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Character of Medea in Euripides Tragedy
Character of Medea in Euripides Tragedy
Character of Medea in Euripides Tragedy
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Life is a journey of challenges and experiences. The people and the experiences make up a total of life’s journey. The challenges a person has to endure may come as many obstacles arriving at one’s door. If one is truly ready for what life throws, one will know how to beat all odds. If one cannot handle the difficulty of life one will fall victim to acrimony, revenge, and sorrow, just as Medea. In the Greek tragedy, Medea, written by Euripides expounds on a betrayed wife to seek revenge upon her philandering husband. Medea was content in her life when she knew she had her King by her side. She was uncertain of what life would be like without him, so when her husband, Jason, decided to abandon their marriage it rattled her to the core. With her being hurt, embarrassed, and deserted, it led to a barbarous side of Medea that left readers thinking was the choices she made morally right? Did she …show more content…
Medea’s sentiments control her actions throughout this tragedy. If the reader has never experienced a heartbreak, one will now feel the exact same “hurt where affection runs deepest” as Medea. Jason’s deception sparked “fierce”, “anger,” and “rage” in Medea. Her passion for Jason soon transformed into hatred. Medea emotions were contradicting because Jason caused the “deepest wound.” The only way to hurt Jason like he hurt her was to kill the royal family and to kill their sons. This revenge was bitter tasting. It was bitter because her kids suffered at the hands of someone who was to care and love them. Imagined how much pain and heartache a mother had to suffer to kill her own born. She killed her sons for two reasons: one, she knew the only way to ensure that Jason’s legacy never continues is if she did the impeccable and for two so people will not wish death upon her sons. Medea pride and emotions caused her to commit those acts. She knew she had stopped a line of Jason’s from doing what he did to her to anyone
Euripedes tugs and pulls at our emotions from every angle throughout The Medea. He compels us to feel sympathy for the characters abused by Medea, yet still feel sympathy for Medea as well. These conflicting feelings build a sense of confusion and anxiety about the unfolding plot. In the beginning, the Nurse reveals the recent background events that have caused Medea so much torment: "She herself helped Jason in every way" (13) and now he "has taken a royal wife to his bed" (18). Right away we are angry with Jason for breaking his wedding vows, and we are building up sympathy for Medea as the Nurse describes her acts of suffering. When we first see Medea, she speaks passionately to the women of Corinth and convinces them to side with her. She evokes their sympathy by drawing further attention to her suffering and speaking in terms that bring them all to common ground. Aegeus becomes Medea’s first victim when he, unknowingly, provides the final building block in her plan for revenge against Jason. We sympathize for Aegeus in his ignorance. Medea now has confidence in her plan, so she reveals it to the women of Corinth. She is going to send her children to Jason’s bride with a poisoned dress that will make her die in agony. We are still compelled to sympathize with Medea at this point because she has justified her reasons for seeking revenge. However, the princess is oblivious to Medea’s plot; she will accept the gift for its beauty then meet an unexpected, agonized death. The image of pain and agony elicits our sympathy as well. Medea presents her most perverse speech when she explains how she will kill her own children then flee Corinth. Alone, these acts provoke pure disgust, but Euripides has developed Medea’s character as a coercive force; we still sympathize with her for her plight, yet we also hate her for her decisions. The women of Corinth try to persuade her away from this morbid choice, but their arguments are ineffective. Euripides employs stichomythia in the exchange between the women and Medea to show Medea breaking down boundaries between self and other, which prevent sympathy (811-819). Euripedes focuses on suffering, ignorance, and rhetoric to leave us torn in our sympathy for every character.
Medea has a conversation with Jason at the end of the story he tells her that he hoped the children who bring down curses on her; she looks at him and says “the gods know who the author of this sorrow.” (Lawall 719) Medea killed his children and yet she’s blaming him for her doing it. The conversation just got uglier and ended with her leaving.
Medea is a tragedy written by acclaimed Greek playwright Euripides.fortunately, had the opportunity to view last night's performance. Euripides cleverly uncovers the reality of Ancient Greek society, shining a light on the treatment of women and the emotions and thoughts that provoked during their time in society. As they were voiceless, Euripides acted as a voice. The scene is set during a male- dominated society, Medea the protagonist challenges the views and chooses to ignore the normality of civilisation. Treated as an outsider her passion for revenge conquers the motherly instincts she possesses, provoking a deep hatred and sparking revenge towards her once loved family.
