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Jason's Arguments In Euripides Medea

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In Euripides’ play Medea, Jason provides many arguments for why he owes Medea no allegiance or appreciation. The first argument was about how Medea spoke badly of the royal family. “You uttered unholy curses against the royal family” (CMIC 514). Jason doesn’t think Medea deserve appreciation if she keep insulting the royal family. The second argument started when Medea talked about how she saved him during the process of obtaining the golden fleece. Jason argues that it was Aphrodite who led him through his voyage. “Since you lay too great a stress on gratitude, I consider that it was Aphrodite alone of gods and men who made safe my voyaging” (CMIC 512). “However by saving me you took more than you gave, as I shall tell you” (CMIC 512), is the third reason why Jason doesn’t …show more content…

To begin, Medea is not actually Greek. “She is not Greek, and her ethnic identity distinguishes her from Jason and all the other Greek characters in the play” (CMIC 510). If we are talking about ancient Greek society, Greeks would obviously be in favor of Jason, a Greek, rather than Medea, a foreigner. Another reason as to why Jason’s arguments would be convincing is because he is a male and Medea is a female. Female were less important than males back in the ancient times. The audiences would listen to Jason rather than Medea because of that reason. The last reason why I believe the audience would choose Jason over Medea is because of the fact that Medea killed her own family. Looking back on the Greek character of Clytemnestra, she was hated more because she killed her husband. Because she was hated more, I believe the audiences would hate the type of people who kill their own blood, which is why they wouldn’t listen to Medea. Jason was trying to provide a better life for Medea and his children, but instead, Medea kills her children to cause more pain to

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She is the only one that would leave a town with no ruler leaving not just Jason with nothing but Corinth as a whole. Medea left Corinth without a leader and made the people of Corinth see that it was all because of Jason. Medea knew from that start what she was getting herself into and if that meant she loses everything, she was fine with. Medea saw that as a great punishment for Jason due to the pain he caused her.

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281 Words | 2 Pages

This is an ironic statement as Medea is actually planning to kill her children, a fact which the audience does not yet know about. Jason uses another form of rhetorical stretching, which includes his plea that leaving his wife and children was a ‘wise move’, and that the decision was made with Medea’s best interests at heart, as much an attempt to convince himself as much as the audience. The chorus is quick to point out that ‘You have betrayed your wife and are acting badly.’ The Nurse is our first instance of anagnorisis during the play. Though an ancient Greek audience would well be in tune with the stories in Greek mythology, the Nurse’s role would still have proved important, as she was a tool Euripides used to transport the audience

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167 Words | 1 Pages

Through the epilogue described by the nurse, the audience is positioned to understand medea's desire for revenge. The audience may have viewed her position of being betrayed by Jason to be devastating( insert quote instead of devastating) and hold sympathy for her as she is not only an outsider from a presumed barbaric country, but also an exile. During when the play was first performed, religion played a big role in Athenian lives, during which breaking an oath to the gods was considered a crime. Hence, the audience would understand medea's wish to bestow revenge upon Jason for he broke his oath of marriage to her, which was witnessed by the gods, by laying in the 'royal bed'.

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341 Words | 2 Pages

”Medea is portrayed as reacting to Jason’s betrayal by “doing what other heroes before her had done...when confronted with an enemy. She schemes, she tricks, she deceives,” and she seeks revenge on those who have harmed her. Medea enforces this notion that she is merely doing what any self-respecting man, Greek, or Hero would do when she scoffs at Creon's concern over her type, stating: “A woman like me!

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946 Words | 4 Pages

In the beginning everything was fine Medea and her family were welcomed with open arms but it was until Jason had left them and the house was filled with hatred because Medea was upset that he had left after all that she had done for him. She refused to eat , she stood in her room, cried the days away , sometimes she would call out for her father, her country and her home: all abandoned and betrayed for a man who now abandons her, betrays her honor and her love ( pg 6, line 32-34 ). So now she wants personal revenge to punish him for his actions only to get the delight that revenge brings to herself. Jason left from Medea ‘for a royal bed’ is said by the ( pg, line 22 ) which shows the audience to look at Jason as a selfish man. Medea did

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559 Words | 3 Pages

Upon first reading this play, emotions of anger, disappointment, and relief swirled to the surface. The fact that Medea was to escape without any consequences angered me so much, but as I thought about it more, my emotions began to shift. It wasn’t as if Medea murdering her children was something she wanted to do. She had to have gone through so much to push her to that point. How can I better justify her actions and relate it to a 21st century audience?

