Medea was set on vengeance, which was her sole purpose throughout the book (Pg 13). She was strong-willed, well on her raging path of revenge throughout the story. When Jason betrayed her, their vows, her trust, as well as their children, her anger was born. She spoke of hatred and evil and after Jason’s treachery. She was justified to be filled with such negative emotion, especially after the cruel way Jason neglected their vow of love. Seeking revenge seemed logical in her sense, but she did her demons overtook her, and she eventually killed Jason’s new love, beloved princess Glauce, her father, King Kreon, and her two children. Being furious is acceptable, but killing people because of another’s actions is morally wrong.
Jason was a deceitful husband, he not only betrayed Medea’s love and trust, but also
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She wasn’t going to stop until Jason had no wife, no kids and was only left with memories. She had a right to be angry at him, being that Jason did her wrong. But, it was no excuse to take someone’s life for her benefits. Poisoning Princess Glauce and King Kreon were unjustifiable, they played a minimal part. Just because she was in distress it doesn’t warrant killing. (Pg.33) The fact that she brought the children into the situation was unsettling. Why bring your kids into something they don’t understand? Using her boys to bring in the wedding gifts into the princes covered in poison was unfair to them. (pg.33) The children were too young to comprehend the situation at hand and shouldn’t of had to face such drastic consequences. Giving her children such a brutal death by choosing to kill them with a knife.(pg. 42) They have nothing to do with their father’s poor decisions. She killed her sons to get back at Jason to make him suffer, but now she will along with him. She has the guilt of killing her children and grieving them as well. Medea puts herself in a more critical situation than what she first came
Medea has a conversation with Jason at the end of the story he tells her that he hoped the children who bring down curses on her; she looks at him and says “the gods know who the author of this sorrow.” (Lawall 719) Medea killed his children and yet she’s blaming him for her doing it. The conversation just got uglier and ended with her leaving.
Later in the story, our sympathy transfers from Medea to Jason. Her revenge turns immoral, leaving readers with a sense of uneasiness. It is not so much the fact that she kills Creon and his daughter, but the fact that she slays her children in cold-blood.
The Greeks, as portrayed by Homer, are a very vengeful people. Throughout The Odyssey, a theme of vengeance is dominant. These displays of retribution come from different entities for fairly different reasons. So why is revenge such a factor in The Odyssey? Fear and the overwhelming feeling of payback are two answers. Homer gives numerous examples of how certain characters demonstrate their power in a fury of rage. He writes of the payback Zeus gives to those who break the rules, of Poseidon’s hatred towards Odysseus, and of Odysseus’s revenge to those who have dishonored his home.
While both women do wrong by the law of man, and Medea against the law of the gods, they do it for different reasons. In the beginning Medea kills many people and monsters with little or no concern of the consequence. When the story deals with modern times Medea kills out of pure revenge and spite for Jason. She plots for weeks to kill Jason’s new bride and poisons her, and then before she leaves the country she murders her two sons, she had with Jason, before she rides off in her bright white chariot.
Jason is culpable for his decision to leave his family in Euripides’ Medea, however, the murder of his children by Medea is heinous. This does not mean that Medea is right to kill her children. Although it is true that Jason broke his oath, there is no justifying Medea’s actions. The children are a product of a power-hungry couple and they should not face the wrath of Medea because of their father's infidelity. Even before Medea thought of killing her children, she exclaims, “You horrible children, of a mother who hates you / goddamn you with your father / and the whole house go to hell” (Euripides 81-83). In Medea’s perspective the children are guilty by association, but they are not responsible for their father’s actions nor should they be held accountable for them.
The problem set at the beginning of the play is that Jason has decided to marry another wife, Glauce. Medea is angered and will not let Jason off without punishment. The loss of Jason is not only a matter of passion; Medea has been completely humiliated by Jason's decision to take a new bride. Her pride shows again when she refuses Jason's aid. Though her situation is difficult, she would rather destroy all than accept help from one who has wronged her so horribly. Living as a barbarian among Greeks has made her more defensive, more full of hurt pride. To punish Jason, Medea had her children deliver poisoned gifts to the new bride, to kill her children, Glauce, and Creon. . Medea is not without feeling, nor is she a sociopath. She comprehends the difference between right and wrong, but chooses to follow the dictates of rage.
