Knowing her life was in jeopardy she left with the Argonauts. And she cut her little brother into pieces and threw into the sea. King Aeetes chose not to follow the Argonauts so that his son’s remains could be picked up and put back together for a proper burial. This allowed the Jason and the Argonauts to escape with Medea. They went to the island of Circe, where Jason and Medea were purified by the will of the gods through Circe, without knowing who Medea had murdered.
Answer then support with evidence from the play. Provide line numbers. King Creon exiles Medea not only to protect his family from the scandalous situation that resulted from Jason leaving her but from the destruction she can create. For example, King Creon states "There is a good chance you might well instigate some fatal harm against my daughter" (line 330). As well as "I hear you are making threats to take revenge on Jason" (line 335).
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.
So Creon had hurried to the cells, however, by the time he had arrived, all he found was Antigone, who had hung herself and Haemon, his son, who had perished by his own hand. Then upon returning to the kingdom he sees that his wife, who had heard of her son’s death, had pierced herself in the heart.
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
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'.
Then Eurydice, Creon’s wife, finds out about the death of her son and consequently kills herself as well. Creon had been warned by a prophet, Teiresias, but chose not to listen and
As Creon realizes what he was carrying out, and trying to undo the actions he formed, it was to late for him to make a difference as demonstrated "Now all is gone. For when a man has lost what gives him pleasure, i don't include him among the living- he's a breathing corpse" (Sophocles exodos:1253-1255). Sophocles demonstrates to the audience the action the Creon's wife took once she learned about the tragic events, "Stabbed with a sharp sword at the altar, she let her darkening eyesight fail, once she cried out in sorrow for glorious fate of Megareus, who died some time ago, and then again for haemon, and then, with her last breath, she called out evil things against you, the killer of your sons" (Sophocles exodos: 1445-1452). Creon has earned the fate of losing his family to his
In Medea by Euripides, Medea 's character flaw that ultimately led to her downfall is revenge. Medea 's husband Jason left her to marry a younger, beautiful woman. Medea becomes outraged, and all she thinks about is getting revenge. She kills Glauce, Jason 's new wife, and her father, Creon. She wanted her revenge to be perfect she even killed her own children to get revenge on Jason leaving her.
After doing such a thing she was exiled from her own homeland and while she was escaping with Jason and the Golden Fleece she took severe measures and murdered her brother, cutting him up into little pieces, and throwing those pieces into the sea in order to gain some time to escape successfully. This was a complete and utter betrayal by Medea towards her family and homeland. This was not it, Medea and Jason settled in Lolcos and in Lolcos Medea manipulated the daughter of the king and tricked her into killing her father (the king of Lolcos). The only reason she did this was so that Jason could obtain the throne of Lolcos but both of them were banned from Lolcos too. After this Creon, the king of Corinth, welcomes them into his territory, in Corinth, Creon asks Jason to marry his daughter and Jason accepts, betraying Medea.
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.
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.
Medea was treated unfairly in the patriarchal society that she lived in and due to the circumstances she was forced to abide by, she sought to achieve her own form of justice. Women were mistreated and regarded as inferior to men. In fact, Medea mentioned how women were like foreigners forced to abide by their husband’s laws and remain subservient. Essentially, women were treated as outsiders and were thought to need constant protection from male figures. So, when the King of Corinth kicked her and her children out of Corinth and Jason left them, she wanted revenge since she felt she had been wronged.
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.
Medea, the protagonist, is a woman driven by extreme emotions and extreme behaviors. Because of the passionate love she had for Jason, she sacrificed everything .. However, now his betrayal of her transformed the beautiful loving passion to uncontrollable anger, hatred and a desperate desire for revenge. Her violent and temperamental heart, previously devoted to Jason, now moving towards its doom.
