Medea And Jason Compare And Contrast

The play Medea by Euripides was written to entertain readers with the intriguing story of the revengeful Medea and her unfaithful husband Jason. The play begins with Medea being betrayed by Jason and being filled with this revengeful rage and murderous thoughts. Medea does whatever she possibly can to satisfy her need for payback, even if it means hurting her own flesh and blood. In her eyes, no vengeance would ever make up for the pain inflicted upon her by the one person she risked it all for. While the play portrays Jason as egotistical, Euripides presents Medea as devious in order to prove that at some point they both are very similar because they are both out to achieve a personal goal and they both only care for their own gain. Yet, they

are different in how they approach their problems and their outcomes.
First, Medea and Jason are both out to achieve the goal of hurting each other whether they both realize it or not, they both want to reach the ultimate revenge on each other at some point in the story. The reader can infer that Medea is intentionally out to hurt Jason considering all the pain he has caused her by betraying her trust. After telling people of her plans of killing her own children, she states, “It is the supreme way to hurt my husband.” (57). Medea is determined to have Jason rue the day he was ever disloyal to her. She believes that the only way she can hurt Jason is by getting rid of the two people she thinks he cares about more than life itself. In all truthfulness, Medea may be trying to get rid of her children just so she won’t have the daily reminder of Jason. Jason isn’t as ill mannered as Medea when trying to seek revenge and all of his actions are mainly to cover up his weaknesses as a father and a husband. The play leads up to Jason’s need for revenge after Medea slaughters their sons although he never actually comes right out and says it, his words of pain towards his children prove otherwise. His type of revenge is by having the Gods take over and do to her what she purely deserves. He states things towards Medea like, “ Curses on thee…They live, methinks, to bring a curse upon thy head.” (80). This quote helps the reader imagine the anger that is overwhelmingly filling up Jason. He and Medea care for each other way too much to ever hurt each other directly and physically, but they hurt each other mentally and emotionally including the people around them.
Next, Jason and Medea both have dark, twisted minds when it comes to a relationship and loving one another.

They both are out to save themselves, Jason is out to marry someone that will support him financially and help him move up in social rank while Medea is trying to find a home after being exiled but only for herself and not her own children. Although, Jason and Medea are both very slick, they make everything they’re doing seem as if it was for the greater good of their family. For example, when Jason is talking to Medea about his actions he argues, “…we-and this is most important-may dwell in comfort, instead of suffering want, and that I might rear my sons doth befit my house; further, that I might be the father of brothers for the children thou hast born, and raise these to the same high rank, uniting the family in one, to my lasting bliss.” This quote resembles that in Jason’s eyes he’s doing “everything” in his power to support and protect his family when in reality he is just watching out for himself and his social rank. The thing is that even if his sons were accepted into the family they would never be fully treated as royalty because of the fact that their mother isn’t originally from Corinth. Medea and the children will forever be treated as outcasts no matter how far up the social ladder they go. In addition to Jason’s selfishness, Medea is no saint in this department either. She might be fooling all of the royals with her acts of insincerity, but she

definitely is not fooling the readers with her misleading and deceiving acts. Medea makes it seem like she wants nothing more for her children but their protection when she tells Jason, “…beg Creon to remit their banishment.” (56). Although Medea is pretending to be sincere and as if she’s a loving mother, in reality she’s just slowly plotting her way to killing them and killing Jason’s new family. This quote shows how Medea can influence people to do what she wants; it shows how conniving she really is. By asking her children to stay she blinds Jason into thinking she wants nothing but the best for them.
Last, this troubling duo may be alike on many points but we mustn’t forget that they are different in different areas as well.

For example, the way they react to all these situations that surround them are different. Jason reacts to everything in a calm manner while Medea on the other hand, reacts to everything with an insane attitude that causes the people around her to think she’s crazy and harmful to the land of Corinth. Medea has a rough edge to her; all her actions are filled with jealousy and rage, for example, when Medea convinces Creon to let her stay, “He lets me stay one extra day, to make three enemies corpses: ha! Father, daughter, and my husband.” This quote reveals that Medea may not be in her right mind when choosing to do all these terrible things. Her plans are filled with murder and hate, nobody really knows how much Medea is capable of until she finally kills Creon and his daughter. Jason on the other hand is a little more serene when it comes to dealing with these situations. He knows he’s doing wrong but he attempts to appear as if he is the innocent one by asking to help Medea, for example he states, “But, if thou wilt of my fortune somewhat take for the children or thyself to help thy exile, say on; for I am ready to grant it with ungrudging hand, yea and to send tokens to my friends elsewhere who shall treat thee well.” This quote reveals how Jason is good with concealing his true feelings unlike Medea, which just comes right out and wants to kill

everyone connected to the situation.
In conclusion, Medea and Jason are more alike than Euripides may have first revealed and yet they still have their different characteristics here and there. They both are very interesting, complicated characters with a purpose beyond their means. Their roles play such a great importance to the whole story and without them the story would not be complete. Flaws and all, the characters are what brought this play together.