Medea knew what she was doing and was aware of her future when she went through with her destructive scheme to take revenge on Jason. Medea left Jason with no one to bury him once he dies, no ancestry because she killed their children and is an outsider due to leaving corinth with no home due to the king and princess
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
A messenger recalls the details pertaining to these murders, causing Medea to remain anxious and follow through with the rest of her plan. Moments later, her kids were murdered, and she fled the city. Medea got a sense of satisfaction and fulfillment after she completed her murder. Once Medea saw Jason mourning, it replaced her resentment with fulfillment. Jason abandoned his family in the beginning of the novel for bigger aspirations but did not think about the greater good.
In Euripides’ text The Medea, Medea can easily be painted as the villian. She is a woman who killed her own children in an attempt to spite her husband. But, by examining the text, we can see that she deserves some sympathy. She has little to no control over her own life and has to rely on the will of men. And as a foreigner in Corinth abandoned by her husband, she faces even more challenges than the native women of Corinth did.
So, she is able to convince people into a certain course of action, and create successful plots of revenge. Throughout both versions it is clear that the only reason Medea could not predict Jason’s action, or think rationally when it came down to him was because she affected by blinding love.
Lastly, Jason did not have the courage to tell Medea of his plan to leave her for another woman before he left her. This is explained many times throughout the play, most explicitly when Medea states,” if you had not been evil you would have persuaded me first, then
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.
Medea is a woman with extreme emotions. These emotions tend to get in the way of her reason and logic. In the prologue, we come to know how Medea plotted to take the throne from Pelias (Jason’s uncle) for which she and Jason got exiled. Even before the play starts
Medea plots her revenge by murdering the king, the bride and her two children in order to make Jason suffer and take away everything Jason cared about. The Greek gods felt that Medea was in her right and they proved this by allowing and even helping her escape in the end of the play
Before she leaves Corinth, Medea is granted one day before she is exiled to plot her revenge on Jason. Jason thinks it is in everyone’s best interest that he does marry and he also thinks it will advance his station in Corinth. Jason offers helps to Medea, but she refuses. To get back at Jason, Medea plans to kill not only his new bride, the bride’s father, and their two sons. That is the only way she thinks Jason’s pain will outweigh hers.
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.
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
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.
