Jason & Medea Essay

How do Jason’s feelings at the end of the play differ from those revealed in other encounters? In their first encounter, Jason appears to be trying to make himself feel as if he is better than Medea, and as if he is the bigger person than she, mfou no doubt hate me: but I could never bear ill-will to you† implies that he is a better person for helping her even though she hates him – and that even after all that’s happened and all she has said he still â€Å"could never bear ill-will†. He continues to try and defend his actions, claiming it was for social status, that he didn’t marry for love, but for the fact hat he wants to know they will have a good life and not be poor; also, as he marries the King’s daughter, his sons with Medea will be half-brothers to any children Jason may have with Glauce, therefore improving their status on becoming a king of Corinth. Their second encounter is after Medea has decided her exact plan; she knows how she will kill the princess and the king, and has then also planned to kill her sons. She asks for Jason to attend, and he does, at which point she acts like a stereotypical wife of the time, admitting that she was wrong for all the feelings she had, and that verything that had happened was her fault, that she overreacted because she knew Jason was only doing it for the good of their family. It would seem to be a friendly conversation on Jason’s part, he shows no kind of hostility towards Medea when she speaks to him, and openly accepts her apology, and states when he first speaks to her that he is â€Å"ready to listen†. However, later in this meeting he, again, demeens women, â€Å"Only naturally a woman is angry when her husband marries a second wife. † perhaps this is true in a sense, however I think anyone would be angry if their significant ther decided to marry someone else; not Just a woman. After this it could be said that Medea plays up to this, as when he mentions his sons growing up and being strong, she weeps. This may be because she knows her sons will never go, or she believes crying will make Jason pity her. In this encounter he also mentions sexual jealousy, implying that Medea is simply angry because of the fact that Jason is now sleeping with someone else, rather than her – this is because he doesn’t understand her anger, and therefore infers that it is because of this, rather than the fact that he eft her to marry another. Later in this passage, he also refers to Medea as a â€Å"foolish woman† when she tries to send the Coronet and dress to Glauce, and this theme of sexism is carried out a few lines later â€Å"If my wife values me at all she will yield to me more than to costly presents, I am sure of that†; again, the attitude of the ancient Greek time was that women were to do what they were told, rather than what they wanted. They were to be obedient, and not break any rules. In the third and final encounter, at the end of the play, it appears Jason has reached is peripeteia, his downfall. Medea, at this point, has killed their two sons – and it is clear he loses complete control of his emotions, and he begins wildly insulting Medea, calling ner an â€Å"abomination†. It is also earlier in this pa rt that ne calls ner â€Å"the woman I will kill. † at the beginning of the play, he was supposedly in love with her, whilst at the end, he wants nothing more than her to be dead. It becomes obvious that Jason has realised what Medea is truly like, how manipulative and cunning she is; and how she tricked him, in certain parts, at least, into believing she as Just an obedient wife to him. He claims he wants the gods to â€Å"blast her life†, and during the time in which most, if not all, people believed that these gods were real and had impact on their lives, this would be one of the worst things to wish upon someone else. Again, Jason also mentions her â€Å"sexual Jealousy’, blaming this for the murder of their children â€Å"†¦ out of mere sexual Jealousy, you murder them! † At the complete end of the play, Jason is on the ground, whilst Medea is in a chariot (pulled by dragons) on the roof; this could be a representation of the fact that, in the eginning, Jason was of a higher standing than Medea, however at the end she had gotten (in a sense) what she wanted, and that she was now on top – her enemies not able to laugh at her. He asks Medea to let him bury the children, a request which she declines, so he then asks if he could hold them one last time. She responds with â€Å"now you have kisses for them†, as previously Jason had appeared to be more than happy to let his sons be exiled – even if he did state in previous encounters that he had married the princess not for Just his social standing, but also his sons.