In the play Medea there are many themes that are reocurrent. A reoccurring theme theme is Medea’s “classic war between her passion and her responsibility.” Her passion is her love and obsession for her husband, Jason which later turns to vengeance. Her responsibility is taking care of her children and making sure that she is doing what is best for them.
There is a major conflict in this play and it starts when Jason cheats on his wife, Medea. Medea takes this very hard especially since Jason left her for fame and riches. Medea was very passionate about Jason and thought that their love was infinite. She was so distraught that this pain led her to be obsessive and violent towards everyone she loved. Medea eventually starts plotting for revenge
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It affects Jason, the princess, Creon, and the children of Medea and Jason. It starts off by effecting Jason and goes into a chain reaction. Medea’s plan of revenge starts with Jason because he was the one who cheated on her. She then targeted the princess because that was who Jason cheated on her with. Medea gets revenge on the princess by giving her children a dress with poison on the inside. The princess puts the dress on and it begins to burn her skin. Her father, Creon walks in and tries to save her but the dress starts burning him as well and they die together. Killing the children was Medea’s last part of her plan and she was having trouble with it. She was having trouble because she was debating whether or not killing her children was the best thing to do. This troubled her so much that she had a monologue on whether or not she should kill them. In the monologue she says “I mourn the deed that I must do then for I will kill my own children…”, she doesn’t want to kill her children but she feels as if it is the best thing for them. If they were to live then they would have a terrible life because Medea has brought shame upon them. She feels that if she gets away with all of the killings that she has done then the people would come after her children. This goes back to Jason because they are his kids and he cares for them. For Medea, this was all about getting revenge on Jason and making him feel the
Medea was wronged by Jason, she was a loyal wife and mother who was betrayed by her husband and reacted in a way...
The stories characters, Medea and Jason, can be seen as representations of two different responses to life. For hundreds of years, society has judged each others actions and reactions based on just cause. This story, to me, has a type of underlying theme that drags the reader into a moral debate, which forces you to really question your own belief system.
The problem set at the beginning of the play is that Jason has decided to marry another wife, Glauce. Medea is angered and will not let Jason off without punishment. The loss of Jason is not only a matter of passion; Medea has been completely humiliated by Jason's decision to take a new bride. Her pride shows again when she refuses Jason's aid. Though her situation is difficult, she would rather destroy all than accept help from one who has wronged her so horribly. Living as a barbarian among Greeks has made her more defensive, more full of hurt pride. To punish Jason, Medea had her children deliver poisoned gifts to the new bride, to kill her children, Glauce, and Creon. . Medea is not without feeling, nor is she a sociopath. She comprehends the difference between right and wrong, but chooses to follow the dictates of rage.
In order to comprehend all stances opposing mythology as fully symbolic of rebellion, an analysis will be done to prove mythology as symbolic of suppression. In the beginning, the character Medea is crying for the loss her husband. “O Zeus… do you hear the chanted prayer of a wife in her aguish?” (Euripides 148-149). Euripides' use of the Greek god, Zeus, symbolizes the character Jason. Zeus had many mistresses in which he cheated on his wife Hera. Nothing was done on Hera’s behalf due to Zeus having a greater position of respect. In the time period to which the play is based, women are viewed as personal items and slaves to men. This is similar to Jason due to the fact that Jason has placed the character Medea in a position to which she is helpless to do anything. Medea is a housewife who has a limited role in her house. The only role Medea has is a role to tend for her children. This is an act of suppression due to the fact that Medea has to succumb to Jason’s power; similar to Hera. In turn, these actions tie into the theme of the lack of authority women have in the play, Medea. Furthermore, in the play, the character Medea seduces the character Jason in order to kill the princess. “But I too can help in this. I’ll send a present to your wife…the dress and the golden cornet” (Euripides 943-948). Through the use of this quote, Euripides employs the character...
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. Medea then kills the children. Later, she refuses to let Jason bury the bodies or say goodbye to the dead children he now loves so dearly. Jason is cursed with many catastrophic flaws that lead to his downfall and that of others around him.
