Show by what stages Medea’s plan for revenge develops Essay Example

any more of her plans, she pleads to the chorus to let her enact revenge on her husband, but that she must be sure of their support and silence before she can do anything "if I can find a way to work revenge on Jason for his wrongs to me, say nothing". She gets them on her side with a sombre speech about her past life, and of her bleak future ahead. This sways them and she overcomes one hurdle by gaining at least some support.

A little while later Creon, father of Glauce, Jason's new wife, and ruler of Corinth enters, and informs her that before he can risk her doing any damage to him or his family to enact revenge, he is exiling her and her sons. Medea pleads with him to let her stay one more day, but Creon doesn't relent and remains hard-headed, until Medea persuades him with talk of her children, and this hits home with Creon as he is a father to his own. "This one day let me stay...make provisions for my sons...show some pity: you are a father too".

This has now allowed Medea to implement her plans, and it now seems definite that she will take some sort of retribution "today three of my enemies I shall strike dead: father, daughter and my husband". If we are not convinced by now that there is the possibility of her killing at least one person then her thoughts and actions a while later should strengthen the argument: "should I set fire to the house?...drive a sharp knife through their guts...the best is the direct way...to kill by poison".

However, it still

seems like threats that she could possibly fulfil, but it is not certain. When we first meet Jason he seems pompous and cocky and not a lot of sympathy is felt towards him. It is at this stage that the reader might truly feel sorry for Medea and sees what she has had to deal with. Once he has left, she is enraged, and her manner towards him was very aggressive and unrelenting, she vows that she will wreck his marriage "God uphold my words...your marriage day will end with marriage lost, loathing and horror left". It still seems that she is jumping from idea to idea and is not entirely sure what she will do. Soon after the chorus announces its support for her, Aegeus the king of Athens appears.

He tells her of his recent trip to the oracle at Delphi, in his quest to find a cure for his infertility. He asks Medea what is troubling her, and she explains her problems. After he has told her of his fate to remain childless, she realises that they most important thing to a man is his children and this forms the basis of an even more dastardly plan. She also pleads to him to grant her suppliancy in Athens, when she needs it. He grants this only when she tells him that she has the powers to cure his infertility, and on the condition that she must come to Athens herself, and he will not aid her as Corinthian's are his friends. Once he leaves she realises that she now has refuge and can commit a crime with a place to stay at "Now

I am on the road to victory".

She then starts to organise a finalised plan, and these are no longer taken as threats but the actions she is seriously considering doing. They are as follows:

* Call Jason to her and soft talk him to allow her sons to stay with them, in order to kill the princess.

* She will give her sons a gold weave dress and golden coronet disguised as presents, which have poison strewn around them.

* The next thing she will have to do is kill her sons, so that Jason "shall never see alive again the sons he had".

* She decides that killing his wife and sons that "this is the way to deal Jason the deepest blow". She is no longer thinking of killing him, but making him live with pain and suffering just like he has made her endure.

After hearing this proclamation the chorus plead that she doesn't kill her children but she is determined that that is the way to go.

Shortly Jason appears, from Media's command and she begins to sweet talk him, into accepting the gift she has to offer him, and to let her sons stay with him. She uses her charm to sway him and her whole manner is a lot nicer than the tone she used before; "Children, greet your father as I do...and love him as your mother does". Eventually she persuades him and she sends the gifts for the princess in a casket with them to the palace. Jason takes the boys off with the tutor and the chorus sing about their unhappiness for her sons, and of the fate that awaits the princess.

So Media's plans are complete and she has already performed the first stage of them.