Trust is a very import element in life. A trustful person is reliable, can keep secrets and is always there when needed. Unfortunately, many people use a person's trust to their own advantage, using it to manipulate a situation or person. Betrayal is the breaking of trust. Betrayal occurs when a relationship is impacted between two or more people because of broken trust. In the Greek play Medea, the writer Euripides uses genre and plot to express the theme betrayal.
Euripides uses the genre drama and Greek tragedy to show the theme of betrayal. Dramas create exciting and emotional atmospheres for the audience. Greek tragedies create drama through the suffering of the characters. The opening scene is of the nurse with her monologue, giving
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"And she has helped Jason and every way...Deserting his own children and my mistress, Jason has taken a royal wife to his bed...What sort of return Jason has made love. She lives without food and gives herself up to suffering... A man who now is determined to dishonor her" (pg. 1-2). The nurse introduces the audience to the situation of the play with a monologue. During the rising action, King Creon banishes Medea from Corinth in fear that she will seek revenge. "Allow me to remain here just for this day... And look for support for my children... You have children of your own...It is the children being in trouble that I mind" (pg. 12). "Jason, I beg you to be forgiving towards me for what I said... I saw that I had shown a great lack of sense and that my anger was foolish" (pg. 28). Medea acts apologetic for her actions, begging Jason to ask King Creon to let their children stay in Corinth while giving Jason's bride a poisoned garment. The garment kills Jason's bride, betraying King Creon because Medea begged him to let her stay for the rest of the day, using his children to persuade him. She also betrays Jason because she convinced him to trust her with her long apology speech. Following the death of Jason's bride, Medea kills their two sons betraying Jason again because she begged Jason to ask if their sons could stay in Corinth. The end of the play Medea is tragic for both Medea and Jason because they are both left
Courageous, powerful, and reckless, Medea left her home without her father's blessing to accompany Jason to the land of Corinth, after using her magic powers to slay the dragon that guarded the golden fleece. She also killed her own brother to slow Jason's chasers. For a while, Medea and Jason lived in harmony in Corinth where they had two children. Later, Jason left Medea for Kreon's daughter. She became grief-stricken at her loss and filled with rage at Jason's betrayal. This, is explained by her nurse during the prologue in World Literature Volume A (pg697), "she'll not stop raging until she has struck at someone",
She gave the children the dress she made and the diadem, submerged with poison and instructed her to give these gifts to the princess under the false impression that she wants to please her so she may convince her father to allow the children to stay in Corinth. After the death of the king and the princess, Medea kills her two children. The only time the children have spoken and they plead to live. There is no future for the children, to escape their mother’s wrath and anger and her drive to hurt and destroy everything and everyone that Jason loves and cares about. Medea contributes to the work as a whole because we see her side of the story and understand the motives behind her action and the consequences as the result of her madness. Medea is the rising action and the climax of the play. We also see Jason side of the story from his conversations with Medea and his explanation was awful. He is the reason for the conflict and issues for Medea but Jason does not take care of the problems he created nor does he take the responsibility for the consequences of his actions. He married a sorceress and not a normal Greek
With no husband, no country to turn to, and no one she can really depend on for rescue, Medea is trapped by her circumstances. Instead of becoming crushed, however, Medea turns it against those she hate. She attacks the weaknesses in her enemies’ character. Knowing Jason would feel guilty about his abandonment, Medea sent her own children to deliver the poisoned gifts, despite the certain death her children would face being involved in such a plot. Knowing the princess would not resist flashy gifts, she cursed the dress and crown. Knowing the king’s love for his daughter would cause him to rush to her aid, Medea formulated the curse to spread to those who touched the daughter as well. As each facet of her plan had to be executed perfectly to succeed, Medea demonstrated the full potential of her capabilities. She proves that when a society completely scorns and devalues women, everyone will pay as women are incredibly strong.