The play, from the very beginning, opens with drama and tension; Jason has left Medea, as well as his two children, and he hopes to soon be able to marry Glauce. From the first dialogue, the Nurse, begins to slowly reveal Medea’s pain, her suffering, her loss of understanding why: “Then my mistress, Medea, never would've sailed away to the towers in the land of Iolcus, her heart passionately in love with Jason. She'd never have convinced those women, Pelias' daughters, to kill their father.” It is revealed and inferred throughout the play, possibly before the play even begins that Medea is head over heals in love with Jason. She would do anything in her rightful power to help and be with this man; which included killing her younger brother, Absyrtus, and scattering his decapitated body over various oceans and realms of land. Her action can be reflected wit...
Medea is also under the power of revenge because her husband Jason abandoned her. During this time period, men controlled politics and had influence in the public sphere. The nurse best described Medea’s prideful character. “She’s a dangerous woman.
Even in today’s society, gender roles play a part in how people view the world. Although more important than the gender roles are the emotions that antagonize the psyche of the human. Medea shows how jealousy can lead to revenge and influence bad decisions and ruin or even end lives. Ironically, the decisions she makes to kill her children, leaves Jason helpless much like a Greek wife during this time. She removes the opportunity for him to voice his opinions, needs, and desires. This flip of traditional gender roles shows how gender roles are not a reliable way to view a society.
As with Medea and Jason, the battle between the two lead to former's madness, leading to the death of the enemies she considered, and, unfortunately, leading as well to the death of her own children. Medea felt betrayed and left behind by her husband Jason, as well as continuously aggravated by Creon despite the fact that it was she who was in a disadvantaged position.
When Jason left Medea to marry Glauce, Medea was plagued with sadness and then with anger. The man she loved, the man that she gave up her life for, had betrayed her. In the patriarchal society that Medea lived in, it was not acceptable for a woman to protest any decision made by her husband. Medea went against all social standards and took revenge on Jason for the wrongs that he had committed. She was willing to take any chance and sacrifice even her most valued possessions. Medea knew that the best way to avenge the wrongs of Jason was to kill Glauce and the children. It was a huge sacrifice for Medea to kill the children that she loved, but she allowed herself to look past that love and only see her hate and contempt for Jason. Medea was willing to go against every rule that society set, so that her husband wouldn't get away with leaving her for political reasons.
In this book there were extensive amounts of foul action displayed among the characters. All of it involved Medea. Medea was genuinely wrong in so many ways. She mistreated and killed her own children. This was done in retaliation for Jason’s unforgivable deed. Medea was morally wrong for her actions towards her children, however, Jason was the cause. Medea took the lives of two innocent souls because of a broken heart
Medea’s illegitimate marriage and the betrayal of Jason drive Medea to extreme revenge. Medea chooses to act with her immortal self and commit inhumane acts of murder rather than rationalize the outcomes of her actions. Medea see’s this option as her only resort as she has been banished and has nowhere to go, “stripped of her place”. To create sympathy for Medea, Euripides plays down Medea’s supernatural powers until the end of the play. Throughout the play Medea represents all characteristics found in individual women put together, including; love, passion, betrayal and revenge. Medea’s portrayal of human flaws creates empathetic emotions from the audience. The audience commiserates with Medea’s human flaws as they recognize them in themselves. Medea plays the major role in this play as she demonstrates many behavioral and psychological patterns unlike any of the other Greek women in the play; this draws the audience’s attention to Medea for sympathy and respect.
This mutual suffering between Medea and the Chorus raises issues such as the treatment of women at the time when this play was written. When Medea married Jason, she married herself to him for life. She was expected to be totally obedient and to accept whatever her husband willed. For her to look upon another man other than her husband would have been totally unacceptable. Whereas Jason marries another woman while he...
"Finally, the play opens with Medea's Nurse indirectly giving background information to the story about to unfold. It is quickly understood by the audience that Jason, the husband of Medea, for whom she disowned her family and had killed for, has left her for the King of Corinth (Creon's) daughter - a beautiful princess. Medea is outraged by this and is set on seeking revenge on him.
Because Medea was such a different woman people in her society were afraid of her, including men. As a result of this, before Jason, she never experienced being in love. When she finally experienced this type of love she went to no end for Jason. To protect Jason and her love for him she killed the beast guarding the Golden Fleece, she killed her brother, and she left her home, family and everything she knew for him. Most women would not have gone that far for love, especially women during her time; but Medea was not your average woman. All of the things she did for Jason will come into play, and partly account for her actions at the end of the play.