Analytical Comparison Between Medea and King Lear

Medea vs. King Lear: Domestic royal tragedies

The tragedy of Medea by Euripides and the Tragedy of King Lear by Shakespeare are tales of great kingdoms gone awry yet they are also domestic tragedies. The undoing of Jason's and King Lear's kingdoms are not based in an onslaught of a foreign power but in the kings' irresponsible actions as husbands and fathers. Both plays underline the significance of domestic tragedy in the undoing of a leader. They draw a direct line between the government of the family and the government of the body politic.

Jason and Lear, although they may have been good kings, are shown to make profound misjudgments in terms of the ways in which they evaluate the character of others when they are fulfilling their domestic roles. Jason marries a non-Greek woman, Medea, which was considered to be a profound violation of accepted custom. He grows tired of her, despite the fact that Medea enabled him to rise to power by showing him how to secure the Golden Fleece. Jason mistakenly believes that because he is a man he has power over Medea. However, Medea possesses supernatural witchcraft. She pretends to acquiesce to the fact that Jason has cast her off, and then she kills his bride by making the girl a beautiful, poisoned gown that kills her. Significantly, Medea's weapon is not a sword but what innocently looks like a woman's garment and is made with feminine arts. This illustrates the power of femininity and its dangers, even for a confident ruler like Jason.

The character of King Lear is similarly destroyed by his inability to accurately assess the temperament of the children he loves. The play begins with Lear demanding that his three daughters Goneril, Reagan, and Cordelia all publically profess their affection for their father. Goneril and Reagan make false professions of love that everyone can see through but Lear. Cordelia alone is honest. For her honesty, Lear disinherits her. As a result, he is persecuted by his older daughters once he gives up his power and divides his kingdom in two. Once again, a ruler's inability to see his own family clearly has political implications. When emotions, particularly emotions regarding women (it is significant that all of Lear's children are daughters), cloud the judgment, it is very difficult for men to behave rationally. When Lear banishes Cordelia, his most trusted advisor Kent protests and is himself banished. The King of France accepts Cordelia without a dowry, saying: "She is herself a dowry" (I.1).

Both of these domestic regal tragedies also contain themes of betrayal. In the case of Jason, as awful as Medea's actions may seem, he clearly betrayed the woman who made his ascent to power possible, and who became the mother of his children. Medea, although she ends the play by killing Jason's children before leaving him, can be interpreted as a wronged woman as well as an evil witch. Both of these evaluations of her character are accurate to some degree: she may not be 'more sinned against than sinning' like Lear, but her actions are not entirely unsympathetic (3.2). Lear's actions to Cordelia may be unjust, but his treatment at the hands of Reagan and Goneril are not warranted.