The Tragic Heroine of Love and Obsession

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Recommended: Elements of aristotelian tragedy

Who is the real tragic hero in The Madea, Madea, the princess of Colchis or Jason, the king of Iolcus? The tragic story is about a woman Madea, whom gives up her home, family and everything else in her life for Jason. Against her father’s wishes she helps Jason defeat his quest to a Golden Fleece. Madea eventually marries Jason and raises two sons. Unfortunately, Jason abandons Madea and marries the beautiful daughter of Corinth. Madea went from a lover and partner in crime to an obsessive prideful monster. Madea becomes furious and comes up with a plan to make everyone around her suffer, including her children but especially Jason. By looking at the story The Madea, one can see the plot is a tragedy, which is important because of the murders Madea commits. Madea’s obsessive pride and inability of the separation of her and Jason drove her to destroy everyone she loves. Jason cannot be the tragic hero because he brought the situation upon himself. Madea gave up her family and life for him and Jason does not appreciate anything she did for him in order to escape and marry him.
Aristotle’s De Poetica defines tragedy as mimetic, serious and contains rhythm. A tragedy also contains six elements; plot, thought characters, song, diction, and spectacle. Tragedy arouses feelings of pity and fear and then turns these feelings with catharsis. According to the ideas laid out by Aristotle, for a tragedy to arouse pity and fear, a tragic hero’s life makes a wrong turn. As quoted by Aristotle he describes the perfect plot of a tragedy “A well-constructed plot should, therefore, be single in its issue, rather than double as some maintain. The change of fortune should be not from bad to good, but, reversely, from good to bad.” (17). The plot in M...

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... pity because her husband Jason abandons her but the choices she made were extremely evil. The audience always knew Madea had some evil characteristics to her when she murdered her brother tossed the pieces of his corpse with no shame or dignity to buy some time in her escape with Jason.
In conclusion, The Madea and Oedipus the King both have the same criteria Aristotle states in The Poetics. Both tales had the audience with feelings of catharsis regardless of the complex plot. Madea and Oedipus went through extreme measures for people they loved only to find out nothing was not worth it. Their noble nature to help others and to be involved leads them to downfall and leaves them lonely and depressed.

Works Cited

Butcher, S.H. The Poetics of Aristotle trans. Pennsylvania State University: The Electronic Classic Series, Copyright 2000-2013. Web. 24 February 2014.

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