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663 Words | 3 Pages

She can’t see the pain she is afflicting on her own life through the filter of anger. By trying to take Jason’s new life away from him, Medea leaves herself with nothing. She has every right to be upset with him for leaving her for another woman but she simply took it too far. “Forgive and forget” is easier said than done but her children could have had a great life.

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948 Words | 4 Pages

She trusted and loved him and he repaid her by marrying someone else. Jason cheated not for love, but for money and power. The hero of the Argo lusted after more power than he already had, driving his relationship into the ground. He becomes peeved at Medea when she refuses to go into exile. True ire overwhelms him at the end of the play when he finds out that Medea is the reason his children, his new bride,

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1516 Words | 7 Pages

Jason’s new marriage with Glauce plummeted Medea into revengeful and passionate fury. She had given up everything to live with Jason after which he had cheated and tricked her. This makes the readers sympathize with Medea. Jason had spurned the privacy, purity, sanctity of their marriage sphere. In the process of wanting to gain honor, he had backstabbed Medea by demoting her from the status of a legal wife to that of a concubine.

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1497 Words | 6 Pages

This is why Medea, according to the Greek gods, was in her right to take such severe consequences upon Jason and in this essay we will analyze Medea’s position and decide upon a conclusion whether her actions are justifiable or

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1010 Words | 5 Pages

Her despair and grief intrigued everyone in Corinth which led to the appearance of the chorus. Since Medea is a foreigner in their city, it was easier for them to judge Medea for they do not know her. They thought that Medea’s reaction was too much and since she is a woman, she had no rights to act that way. Medea was too devastated to show up yet she wanted to point out her side. She shared her heart breaking story of how Jason left her and their children for Princess Glauke.

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1146 Words | 5 Pages

Not only did this hurt Jason, but it also hurt the Corinthian king,his daughter and many more. Medea felt justified in her homicidal acts because she had given up so much to be with Jason. Medea’s nurse explained how the main character abandoned her life for a man she believed she loved, “Sometimes she turns to look away, to call out for her father, her country and home: all abandoned and betrayed for a man who now abandons her, betrays her honor and her love. She has learned the hard way what it is to be an exile to had given up everything” ( lines 29-36.)

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1607 Words | 7 Pages

Lush explains “Although Euripides did not cast Medea as a male solider as its protagonist, the play depicts Medea as suffering from the background Trauma, betrayal, isolation and consequent symptoms attributed to combat veterans with lasting psychological injuries” (Lush, 2014, p. 25). Hence using Lush’s view on Medea’s character as a devoted warrior suffering from Traumatic hardships in her experiences with the man she gave everything to, we can understand why she wanted revenge. Medea believes Jason owes her more than just the normal husband-wife obligations a man swears to when marrying a woman; in her view, she helped him be the man that he is and supported him throughout his heroic journey. Without her, Jason would not have succeeded in retrieving the Golden Fleece. Without her, he would not have had his father resurrected.

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727 Words | 3 Pages

However, this was clearly not his intention because he did nothing to prevent his children being kicked out into the wild. Unsurprisingly, Medea became enraged and sought to obtain the justice she was not able to obtain. She wanted to judge Jason based on his inexplicable actions. He abandoned his paternal duties and were willing to start a new life, while she and their children were left to

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1434 Words | 6 Pages

Medea has already lost her husband and her home so this decision is an obvious one for her. She wants to leave everyone in the same misery that she has been experienced and continues to experience. After this, she even plans to murder her own children just to distress Jason further. Medea knows that she will live in regret and misery by doing so, but her need to sadden Jason trumps her own future feelings. The murder of her sons also symbolizes the death of her marriage with Jason.

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