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.
Euripides created a two-headed character in this classical tragedy. Medea begins her marriage as the ideal loving wife who sacrificed much for her husband's safety. At the peak of the reading, she becomes a murderous villain that demands respect and even some sympathy. By the end, the husband and wife are left devoid of love and purpose as the tragedy closes.
Along the way she did face internal conflicts that made her have doubts, but at the end of the day her anger and bitterness outweighed the amount of revenge she wanted to have on Jason. From Jason marrying another woman, Medea wanted her revenge. Although, in the play, Medea, Medea had vengeance on Jason that was made up of her having a plan of retaliation to stay in Corinth, kill Creon’s daughter, and murdering her children it was not justified. Even though Jason reacted wrongfully, doesn’t mean that Medea should have reacted the way she did. By her being not only emotionally unstable but physically unstable allowed Medea to think of retaliation thoughts. Even though it is a natural habit to to seek revenge on someone it doesn't mean it is the right thing to do. Instead of immediately knowing vengeance is the answer when it isn't, she should have thought about seeking forgiveness. We, as people shouldn’t try to have revenge on anyone. As we saw in this play it had a very negative result that Medea had to face with the rest of her
In Euripides' Medea, the main character of the same name is a controversial heroine. Medea takes whatever steps necessary to achieve what she believes is right and fair. She lived in a time when women were expected to sit in the shadows and take the hand that life dealt them without a blink of their eye. Medea took very radical steps to liberate herself and destroys the life of the man who ruined hers. She refused to accept the boundaries that a patriarchal society set upon her. Medea was a very wise and calculated woman who was brave enough to leave her homeland, along with everything she knew and loved, in order to follow her heart down the path of what she expected to be eternal happiness.
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 tragic play Medea is a struggle between reason and violence. Medea is deliberately portrayed as not a ‘normal woman’, but excessive in her passions. Medea is a torment to herself and to others; that is why Euripides shows her blazing her way through life leaving wreckage behind her. Euripides has presented Medea as a figure previously thought of exclusively as a male- hero. Her balance of character is a combination of the outstanding qualities of Achilles and Odysseus.
Another thing that proves that Medea has a strange way of thinking is how she rationalizes the murder of Jason’s new wife. Most people, regardless of where they live, feel that murder is wrong. Maybe evoke revenge in the way of ruining a reputation or something along those lines, but never kill. In Medea’s mind, there was nothing else she could do at this point to make Jason suffer like she had suffered. Medea is able to totally remove any human emotion behind the murder. She cannot seem...
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.
Later in the story, our sympathy transfers from Medea to Jason. Her revenge turns immoral, leaving readers with a sense of uneasiness. It is not so much the fact that she kills Creon and his daughter, but the fact that she slays her children in cold-blood.
Although Medea killed and did things that people felt were wrong it is evident that through out the play that along with her other characteristics, she was a caring and loving person. The first time we are shown this is when we discover everything she did for Jason. If she did not love him she would not have done those things. We are also shown that Medea can be a caring person by the love that she had for her children. Although she killed them in the end during the play she was a mother to her children, she showed affection to them, and she did think twice before she killed them. It is because Medea was a caring and loving person that she did what she did. Her feelings were hurt and her heart was broken; and she did what she felt she had to do to hurt Jason for hurting her.
In The Medea, Medea gives up her home, murdered her brother and tossed the pieces of his corpse and betrays her family to escape with her lover Jason. Against her father's wishes she helps Jason recover the Golden Fleece. Afterwards, Medea and Jason fall in love, get married and Medea gives birth and raises two sons. Unfortunately, Jason abandons Medea and marries King Creon's beautiful daughter. Medea alternates her role from a lover and partner in crime to an obsessive prideful monster. Me...
Medea is a tragedy of a woman who feels that her husband has betrayed her with another woman and the jealousy that consumes her. She is the protagonist who arouses sympathy and admiration because of how her desperate situation is. I thought I was going to feel sorry for Medea, but that quickly changed as soon as I saw her true colors. I understand that her emotions were all over the place. First, she was angry, then cold and conniving. The lower she sinks the more terrible revenge she wants to reap on Jason.