How Does Medea Get Revenge

Medea

While not everyone will immediately admit it, revenge is sweet. Something from within seems to deem the concept of getting even acceptable, maybe even necessary. While this holds true in many cases, sometimes revenge can be taken to an evil extreme. In Medea, a play written by Euripides, a tragic revenge story unfolds. Throughout this play, Medea, the main character, seeks vengeance on everyone she believes has wronged her. She holds back nothing to ensure she will not be looked upon as weak, no matter the cost. Throughout the course of the play, Euripides portrays Medea in a way that does not elicit much sympathy because of the methods she employs to get revenge.
In seeking to enact the ultimate revenge, Medea behaves in a
For instance, Medea takes extreme measures to assure that she is in control of everything. Positions of power and authority were almost exclusively held by men at the time, so it is clear why the typical person in Medea's day would have associated the notion of control with men. Even when retaining her sense of control requires deadly measures on her own blood, she is not dissuaded. To ensure that her children would not be killed by the ruling powers of Corinth, she deems it necessary to take their lives herself: "To kill the children and then fly from Corinth; not delay and so consign them to another hand to murder with a better will. For they must die, in any case; and since they must, then I who gave them birth will kill them." (1236-1240) Medea's behavior throughout the play was very prideful. It holds true even to this day, that men are typically more prideful than women, and commonly take that pride to the point of being cocky. Due to this mindset, she does not allow anyone but herself to have the final word. She did not even cave in when Jason asked to have the bodies of his dead children to provide a proper burial, because she refused to allow anyone the satisfaction of seeing her as weak. After Jason asked for the children Medea responded, "Oh, no! I will myself convey them to the temple of Hera Acraea; there in the holy precinct I will bury them with my own hand, to ensure that none of my enemies shall violate or insults their graves." (1379-1382) Mothers who murder their children, deceive their husbands, and remove the order of the land all for the sake of power and pride are not looked upon favorably. All of Medea's deeds, regardless of gender specificity, elicit anything but sympathy. None of these actions, masculine or feminine, should have been feasible due to Medea's powerless