Jason And Menelaus Character Analysis

The best husband of the tragedies studied can be interpreted as the most effective foil character to their female counterpart. A foil character’s purpose is to provide a contrast to the protagonist or main character in order to highlight particular character traits in the protagonist or main character. Being an effective foil character makes for a good husband because in some of the plays studied, the protagonist is a wife with important character qualities for the audience realize. The contrast between the husband and the wife highlights the protagonist’s characterization, presentation, and the internal and external audiences’ perception of the protagonist. In particular, Euripides’ Medea and Helen offer similarly characterized effective foil character husbands. Jason …show more content…
Specifically, Jason and Menelaus are husbands returning from a long journey, and both set up in opposition to their wives via the structure of their respective plays. Menelaus is a stronger effective foil character husband because the structure of Helen, with the duality set in opposition and the play within the play, lends itself to give Menelaus that edge over Jason, who was only truly set up in opposition during the agon with Medea, whereas Menelaus and Helen were in opposition throughout the entire play. In the study of Greek tragedy, examining the contrast between a husband and his wife, the protagonist, highlights the characters’ characterization, presentation, and consequently, the internal and external audiences’ perception of the protagonist. Thus, deciding who the best husband is, based on the most effective foil character husband, is important to the overall wider study of Greek drama. Between Jason in Euripides’ Medea and Menelaus in Euripides’ Helen, Menelaus is the stronger foil character husband for his protagonist wife,