Medea And Creon Character Analysis

Medea portrays the consequence of a rebellious being’s response to a hostile society through vengeance, passion, and deceitfulness. It also gives the reader a unique perspective on the roles of women that were considered taboo, and still are, at least in the western culture. At the beginning of her relationship with Jason, Medea was strengthen by love to do the unimaginable. Her clever and crafty style were her frequent methods of overcoming obstacles and getting what she wanted. She tricked the daughters of Pelias to boil him alive when he refused to give Jason the throne.

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’s actions throughout the text show “that she has the reach and temper of a thwarted tyrant or of one like an Ajax or a Prometheus,” of a hero and of a man. Medea’s hero-like nature is also displayed through Medea’s heroic departure in the play in which she rides off to Athens in Helios’ chariot while Jason is left behind (now childless, widowed, and abandoned). It is especially important that Medea rides off to Athens as, if going to Greece is an improvement for Medea, then Athens would have been seen as quite the reward, especially by an Athenian audience. This confirms her placement among Heros, further supporting the notion she is acting as a man would. The actions of Medea are, while extreme, not surprising when considered in light of her

Jason left Medea, and ruined their marriage. This left Medea both heartbroken and outraged, and she was determined to exact her revenge. Medea wants Jason to suffer, and hopes to achieve this by killing everyone that he loves. This decision to commit harmful actions on the people who have wronged her is what makes Medea such a misguided character. Medea goes on to say, “My friends, I know several ways of causing their death, and I cannot decide which I should turn my hand to first.”

Medea was an absolute lunatic. Before moving to Corinth Medea killed her brother by chopping him up and throwing him in the ocean. She then tricks the king’s daughters into cutting him up and boiling him. Once in Corinth Medea finds out that her husband, Jason, is marrying the daughter of Creon. This infuriates Medea and she has to have her revenge.

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.

Creon’s conflict involves two choices that seem equally righteous—that is, between the stability of the state and obedience to divine law. Initially, he wants to protect his people and stand against all odds. He is willing to listen to advice, take no man who does not support Thebes as his friend, and bury all bodies according to divine law. Instead, Creon opposes the gods’ law and does not follow through with his initial plans. Therefore, his tragic flaw is hubris, or excessive pride that causes his transgression again the gods. It also marks the change from democracy to dictatorship. Some of his errors in judgement include making decisions because of narcissism, not including the gods’ law, refusing to bury the body, and condemning Antigone to death in the cave so he is not blamed for disobeying the gods’ law.

In the play Medea by Euripides, the main characters Jason and Medea are atypical characters in many ways. Medea defies perceptions of the normal attitudes of men and women by overcoming her female emotions and performed acts that the Greeks considered unfeminine.

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.

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

Though it may seem that Creon is the antagonist of the play, he would be considered the tragic hero because he displays many of the characteristics of one. In the play, Creon is a character full of pride who shows disrespect toward the natural order of things, has a moment where he realizes his mistake, and has a downfall at the end of the story. Sophocles’ play “Antigone” not only presents an interesting story about the children of Oedipus but also presents a series of events that lead to a dramatic change in Creon’s

“Whatever my hands have touched has come to nothing. Fate has brought all my pride to a thought of dust,” are the last words in the play said by Creon. This statement shows that a powerful king of Thebes once had fallen apart. In the play “Antigone,” written by Dudley Fitts and Robert Fitzgerald as Antigone as the protagonist and Creon as the antagonist, it is clear that Creon was cast away in distress, misery, and sorrow. By reading this play I was able to get a depth insight of several of the characters, question the norms of society I live in today and analyze the specific relationship between Antigone and Creon. I learned Creon’s villainous character had gradually become benevolent by the end of the play. Also, that the norms of society I live in are something I do not completely agree on, such as gender roles based on biological sex.

In Antigone and Medea , the women are ruled by their emotions. Due to this, they make impromptu decisions which leave them in a vulnerable state. Medea feels betrayed by Jason, and her heartbroken hearts fills with rage for him. She becomes so irate she makes an deathly decision, “oh, what misery! Cursed sons, and a mother for cursing!

Since the writing of the Greek drama Antigone by Sophocles, many have come to love the strong, determined female protagonist of the play, Antigone. She is not afraid to express her opinions and is willing to risk her life to follow her beliefs. While facing the new King of Thebes, Creon, she does not surrender to him, and instead defends her own word. Their conflicting motivations contribute to Creon’s development as the tragic hero and their interactions with each other advance the plot of the play.

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.