Theme Of Sacrifice In Medea

The constant deliberation within ourselves determines our voluntary movements in life. When actions are deemed necessary, our body performs them without conscious thought. On the other hand, we are constantly making decisions, big and small, that are constantly shaping the way we live our lives. The stupidity of some is mind-blowing to others, when in fact it may be that person’s smartest or most rational thought. Euripides’ Jason in the historic play, Medea, makes a plan which seems rational and prosperous, but instead creates a plan that will ‘kill (his) own children’ under the power of a ‘foolish woman’. This filicide in fueled by misjudgment on Jason’s part and revenge produced by Medea. The play focuses on the mistreatment of woman in

Creon, king of Corinth, decrees Medea to exile to protect his family and himself from the powers of Medea. In this ironic decree, Medea utilises her banishment to seek revenge without consequences and actually causes Creon’s death. Creon’s death is brought upon himself as he takes one of the only things Medea still possesses; a land to live on. Medea seeks the help of Aegeus, King of Athens, to ‘never expel (her) ever from (his) land’ and creates a helpful ally in Aegeus and the blessing of the Corinthian women who believe her punishment is another act as a result of ‘ill-repute’ in women. As Medea plots to kill Jason’s new bride with a ‘finely woven gown and a coronet of beaten gold’; two gifts that the princess would not be able to ‘restrain herself’ from, and her father is also taken in a desperate clamber to save his young daughter from her agonizing death of ‘mortal doom’. Creon may not have known how powerful and deceitful Medea could be, and let this lapse in knowledge end catastrophically for his family, his land and himself. Not only did Creon and Corinth lose their beloved daughter at the hands of the ‘wicked’ Medea, Jason lost his bridegroom and goals of

Her personality is full of extremity and ‘savage temperament’, and could be characterized as sociopathic, but was ammunition to Jason’s fight for triumph. However Jason’s foolishness and forgetfulness allows him to become victim to Medea’s ‘monstrous’ deeds, rather than the victor. Jason’s thoughts to become king overshadow the logic analysis of what his wife, ‘transfixed by desire for (him)’, would do in response to his controversial marriage for the crown. Euripides’ produces Medea’s plan of filicide as purely for her own benefit; to hurt the ‘traitor’ yet she lost any respect she held on to and became a ‘contemptible creature, killer of children’ with no admiration by any other being other than herself. The once pitied woman fighting for ‘recompense’ is now an enemy of women and the battle for gender equality, as she murders her own family and destroys many other lives in the process, which shows how Euripides understood the constant battle for women. This portrayal of selfishness represents how many people cannot believe in something completely unless they see something to gain out of it. Medea’s manipulation as she wept before the chorus not only support her intentions, but also tip her over the edge between extreme revenge to unfathomable murder as she rationalizes her