a Greek tragedy because it’s exciting narrative evokes fear and pity in the reader, it involves important character with royal lineage,

After Medea is betrayed, she epitomises perfectly the proverbial “woman scorned” determined to ensure a bloodbath as she sinks into abysmal hopelessness and despair. At each stage of her scheme, Medea exercises careful judgement, knowing exactly what to say at the right time to the right person. She is able to manipulate Creon, Aegus and ultimately Jason to formulate circumstances and opportunities to seek retribution and to reciprocate the injustices that befall her. Medea’s meticulously cunning revenge, cursing her “children of a bewitched mother” is judiciously complemented by a pathological lack of remorse for her husband and children. Although the ancient and modern audience may agree in Jason deserving punishment to some extent, it is Medea’s act of infanticide is where the line is drawn. However, in leaving Medea unpunished, Euripides disposes the traditional theatrical rational resolution for the villain but instead invokes a masterstroke of divine intervention using the device deus ex machina allowing her to have good fortune and help from Helios and divine protection on her side. This not only leaves the ancient and modern audience querying at society’s obsession with morality in the face of such an abjectly irrational denouement but simultaneously forces the audience to question their own sense perception and justice. Medea’s actions are Dionysian guided. Her emotions are liberated, shattering all sense of society’s moral boundaries that confines her. The dichotomy between “a lioness” and “a woman” aims to highlight Medea as a powerful and regal creature. As a lioness, she is able to truly be a mistress of the systematic dysfunctional Greek society that subjugates its

Medea is a play based on the myth of Jason and Medea written by Euripides. The play involves the love between two mythical characters: Jason and Medea. The play reaches its climax when Medea is betrayed by Jason when he choses another woman for her youthful beauty. Euripides is able to involve the audience by using dramatic scenery on how Medea choses to respond to this theatrical situation according to the patriarchal culture she lives in. Furthermore, the analysis focuses upon the system of masculinity and femininity with regards to how Medea assesses the best approach in seeking to fight back against the predominant practices and norms of patriarchy that existed in her time. This play further highlights the role of love and the significance it has over family. It is necessary for the audience to understand the fundamental backbone and rubric of the story; the way in which Medea turns her back upon cultural definitions of patriarchy. Sympathizing and understanding the betrayal within the male-controlled society is unequal, due to the fact that men are typically understood within patriarchal societies to serve as the protectors and guardians of women while this is not the case with Medea as she is more superior to Jason. Unsurprisingly, the role of women in this play automatically assumes that they are the weaker and less important sex so therefore need the dominating actions of men as a means of protecting their femininity.

Aristotle cites that, "A man cannot become a hero until he can see the root of his own downfall." Consistent to Aristotle’s characteristics of a tragic hero, the tragic hero must fit the requirements of being noble and employed in a high standing position of society. There should be a tragic flaw that ultimately leads to his downfall, and those reading the play must feel pity for this character as he goes through necessary changes as a result of his flaw. Aristotle illustrates a tragic hero as one who falls from grace into a state of acute misery. In Euripides’ Medea, the tragic hero is Jason, a man of noble birth who falls from being honored and respected due to a flaw in his character, that flaw being adultery. His adultery leads to terrible outcomes, the deaths of many people, and his loss of all the things he loved.His character is an excellent example of the heroes who rise high, then ultimately fail due to their own nature. By the end of the play he realizes his errors and becomes negligible. Some may argue that Medea is the tragic hero in the play, but this reasoning is flawed because Medea has no single flaw, she has exuded a sadistic nature from the start, from her actions involving the Golden Fleece to her killing her own offspring. Jason suffers from the fatal flaw of adultery that ultimately destines him for ruin, making it is clear that he serves as the tragic hero in Euripides '

Aristotle believed that the details of the plot were the most important element of tragedy and, in turn, they become imperative to exposing Jason as the tragic hero. One of the most important parts of a tragic plot, Aristotle found, is that the tragic hero must eventually realize their inescapable fate. Within Medea we see that only Jason has such a revelation. It is clear from the opening of the play that Medea is in control of her own actions; she causes her own fate. Medea’s loss isn’t a product of circumstance, she decides herself that her children “must die with [their] father”. While Medea was painfully aware of the negative outcomes of the situation, Jason was optimistic that the problems would be resolved correctly. He spoke of his children being “the leaders in Corinth” and wished to see them “grown up and thriving”. He doesn’t realize the magnitude of his dilemma until his wife died a brutal death with “white foam at her mouth, her eyes popping out, the blood drained from her face”. The ignorance that Jason