Empathy In Medea

The essence of tragedy is the audience’s ability to empathize with the characters through connections to the them and their actions and emotions. Every tragedy must end with a tragic ending. In order to be tragic, the audience must have enough empathy built up for a character before the death, exiles, or drama the character faces in the end. Otherwise, the audience may see the end as justice instead of tragedy. Throughout a story, this empathy builds up through the connections that the audience makes with a character. The most successful tragedies are those in which the audience can see themselves as making the same mistake, or possessing the same tragic flaw. Once the audience sees themselves in the tragic protagonist, whatever fate the character faces will have more of an effect on them as the imagine the same repercussions for themselves. …show more content…
In Medea, Euripides shows Medea’s empathy-evoking problems right away. Although before the play, the audience is warned of Medea’s plans, it is easy to empathize with her at first. At the start, Medea has just been abandoned by Jason, the only person she has left after their exile (Euripides 14). As the play continues, Medea becomes less and less sympathetic. Once Medea begins her plans to kill her children in order to carry out her revenge, it is hard to keep the same level of empathy that is present at first. In a way, Medea’s sacrifice of her children is evidence to her tragedy. Her revenge is thought out, and she knows that killing her children is the way to hurt Jason the most. The juxtaposition of empathy and repulsion is important in tragedies, since it builds tension throughout the