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Jason in medea character analysis
Character of medea in medea
Contrasts and contradiction between jason and medea
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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 left Jason with nothing because all he left her with was her soul. Medea gave Jason the torture and suffering she thought he deserves. Corinthian women would never put their husbands through that even if they did leave them. They would never let their anger get the best of them to the point where they kill their own children they brought into the world. They learned that they are the caregivers of their children and should not bring harm to them.
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
Medea husband’s leaves her for another woman. Medea is particularly hurt by this since she betrayed her own family to be with him. King Creon banishes her and her two sons even after she begs for mercy. She meets Aegeus who promises her and her children a place to stay and then begins to enact her revenge.
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.
Instead, they were taken too young, as simple pawns in a game. Although Medea has the right to be angry with Jason, she must also accept responsibility for using her children as collateral damage, which ultimately leads to her own
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,
betrayed his children and his wife, married the Princess, King Creon’s daughter, Glauce and now sleeps in a royal bed. Meanwhile, my mistress, Medea, the Fates fully against her and feeling totally dejected, screams and cries out at him, asking him to remember his promises to her. Asks him to remember the mighty oaths he had sworn for her. She calls upon the Gods to bear witness to the awful way Jason rewards her for her obedience and for her compromises and for all the accommodating she did for him and for all the love she lavished upon him.
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.
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.)
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
As is stated throughout the play, “Zeus/[is] the caretaker of oaths for the human race…” (p. 10) which means that it is his job to hurt Jason and those who have broken oaths. Yet, Zeus seems to use Medea as a pawn as well, since he allows her to smite those that have wronged and in return allows her to be saved since it is the least that can be done for someone who has suffered so much at the hands of the gods. When viewing the chariot as remuneration by Zeus, the fact that Aegeus came to Corinth and met Medea at the exact time she needed him can also be viewed as such. As the story goes, Aphrodite charmed Medea into loving Jason, and it is for that reason that she suffered so many hardships.
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.
