Characters in the Medea

Character Summary of the Nurse

• Sets the scene
• Talks about Medea’s past
• Evokes pity in the reader when talking about Jason leaving Medea
• Gives poor impression of Jason
• Displays the extent of Medea’s depression
• Tells us Medea is dangerous
• Worried about what Medea may do
• Decides not to tell Medea she is being exiled
• Highlights again she is afraid Medea will do something to her sons

Character Summary of the Tutor

• Enters with Medea’s sons
• Talks to nurse about Medea
• Lets the reader know Medea and her sons have been exiled
• Gives reader the impression Jason isn’t very likeable
• Looks after the sons

Character Summary of Medea

• Protagonist
• Passionate
• She is distraught over Jason leaving her
• Claims she deserves pity
• She wants to kill herself
• She is not Greek therefore is not treated the same
• She is shocked and upset that Jason left her
• She no longer enjoys life
• Jason betrayed her
• She gave him everything, he gave her nothing
• She doesn’t understand Greek customs
• manipulative
• forms a scheme
• decides to kill Glauce
• Strikes people at their weaknesses (Creon=Glauce, Glauce=vanity)
• she truly loves Jason
• She doesnt care about money or fame
• she saved his life many times
• independent
• unwilling to accept help from jason
• clever (gets Aegis to say an oath)
• Decides to kill her children as well, so they are not killed by someone else because of her actions
• she thinks she can endure guilt
• she cant endure humiliation
• shows confliction when about to murder children but still goes through with it
• shows no emotion when murdering children
• gets away on a…