The Portrayal Appeal Of Revenge In Euripides's Medea

Euripides’s play, Medea, introduces the seductive appeal of revenge, and underlines the protagonist’s passionate desire to right the wrongs done to her and sacrifices her own children in other to satisfy her need for revenge. Medea, disoriented but clever women, manipulates her way into getting what she wants. She allows her passion to overpower her actions when her ex husband Jason leaves her and marries another woman; she becomes delusional and kills the new bride, her father, and her own children. Through character development, Euripides demonstrates an example of passion carried too far in a woman who chooses rage and revenge over reason and mercy, the contradiction in the Greek’s sex-gender system, and the tragic consequences of being exiled.

When Medea falls in love with Jason, she voluntarily dishonors her kingdom as well as herself by killing her brother and betraying her father. She sails away with Jason after being exiled, but now after all she has sacrificed for him, he dishonors her and leaves her for the princess of Corinth. “Jason has cast aside his children and my mistress, and now goes to bed in a royal marriage with the daughter of Creon who governs this land” (Euripides l 16), demonstrating how lonely Medea is after being left husbandless. When loneliness strikes and madness overshadows reason and mercy, she is forced to take matters into her own hands by doing all in her power to make Jason miserable. “And Medea, in despair, rejected by her husband, howls out "the oaths he swore" and calls upon the right hand, a potent symbol of fidelity, and invokes the gods to witness Jason's treatment of her” (Euripides l 19). She believes the only way to get revenge is by making him feel as lonely and as devastated as sh...

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...ead to the downfall. Medea’s relentless need for vengeance, as she will go to any extreme to right the wrongs done to her, doesn’t get her very far. Medea is a symbol of a cunning woman incarcerated in a world of men. Her intelligence and clever schemes inspires every woman to admire her. Her devious skills become her supreme weapon in her search for vengeance and revenge, as no male enemy stands a chance against her. Revenge’s true power is shown in Medea, when passion carried to the extreme in a woman who chooses rage and revenge over reason and mercy, the contradiction in the Greek’s sex-gender system, and the tragic consequences of being exiled. “The man who was everything to me, my own husband, has turned out to be the worst of men” (Euripides l 260) admiring Medea’s thoughts to be innocent, because she was just a woman who fell in love with a worthless man.