Medea

There is a fine line between a villain or a victim. When someone is in conflict, these roles can be hard to distinguish. A victim is innocent and powerless, entirely blindsided by someone else’s action. When one feels a threat to themselves or others, they may feel victimized. On the other hand, a villain is someone who vents their anger upon one another causing great harm. They are selfish in a sense, often evil and spiteful.  Regardless of the two different characters, during disaster, one can be victimized and in a result become a villain.

First, as we are introduced to the play we are made aware of the conflict that is going on between Medea and Jason. We learn that they are married with kids and Jason has told Medea that he is abandoning her and the children to marry Glauce, daughter of Creon who is the King of Corinth. If to add insult to injury, she finds out that she will have to be banished from the land of Corinth, by the King, the father of the woman her husband left her for, and find somewhere to live with her two kids. King Creon is banishing Medea and her children from Corinth, for fear of some sort of retaliation from Medea. Medea is blindsided by news Jason has inflicted on her, and is devastated, “Me! a wretched suffering woman! O would that I could die!” (Euripides). She

accounts their lives together, how they escaped her birthplace of Colchis, and ended up in Corinth. She recalls on the good life they have created for themselves into the town of Corinth. She has nowhere to go “Whither can I turn me now? to my father's house, to my own country, which I for thee deserted to come hither?” (Euripides). Blind sighted by Jason self- centered, heartless actions, Medea has become the victim. She is being traded in for someone younger, and beautiful and kicked out of her own land.

Secondly, we can see how easily the characters can change from victim to villain. Seeing what Medea is having to go through is so hurtful, and we can acknowledge that it was no fault of her own. She pleas with Jason, to try to gain an understanding of his reasoning, of how he could do this when they had been through so much together. As she listens to his incomprehensible reasoning, no explanation “Thy own free choice was this; blame no one else” (Euripides), which we can see it is for selfish gain, her hurt turns to anger. Jason is so selfish, that all he can see is what he wants to eventually become King, and his children become warriors, that he can’t see what a horrible decision he is making “I wished to insure thy safety and to be the father of royal sons bound by blood to my own children-a bulwark to our house” (Euripides).  Anyone who has been hurt knows how easily it is to wish harm on the person hurting us. It might an instinct to do, but usually we can be influenced by someone outside looking in to help guide us to take whatever is handed to us and use it as a learning experience and move on.  

Lastly, as Medea starts to focus on the information being told to her, the reasoning behind it, for reasons she has no influence in, “Jason is wronging me though I have given him no cause” (Euripides), her heart starts to become cold. She tries to talk to Jason, to get an understanding of his decision. She tries to remind him of everything he has done for him, including securing the Golden Fleece, “Yea, and I slew the dragon which guarded the golden fleece” (Euripides).  She recounts how she even killed her own brother to escape her land with Jason. Jason really doesn’t care. His reasoning is so cold hearted, that she devises a plan to cause more heartache to Jason as she is feeling “good hope have I of wreaking vengeance on those I hate” (Euripides). She thinks of a way to hurt him as he has hurt her. As she dwells more and more on the deception she has encounters the idea brews in her head, she allows the pain in her heart change her role from victim to villain. Her plan is so cold and calculated, evil and spiteful. She decides to kill Jason new wife, by offering her poisonous gifts, and murder her own children, “Thy sons are dead: slain by their own mother’s hand” (Euripides). She is willing to sacrifice the hurt of losing her two children, to cause Jason the ultimate pain ever. Her plan that she has come up with is selfish.

She is a true textbook definition of a villain, one who takes what they want, without no regard for others. All she wants to do is cause Jason pain, and does not care who she hurts to get there.

Unfortunately, Medea character was both a victim and a villain. She was ultimately betrayed by her husband, and banished from her home. She was treated unjustly, victimized, but instead of taking the high road out, moving toward a resolution and leaving the land with her children, she resorted to that of being a villain, a murderer.