Medea Tragic Hero Essay

Under Homer’s supposed ‘Hero Ethic’, it can be understood that an individual should support one’s friends and harm one’s enemies. This system leaves little to no room for forgiveness or for mercy. Jason has become her enemy by abandoning Medea and their children. He justifies this by pointing out that he has given her “more than [she] deserve[s]” as Medea now lives in “the center of the world.” However, Medea views him as “A brutal man whom [she] once loved [that] has smashed [her]/in the face so hard [she] wear[s] the face of death.

Medea never intends to commit any acts of cruelty until she’s banished which eventually leads to the rising action. The King tells Medea to leave even though she has no plan and no help for her sons. She is pushed further off a cliff with no chance of escape. The moment after she has a last day granted to stay, she starts planning the murder of Jason and his wife. She feels the need to get back at Jason for what he did and any chance of getting back with him is ruined.

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?

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.

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

The Medea by Euripides and Romeo and Juliet by Shakespeare mark as significant works of the ancient society the two play features aspects that are crucial to the modern society if properly analyzed. In a number of ways each of the authors to the play has illustrated the theme of betrayal each of the main characters and the events that they encounter in their life puts them in a position to betray or be betrayed by others. Elements of betrayal in Medea occur mainly to Jason and Medea based on their relationship as husband and wife. On the other hand, the aspects of betrayal evident in the case of Juliet and Romeo are due to the fact that they are lovers. One of the major similarities between the two plays is that love I the root cause of the theme of betrayal.

Marriage is known to be a sacred union of a man and woman where they love, care for, and protect one another. These promises that they make to each other on the alter are the foundation of a healthy relationship. Without these promises and a lack of loyalty and trust, the marriage cannot succeed. Euripides and Henrik Ibsen both reveal how flaws in human condition lead to tragic relationships and devastated marriages in their plays Medea and A Doll’s House. Euripides begins his play, Medea, with more than enough information to allow the reader to see that Medea and her husband, Jason, are in a toxic relationship.

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.

In The Medea, Medea definitely breaks out of her traditionally feminine role as mother and wife, killing her children to avenge her desertion at Jason’s hands. In breaking out of her role as a submissive female, Medea challenges the order of Greek society the gods seem to have ordained, committing evil upon evil, ostensibly horrible because she is not obeying the seemingly god-decreed social customs. In The Medea, though, Euripides questions the very order that condemns Medea. Although Medea commits horrendous evils, Euripides casts doubt on the idea that the gods call into place the dominant Greek culture; he asks his audience to question its assumptions about Medea’s revenge. By calling into question the very line to the gods men purportedly

This thesis aims to explore the tragedy of Medea and how she was forced to slaughter her children out of protection. It will initially revolve around the character of Medea and what lead her to make such a heartbreaking decision. Medea is a Greek play that was written by the ancient Greek writer Euripides, who was born in 480 BC and died in 406 BC. Many scholars have viewed him as the most intellectual poet of his generation, and was one of the three great tragedians of Classical Athens. Euripides was also believed, by many scholars, to have been ahead of his time and was not popular among the public because he challenged the traditional Greek beliefs by using old myths to reflect and criticize modern Greek life.

Is it possible for one to love and also maintain their reputation at the same time? Throughout The Aeneid, Lanval, Medea, and Othello this question is answered and it is evident that maintaining your reputation and also choosing love is impossible. One must choose between glory and love because they are not compatible. Glory and love are contradictory. If you choose love you lose your reputation, while on the other hand if you value your reputation more than anything you will not have love.

From a young age, society teaches that every cause has an effect, every action a consequence. Children are taught this in many ways, one being how to follow rules. If one doesn’t follow rules, the consequence is a punishment of some sort. In Euripedes’ Greek tragedy, Medea, the main character, Medea, is mourning the loss of her husband who has left her and their two children to marry the princess of Corinth. As one can imagine, Medea is outraged at how Jason has treated their family after all Medea has done for him.

The ancient Greek tragedies, Antigone by Sophocles and Medea by Euripides, both contain compelling arguments conducted amongst its main characters. The tale of Antigone describes the struggle of a young women who is punished for disobeying mortals in order to respect the gods. Medea gives an account of a woman who seeks revenge after being tremendously grieved when betrayed by her husband. The main characters of both tragedies find themselves in heated debates with their male counterparts. Perhaps the most convincing arguments come from Antigone's claim to Creon regarding her innocence, and Jason's exchange with Medea.