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Medea And Agamemnon Research Paper

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The Greek tragedies Medea by Euripides and Agamemnon share similar character traits displayed through Medea and Clytemnestra which ultimately lead to their own downfall. Clytemnestra slaughtered her own husband and his foreign concubine seeing vengeance towards her husband Agamemnon for sacrificing their daughter. Medea poisoned King Creon, a princess, and murdered her own children to seek justifiable revenge against Jason; her husband. Both women are seen to resemble strength and power. The two women portray a behavior unlike any other woman of their time period which ultimately leads to their downfall. The two plays both exemplify similar characteristics such as the role of women, passion/power, and vengeance.
It is known that the role …show more content…

Medea is left by her husband because of another woman and does not want to be made a fool; “The laughter of my enemies I will not endure” (727). Because Jason breaks his oath of marriage, Medea refuses to be humiliated and discarded in such a way, so she strategically contemplates a plan for revenge. Medea knows that it would be too easy to just kill Jason so she devises a plan to destroy everything he cares about. She inadvertently finds a way to poison his new wife, which in turn also poisons his father in law, the King of Creon. The ultimate demise of her plan is to take away the only bond left that connects Jason to Medea which is their children, so she goes to extreme measures “to deal Jason the deepest wound” (746). This results in murdering their children leaving Jason with nothing but great suffering. The action of killing her own children is the only real power that Medea has. She became lulled into believing that Jason loved her and ends up being victimized by his ego. This emerged jealousy and a vengeful rage to pursue after Jason and everything close to …show more content…

She is seen acting out on justifiable revenge against her husband, Agamemnon. As seen in Medea, the drive to accomplish a task once the goal is set, Clytemnestra possesses the same qualities here “…my mind never sleeps, and with the help of the gods I will set things right” (912-913). After Agamemnon sacrificed their daughter, Iphigenia; it was only right for Clytemnestra to seek justice for the heinous act. “By the child’s Rights I brought to birth…I sacrifice this man” (1459-1461). For the sake of Iphigenia, Clytemnestra it is only right to serve justice upon her daughters’ behalf and feels she treated her husband the same way he did his deities. Clytemnestra is a very deceptive character. She despises being regarded or treated as a woman, yet is able to make advancements using her femininity. She is known as the woman “[that] maneuvers like a man (13). Men were known to fear women who embodied masculine tendencies. The traits were regarded as unnatural during the ancient times. Clytemnestra was enraged about the fact she did not have the same regard as men. This put her on the edge to deny her femininity and overcome the men that surround her in order to gain masculine powers. Medea, on the other hand accepted that she was indeed a woman, but crossed the line of her feminine limitations set by ancient Greek times. She did this to prove she possessed more

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