Jason, surely an opportunistic villain in Medea, may be regarded as second only to Medea herself in terms of selfishness. After years of being married to his wife, he commits adultery and when Medea reacts appropriately with anger he patronizes her for being a hysterical woman, overly emotional, and says “you women are all the same”. He is exceptionally insensitive, expecting her to be understanding when he expresses his self-pity: “what we poor males really need is a way of having babies on their own” without females. He believes that he has invented the perfect world in that case, one which would be trouble-free without females. His sexist behavior and remarks typifie the Greek society of the times, which was extremely patriarchal. Jason’s pronouncements are self-defeating, because in fact they make Medea even more determined to exact revenge against him. Her bloody and murderous actions towards his new wife represent her reaction to his chauvinism and her profound sense of betrayal. After all, without Medea’s magic and shrewdness he would never have been able to get the Golden Fleece. His reputation as a hero is only attributable to Medea’s help, and yet when his wife reminds him of his debt to her, he minimizes her role in his credibility and reputation. Jason may be regarded at the very least as insensitive and at the worst, as completely delusional and narcissistic. He expects his wife to be grateful to him for rescuing her and bringing her to Athens, giving her this golden opportunity to live in a wonderful home and to have a noble place in Greek society. Jason presents as a shallow person who has little or no concern for others.

Jason’s most evident weakness is his foolishness: Medea is able to mislead and trick him very easily. Whatever fame that he has acquired has actually been the result of Medea’s strengths, making it even more despicable that in the end he betrayed her. He is a shallow man who treats Medea with condescension despite the fact that in all manners she outranks him in class, intelligence, and intensity of passion. Jason rationalizes his adulterous behavior by telling his wife that he has left the family in order to benefit all of them, because the result would be that they would become wealthier and more powerful; in this way he tries to convince her, but actually believes this himself, i.e., that leaving one’s spouse is acceptable and even beneficial to all parties.

Jason’s rationalization that having a second wife would help the family to live more comfortably instead of being poor reflects the practice in Greek society for men to have more than one wife and children. His plan for Medea is is not for her to simply go away, but for her to remain on as his mistress. She, however is too enraged about the adultery and makes it clear that she plans to kill Creon and his daughter. In the Athens of those times, that might have been a plan that made sense as one of the unfortunate outcomes that are a result of the sexist Greek society that is typified by Jason. Ultimately, Jason’s gullibility results in the murder of his sons because Medea is able to manipulate him into letting them remain in Corinth. His horror at seeing the bodies of his sons murdered by their mother is a direct result of his behaviors. He is distraught about the murders, cursing Medea again and again and pleading with her to allow him to bury the corpses of his boys, but her continued desire for revenge and hatred for him will not permit her to grant him even this small gesture. Jason’s flaws–weakness, vulnerability to the idea of power and riches, sexism, and inflated sense of his own worthiness has led to his him to this terrible outcome involving the murder of the innocent children.

Jason’s motivations throughout the play involve only what is good for he himself, (a sort of modern-day Trump.) He is not concerned with others, and believes that this kind of self importance is characteristic of everyone. He says “have you only just discovered that everyone loves himself more than his neighbor?” In better times for Jason, he was the hero of the Golden Fleece, leading the Argonauts to recover that treasure. In that role, he clearly had relationships with other men, assuming a leadership role with them. Jason is portrayed in sculptures and drawings as a statuesque and noble figure who is clearly in command of the people and lands around him, a leader in search of a kingdom. His appearance as depicted in no way suggests the type of weaknesses as a human being that his behavior suggests. Medea has certainly played her role in creating an image of a man who is in control when behind the scenes, she (and we) know that this is a façade and that in actuality, Jason is a paper tiger.