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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against everyone who was involved in this dishonorable crime. Medea seeking revenge has an effect on almost all of the characters.
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
pity and regret. This conflict is significant in Medea because it has many examples of symbolism. A powerful example of symbolism is when Medea is in a dragon flown carriage at the end of the play. While Medea is in the air Jason is on the ground and is unable to do anything. This symbolizes that Medea has superiority against Jason. It also symbolizes that she has broken him and won the kids in the process. Towards the end of the play, Jason asks Medea if he can bury the children and Medea says “Never! I will bury them with my own hand…”. This makes Jason feel dreadful as well as the regret and pity that Medea was trying to make him feel. In conclusion, Medea battles many issues that deal with a classic war between her passion and her responsibility. In the end she ends up getting a balance between both passion and responsibility. She gets an equal balance because she kills her children which takes care of the responsibility and she makes Jason feel pain which takes care of her passion.
Medea was wronged by Jason, she was a loyal wife and mother who was betrayed by her husband and reacted in a way...
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
...racterization all combine to reveal Medea’s true character throughout the play. She is first revealed as an evil, wicked person that only seeks vengeance and revenge in order to get back at Jason for using then leaving her. Throughout the play different characters, especially that of the chorus helps contribute to how the different view of Medea’s character changes and develops. With the indirect/direct characterization of Medea with other characters being used to characterize her, the audience begins to develop an idea as to why she did what she did, and how she justified the mix of emotions she had. Medea is a women passion, so enraged by betrayal so dear to her heart, that she acts based on her passion and rage even when these irrational thoughts controlled her to kill her own brother, her own children, Glauce and her father, king Creon. She followed through.
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 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 only role Medea has is to tend to 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 with this.
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.
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.
Ironically, Medea’s actions are similar to a man when she takes charge of her marriage, living situation, and family life when she devices a plan to engulf her husband with grief. With this in mind, Medea had accepts her place in a man’s world unti...
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.
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
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.