Medea or Jason: Who is the Real Antagonist?
“[Creon] lets me stay one extra day, to make three enemies corpses: ha! Father, daughter, and my husband.” (57) By having Medea commit such despicable and heinous acts in her lust for vengeance, Euripides shows us how committing revenge lowers the person who orchestrates it more than the one who wronged them in the first place. Medea is defended by many as a wronged mother and faithful wife who is justified in her actions for filicide, but she acts and appears more like the “evil witch” (742) trope, cursing and killing anyone in her way. Medea is also unquestionably blinded by her wrath, and she annihilates Glauke, Creon and worst of all, the blood of her blood, her two children. These atrocities
…show more content…
Many agree that Jason leaving Medea for Glauke caused all the fury as well as all the tragedies that occurred, but Jason isn’t completely at fault. In ancient Greek society, as well as and many other ancient societies, males were seen as the dominants in relationships and were not judged or punished for leaving their wives. Jason was raised his whole life in an environment that propelled him to think of women as lesser while thinking really highly of himself after his great and perilous travels. Sexism was the norm in ancient Greece after all. Maybe Jason is the tragic hero, and his flaw is his lust for power and his longing to create a brighter future for his offspring. After all, Jason suffered much more than Medea did. Jason lost both his children and was unable to bury them. In addition to the suffering he had experienced, Jason had to witness his wife burn to death and her father, Creon, King of Colchis, die as well. Medea ruined Jason’s dreams for power. She crushed all the plans and visions that Jason had for his future. If that wasn’t horrid enough, Medea made him lose his children and new wife. What did Medea lose? Not much. If her losses are compared to Jason’s, they’re substantially insignificant considering that she only lost her home and husband. Medea consciously made herself lose her children. Jason unknowingly lost it