Medea 2 Essay, Research Paper
In the play Medea there were two main characters Medea and Jason. We have seen these characters before in the story of The Golden Fleece. Medea met Jason on his quest for the Golden Fleece. They immediately fell in deep passionate love for each other. Although Medea had a little help because she was under a love spell put on her by cupid. During this story Jason pledged his life long love for Medea.
That life long love did not last for long because the entire play of Medea is about Medea’s ways of getting revenge on Jason for breaking his vow to her. During the entire play Medea was cruel, and evil. She was the true villain of the story.
It all started in the quest for the Golden Fleece. Jason had to find the Golden Fleece in order for him to become king. Becoming king was the most important goal in Jason’s life. That’s all he ever wanted. While he was trying to get the Golden Fleece he met Medea. Medea was the princess of the land. Once Jason arrived Medea, was put under a love spell for Jason by cupid. She automatically fell in love with Jason at first sight. The love was so strong for him that it drove her to kill her own brother, and abandon her kingdom. Medea also tricked 2 daughters into boiling their own father to death. She did all this, just so Jason could retrieve the Golden Fleece. Those actions are obviously not the actions of a sane woman. Those acts are evil and terrible. Yet, she volunteered to do all these crimes just to make Jason happy. After she committed these actions, she angered the gods. They turned their backs on her and took away all her beauty. Jason did retrieve the Golden Fleece but because his land did not want Medea as a queen (for, she was evil), he got his throne taken away from him.
Jason and Medea soon after traveled to another kingdom of Corinth. That is where Jason broke his vows to Medea. The princess of Corinth agreed to marry him and that insured him of becoming king. His life long dream had been almost fulfilled. This out raged Medea. For months she would not leave her house, and during all this she was just plotting revenge on Jason. She held a meeting with all the ladies of Corinth and talked about how cruel Jason was to her. She told them that she was going to get back at Jason, and the princess and her father. She was going to show the world how powerful she really was.
When the king heard of this news he immediately went to see Medea and banish her. But she persuaded him to let her stay just one more day. Medea had it all planned out she was going to fool everyone and make it look as if she had forgiven Jason. She succeeded she had everyone believing that she was even happy for Jason, when she really was about to ruin his life.
She spoke with Jason and they became on good terms. She made her children present a beautiful wedding gown to Jason’s soon to be wife. But what everyone didn’t know was that this dress was lined with poison and once she put it on it would burn up in flames. That is exactly what had happened. The king ran to the aid of his daughter and he too died. When Jason heard the news of what had happened he immediately went to see Medea. He thought that things couldn’t get any worse, but they did. Medea knew the only thing that could truly ruin Jason’s life was if his children were killed. So she as the mother, took her very own hands, and killed her two children. Jason came to see Medea and he fell apart everything that had ever meant anything in his life was now gone. Medea wasn t even decent enough to let Jason even kiss his children good-bye.
Medea had succeeded she ruined Jason’s life. The most surprising thing was that she was evil enough to kill her own children. How can a mother do that? Medea was completely heartless and only cared about herself. Jason finally had found happiness and she ripped all these things form him in the most violent, and cruel ways.