This play is about Medea’s revenge on her lover, Jason, for choosing to marry another woman and leaving her to be sent into exile. It is set here in Corinth because this is where Jason and Medea went after Medea betrayed her father and killed her brother in order to help Jason get the Golden Fleece and after Madea tricked Pelias’ daughters into killing their own father. It happens on this particular day because Medea is being sent into exile by King Creon.
The plot, to put it simply is that a character named Medea is betrayed by her lover and father of her sons, Jason, and as a result, Madea kills Jason’s new wife, King Creon, who is Jason’s father-in-law, and her two children in order to get revenge on Jason. The central character is Medea, who desperately needs to be able to stay in Corinth for one more day or else she won’t be able to get her revenge on Jason. Of course, another character named King Creon stands in her way because he wants Medea to leave Corinth because he is afraid that she will do something evil because Jason is marrying his daughter. Moreover, the biggest obstacle to overcome is finding a place to go when she has finished with her revenge because she can’t go home since she has betrayed her father, and must leave Corinth.
In he opening event of the play, the tutor of Medea’s children tells Medea’s nurse that King Creon intends to drive Medea and her children out of Corinth. The main character is faced with the choice to either give in and leave quietly or try to get revenge on Jason before she is forced to leave. During the course of the play, the central character actively decides to get revenge and as a result, Medea kills Jason’s bride, King Creon, and her two children. The central character feels vindication, but also pain about the consequences of that decision because she has gotten her revenge, but she has had to kill her two children in order to get that revenge. The play is finally over when Medea flies away into the air in a chariot drawn by dragons. The knowledge gained by the main character can best be described as the good and bad of passionate love.
This play is best described as the genre tragedy because it follows the elements of tragedy as set down by Aristotle in The Poetics. The most successful aspect of this play is the strength of Medea and her ability to follow through with her decisions and not let her lover win. The least successful aspect of this play is the way that Jason doesn’t suspect anything when Medea sends his new bride a present. If I could ask the playwright one question about their play, it would be why does Medea choose to kill her children if it is such a hard act for her to follow through with? And I have a hunch, his answer would be that the children are what is most important to Jason. They are his heirs, and by killing them, Medea is able to make sure that she has full revenge on Jason.
My favorite line from the entire play is “O what an evil to men is passionate love!” (line 95) because this line explains why Meda is in the situation she is in. She fell passionately in love with Jason and betrayed her father and killed her brother for him. Now that he has left her for another woman, it is this love for him and the subsequent sense of betrayal that causes her to go to such extremes to make him pay for leaving her.
