What gives tragic literature its closeness to human nature is that the line between the tragic villain and the tragic hero is extremely thin.Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an Original Essay One question this statement is sure to raise is whether there is such a thing as a hero or a villain or whether these terms are defined by society's ideals. Tragedies such as Macbeth or Oedipus Rex feature a character with heroic traits who is the victim of a personal flaw or an external circumstance that ultimately pushes him to become a villain. Macbeth's greed and lust for power are the causes of his descent into madness and wickedness, and Oedipus falls victim to fate because of his hubris and ends up gouging out his own eyes and fleeing into exile. A similar progression can also be followed in Euripides' Medea. Medea is a play about a woman, Medea, who is betrayed by her husband, Jason, and expelled from the city. In a fit of treacherous but carefully planned rage, she takes revenge by first poisoning Jason's new fiancé, then killing her own children, thus leaving Jason without distinction. Although Medea possesses certain victim and heroine traits, it is impossible to identify her character as only one of them. In order to fully understand her tragic character, we must instead consider her as a combination of these traits and trace her evolution into a villainess. Medea's position as a victim of fate is already defined by the first lines of the play, in which the nurse tells the story of Medea and Jason up to this point. Medea had, under the influence of Hera, fallen in love with Jason and had abandoned her home, killed her brother, and taken various risks for herself to save him and live with him in a foreign land (1-15). Throughout the play, Medea's ill fate is recognized more clearly by her maids and comrades. According to the nurse, Medea had gone through the whole adventure to recover the Golden Fleece and had defied her household only to be abandoned by him and left "despised, and [crying] aloud about the wishes they were made to each other, [...] [invoking] the gods to witness the kind of return Jason made to his love” (20-24). But her situation only gets worse when she is informed by Creon that he is going to force her into exile (270-274). After a long discussion in which Medea begs Creon and finally succeeds in obtaining permission to stay for a day, the chorus of Corinthian women remarks that "a god threw suffering upon her in waves of despair" (358-9). Here, we see once again that it is those like her who pity Medea and who overcome prejudices against strangers to recognize the terrible fate of which she is the victim. It can be assumed that women were, in some way, oppressed in ancient Greek society and therefore could relate to Medea's problems. It is the identification with Medea that leads the chorus to see her heroic traits and even admire her as an avenger of all. women. In an attempt to ease Medea's grief, the chorus declares that "God will be [her] friend in this" (156). This statement implies that the choir believes its cause is worthy of God's support and therefore a good cause. The chorus views Medea as a victim of evil fate and is naturally inclined to support her. Although this statement is made before the chorus discovers Medea's brutal plan, it should be noted that the chorus reaffirms its support for Medea after she reveals her plans. After a monologue in which Medea finally reveals her plan and?