In Medea, a play by Euripides, Jason possesses many traits that lead to his downfall. After Medea assists Jason in his quest to get the Golden Fleece, killing her brother and disgracing her father and her native land in the process, Jason finds a new bride despite swearing an oath of fidelity to Medea. Medea is devastated when she finds out that Jason left her for another woman after two children and now wants to banish her. Medea plots revenge on Jason after he gives her one day to leave. Medea later acts peculiarly as a subservient woman to Jason who is oblivious to the evil that will be unleashed and lets the children remain in Corinth. The children later deliver a poisoned gown to Jason’s new bride that also kills the King of Corinth. Medea then kills the children. Later, she refuses to let Jason bury the bodies or say goodbye to the dead children he now loves so dearly. Jason is cursed with many catastrophic flaws that lead to his downfall and that of others around him.
Medea is outraged that she sacrificed so much to help Jason, only to have him revoke his pledge to her for his own selfish gain. She asks him whether he thinks the gods whose names he swore by have ceased to rule, thereby allowing him to break his promise to her. Medea vows to avenge her suffering by destroying Jason's new family and his children. When Jason curses his wife for her murdering at the end of the play, she says to him, 'What heavenly power lends an ear / To a breaker of oaths, a deceiver?
On the other hand, Medea’s actions can been seen as overly cruel, while he abandons her and their children (and therefore abandoning him and their children would be equal), she takes her revenge significantly further and kills four people to enact revenge. If Medea had merely accepted her husband’s actions (or simply abandoned him as he did her), if she had been “more like others/that would tame her” and Jason could have become a great king. In addition, Medea and their children may have been well-cared for. The Nurse’s cold and judgemental expression points out Medea’s ferocious and animalistic nature by suggesting she needs to be tamed. This judgement would support a villainous view of Medea by dehumanizing her and further associating her with a uncivilized
In The Medea, Medea gives up her home, murdered her brother and tossed the pieces of his corpse and betrays her family to escape with her lover Jason. Against her father's wishes she helps Jason recover the Golden Fleece. Afterwards, Medea and Jason fall in love, get married and Medea gives birth and raises two sons. Unfortunately, Jason abandons Medea and marries King Creon's beautiful daughter. Medea alternates her role from a lover and partner in crime to an obsessive prideful monster. Me...
As with Medea and Jason, the battle between the two lead to former's madness, leading to the death of the enemies she considered, and, unfortunately, leading as well to the death of her own children. Medea felt betrayed and left behind by her husband Jason, as well as continuously aggravated by Creon despite the fact that it was she who was in a disadvantaged position.
One of the things she does to help their cause is bring about the death of her own brother. Certainly this is a woman who would sacrifice anything for her husband. Weigel records the fierceness of Medea's passion in his critique: "As a woman of passion, Medea is wholly committed to Jason as the object of her emotional life, whether in love or hate. When she loved Jason she did not hesitate to kill her brother, betray her father and country, or instigate Pelias' murder for Jason's sake" (Weigel 1391).
When Jason left Medea to marry Glauce, Medea was plagued with sadness and then with anger. The man she loved, the man that she gave up her life for, had betrayed her. In the patriarchal society that Medea lived in, it was not acceptable for a woman to protest any decision made by her husband. Medea went against all social standards and took revenge on Jason for the wrongs that he had committed. She was willing to take any chance and sacrifice even her most valued possessions. Medea knew that the best way to avenge the wrongs of Jason was to kill Glauce and the children. It was a huge sacrifice for Medea to kill the children that she loved, but she allowed herself to look past that love and only see her hate and contempt for Jason. Medea was willing to go against every rule that society set, so that her husband wouldn't get away with leaving her for political reasons.
Medea's plan was set into motion. She has nothing to loose. She is even angrier because she betrayed her own father and her people for him. She even bears the burden of having Pelias killed by his daughters for Jason. She decides to take revenge out on Jason's bride and poisons her. She also doesn't want Jason to take the children from her. She decides to kill them, but agonizes over this decision before killing them. Some critics view this as a pathetic attempt at motherhood. I know there is a certain bond between mother and child. She just wants to hurt Jason as much as she has been hurt. "She first secures a place of refuge, and seems almost on the point of bespeaking a new connection. Medea abandoned by the entire world, was still sufficient for herself." (blackmask).
Although Medea killed and did things that people felt were wrong it is evident that through out the play that along with her other characteristics, she was a caring and loving person. The first time we are shown this is when we discover everything she did for Jason. If she did not love him she would not have done those things. We are also shown that Medea can be a caring person by the love that she had for her children. Although she killed them in the end during the play she was a mother to her children, she showed affection to them, and she did think twice before she killed them. It is because Medea was a caring and loving person that she did what she did. Her feelings were hurt and her heart was broken; and she did what she felt she had to do to hurt Jason for hurting her.