Medea is outraged that she sacrificed so much to help Jason, only to have him revoke his pledge to her for his own selfish gain. She asks him whether he thinks the gods whose names he swore by have ceased to rule, thereby allowing him to break his promise to her. Medea vows to avenge her suffering by destroying Jason's new family and his children. When Jason curses his wife for her murdering at the end of the play, she says to him, 'What heavenly power lends an ear / To a breaker of oaths, a deceiver?
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.
By the end, the husband and wife are left devoid of love and purpose as the tragedy closes. In Medea, a woman betrays her homeland because of her love for a man. Jason is the husband that she ferociously loves and makes sacrifices for. They have two children together: Antigone and Ismeme. In Jason's quest for the golden fleece, Medea assists him in multiple ways.
Betrayal has been a problem for mankind for as long as mankind has existed, but what exactly is betrayal? Many authors, psychologists, and philosophers alike have tried to answer that very question with no success. Certain types of betrayal can be beneficial, but more often than not betrayal causes an unfortunate series of events to follow it. One of the greatest examples of this comes from Greek Mythology and the story of Jason and Medea. Jason and Medea lived together as a married couple and had children together, Jason then betrayed Medea by throwing her aside and claiming they were never married. As revenge Medea then killed their children and fled. There are several different types of betrayal. There is betrayal of/by society or the exectutives of the country, betrayal of/by those close to you, and betrayal of/by yourself.
...t sense of betrayal and the betrayal of love present in the myth. Jason chose to betray Medea, which then resulted in Medea’s internal struggle/conflict and the murder of both the princess and their children. Medea experiences a great deal of jealousy and anger toward Jason throughout the myth, proving that love is most certainly a powerful emotion, making the heart and mind do things that to others may not seem levelheaded or morally correct. To clarify, even though Medea made such rash and morally incorrect decisions, it appears to the reader that her decisions are somewhat understood and slightly justified because of her ongoing emotions. Nevertheless, Medea proves to be a perfect example of the power of jealousy and revenge in man. For her desire to seek revenge overcame her causing her to kill what was once a part of her and what she loved most, her children.
Trust is defined as the reliance on the integrity, strength, ability or surety of a person or thing. To break ones trust is to lose their confidence in the person or thing. Trust can be broken with a single, unreliable action and is often challenging and difficult to win back. In the case of the one whose trust was broken, it is a difficult, jarring and abrupt change of reality to discover the betrayal and loss of trust in someone who they once relied upon . In William Shakespeare 's play entitled Hamlet, the protagonist Hamlet is unable to take swift revenge on his father 's murderer. This is due to the fact that Hamlet has become distrustful of the most important people in his life and so this sparks a question in those around him but also
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 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.
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.
Euripides’ style of work mostly focus on personal issues and dilemmas. He portrayed the flaws of humans and heros in his plays during ancient Greek, thus he was not a very popular writer during his time. As shown in one of his famous work, Medea, centralizes on the characters Medea and Jason and their broken marriage and erratic behaviors. Euripides use his main characters to express his opinion of Greek society during his time. In Medea, he uses Medea and Jason to express his concern of the disfunction of marriage, divorce, and vengeance. He reveals the flaws of Medea and Jason as he develops through the play. Medea and Jason made decisions that hurt each other, their marriage, and other victims. They justified their wrongdoings not because they were saving themselves, because they
Medea had not over reacted to anything, the man she loved had left her and their children for the hopes of marrying another women and becoming more powerful. Medea finds Jason to be spineless, and refuses to accept any of Jason’s offers to help. Medea later plots a plan of revenge that includes the murder of her own children, she believed that the pain it would cause her would not outweigh the satisfaction she would receive from causing Jason to suffer. Medea sees out her plot for revenged in which ensues the deaths of Glauce, Creon, and her two children. These deaths leave Jason cursing his lot, realized everything hope he once had had now been annihilated, Medea’s plot for revenge was more than successful as she then fled the scene in a chariot provided by her grandfather the Sun-God.
"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.