Medea is a barbarian girl who had sacrificed everything for Jason. Medea’s revenge starts after Jason, her husband leaves her to get power by marrying the princess who is the daughter of the king Creon. So Medea is suffering by this new and is willing for revenge on him because she scarify her life for him by killed her father and brother and left her land only for her love for for Jason. Her anger or hatred for Jason became so intense that it seems like she will go to any way to hurt him. It seems possible to her to sacrifice some others, even if they be her own children because she already sacrificed herself and had nothing left to risk apart from her children.
“Speaking ill to you will ease my soul,
And listening will cause you pain.i’ll start
At the beginning.First, I saved your life/ I ruined their household
One of the two major themes of this drama, Medea is that the revenge which is the action of inflicting hurt or harm on someone for an injury or wrong suffered at their hand or feeling and also with love as the motivating factor. The play explains how crazy Medea succeed her plan of vengeance. From the killing of the new wife and the wife’s father her revenge began, and with the killing of her two children and by leaving her husband with no lover. she succeeded in her attempt of revenge. Her revenge is potential, and possess . The theme of revenge in Medea is like saying -“what goes around comes around” in the sense that Medea has a strong desire to take back at Jason for what Jason has done.
From the beginning of the play we see Medea’s desire of taking revenge.
“Oh, may I see Jason and his bride
Ground to pieces in their shattered palace
For the wrong that have dared to do to me”
Medea is so out of control that she is willing to claim revenge by using any way possible to see of her Jason destructed.The boys’ innocence with no defense against their barbarian mother Medea. Medea says, ”Death take you, with your father, and perish his whole house!” Medea’s desire for revenge, to sever all ties between herself and her former husband is even clearer.
And to take her revenge, she plans to kill Jason’s new bride and her two children.
”I will punish. He shall never see alive again
The sons he had from me. From his new bride he never
Shall breed a son; she by my poison, wretched girl,
Must die a hideous death
Another most important theme in this story which is disloyalty or betrayal is a very important theme throughout the story. Her husband Jason betrays Medea, when he abandons her and her children for another woman. Medea then realizes that Jason used her for her power and then dropped her when the chance to be more powerful appears. The nurse says,
“Jason has betrayed his sons and his wife to take the bed royal bride”
Jason left her for the princess of Corinth. Medea felt used and betrayed by the man that she was totally in love with. When Medea met Jason, he was on a voyage to possess the Golden Fleece. Medea goes against her father, her land, steals the Golden Fleece for Jason, commits murder, slows down her father’s army by killing her brother and laying out his body parts, all for the man she loved. And in returned, Jason betrays her for his own interest in power.
Is this tragedy the the first/earliest example of feminism we have? Medea seems to be speaking up for women and against men to the chorus in the beginning of the play, which consists of women of Corinth. She touches upon the hardships women face, like having to pay dowry’s to the husband, losing their reputation if they leave their husband, and how she would rather go through war three times before having to experience childbirth once. Although Medea is not necessarily the ideal feminist role model, it was still interesting to see Euripides acknowledge the treatment of women during this time period in the play.
Euripides in the Medea brings to light inequality between men and women, a reference to this is on page 793 lines 240-245 “when a girl leaves home and comes to loive with new ways, different rules, she has to be a prophet—learn somehow the art of dealing smoothly with her bedmate. If we do well, and if our husbands bear the yoke without discomfort or complaint, our lives are admired. If not, its best to die.” This quote explains to me how Euripides though of bringing this problem to an audience of male Greeks. Medea was fighting in silence for equality, she wanted the death of Jason, he betrayed her and for that reason I like your saying “What goes around comes around”
I agree with the 2 points you brought up about Medeas revenge and Jason’s betrayal. This leads to the characters being more nuanced in this work because of the many sides that are protrayed by euripides. But the main point that arises from all of this is the fact that women were generally mistreated in those days, having their freedom of choice restricted by social norms and what not. The points you brought up are important in displaying these inequalities because we have a man who betrays his wife for another woman , and while she reacts, in dramatic fashion and is at first made out to seem crazy, really she can can be sympathized with. This ultimately leads us to question ourselves in the manner in which we view and treat women in society.
At the beginning of this Story I was on Medea side, how could the man she sacrifice so much for betray her in this way, this betrayal is very relatable even today in marriages that end with divorce. And even wanting revenge for some form of betrayal at one time in our lives. But killing your own children for this revenge is extremely dramatic on Medea part, how could you love someone else more than your children,her hate for Jason clouded her judgement in every possible way. she claimed she loved them but she still killed them. Am very confused as to the purpose of this story what is it that Euripides was trying to convey?