Medea Tragic Hero

Love is powerful, and can drive some to do unspeakable things. Medea is a prime example of this, her love for Jason causes her to betray her own people, her own family, and even murder her two children. It is as if after all of the extremes that she took to aide Jason, she decided to get her revenge and murder their children, to spite him for betraying her in the end. Medea’s killing of her children was pure revenge against Jason. Murder and exile is clearly a recurring theme with Medea, as she easily murders her own father and forsakes her homeland for Jason’s sake before later turning on their children. Medea’s unending lust to aide Jason on his journey to obtain the golden fleece is what lead to her to murder her very own children . Inevitably,

She has many faults that causes her downfall and to lose sight of herself. For starters, a tragic hero must come from nobility or royalty, which Medea is in two ways. She is the daughter of King Aeetes, as well as being a sorceress. The second characteristic, is that the tragic hero can not be perfect and must be relatable to everyday people like the audience, just maybe on a different social status. We must be able to relate to her in a way, so that we can experience catharsis. Medea is a woman before anything. She is a mother, she is a wife. Many people can relate to this, as well as her feelings of jealousy, rage and love. Then, we move on to the third characteristic which may be the most important of all the reason for the tragic hero’s downfall. What is the flaw in their character that caused them to have fallen. Medea’s was her jealousy due to her enamor with Jason. Because of this, she was driven to murder multiple people, as well as their own children. Her act of thinking this would enact vengeance upon Jason was her fatal mistake, and her ultimate downfall. The fourth characteristic is that their downfall was not wholly their fault, or deserved. In Medea’s case, it is reasonable to argue that she did not deserve to be left by her husband, however she did murder others before this. The final characteristic, is that there is some level of self awareness on the tragic hero’s part, and there is some self discovery. Medea did show some level of awareness when she was about to murder her children, claiming that she couldn’t do it at first, showing that she was about to let them live. It is apparent from her actions that she has a level of self awareness of her actions, and is conscious of what she is doing, which does not make her completely