Medea a Tragic Hero

Medea relates a story about the power of love, which induces sacrifice as well as jealousy and feelings of revenge aroused by betrayal. Medea, the principal character, is a woman, who is so smitten by her love for Jason that she forsakes her family, country and people to live in "...the land of Corinth with her husband and children, where her exile found favour with the citizens to whose land she had come...."

Medea never even realizes the value of maintaining a strong bond with family and country till she is betrayed by Jason's marrying the daughter of Creon, the king of Corinth: "...and softly to herself bemoans her father dear, her country and her home, which she gave up to come hither with the man who now holds her in dishonour. She, poor lady, hath by sad experience learnt how good a thing it is never to quit one's native land."

Medea realizes her plight in a foreign land since the option of returning to the comfort of her own family and country is also closed to her: "O my father, my country, that I have left to my shame, after slaying my own brother." In these agonized words of Medea, one sees the extent of her passion for Jason, a passion that drove her to not just leave her own family and country but to murder that brought shame both on herself and her family. Quite obviously, therefore, unlike many women who always have the option of returning to the refuge of their parental home, Medea is left to fend for herself when her husband betrays her: "...but I am destitute, without a city, and therefore scorned by my husband, a captive I from a foreign shore, with no mother, brother, or kinsman in whom to find a new haven of refuge from this calamity."

The implications of Medea's plight goes beyond the fact that her own home is no longer an option that she can turn to. Firstly, the manner of her forsaking her own family, people and country implies a loss in status as a loved and protected daughter and sister. The loss in status and reputation is, in fact, far deeper when one considers the shame of her slaying her own brother and further beguiling "...the daughters of Pelias to slay their father and come here to live in the land of Corinth...The second way that Medea loses class status is the shame and humiliation she undergoes when Jason forsakes her for the daughter of Creon: "From the house I have come forth, Corinthian ladies, for fear lest you be blaming me.... Of all things that have life and sense we women are the most hapless creatures.... For divorce is not honorable to women...."On a third level, she faces a further loss in status with Creon's banishment of her and her children from Corinth: "Ah! Poor lady, woe is thee.... What protection, what home or country to save thee.... O Medea, in what a hopeless sea of misery heaven hath plunged thee!"

But, perhaps, Medea's greatest loss in class status comes about when she plans her revenge. In planning the murder of her husband, his second wife and the king, Medea looses her very status as a good woman, personified as someone with a calm temperament and a strong sense of duty, as reflected in the chorus' singing: "...never may Cypris, goddess dread, fasten on me a temper to dispute, or restless jealousy, smiting my soul with mad desire for unlawful love, but may she hallow peaceful married life...." The final, devastating loss in class status is brought about by Medea's killing her own children: "How then shall the city of sacred streams, the land that welcomes those it loves, receive thee, the murderess of thy children, thee whose presence with others is a pollution." Thus, Medea gives up both her social status as well as her very status as a woman and good mother for Jason.

Euripides' Medea is considered one of the most evocative plays about women's rights. It is also one of the most controversial plays till today. The reason for this is probably because Euripides' chose to project Medea as an extremely strong woman who is not afraid to assert herself and chooses rather extreme means of doing so, including infanticide. It is her drastic actions, rather than the underlying principles that probably causes Medea to be a controversial work.