I don’t think it was right to kill her children at all, but she believed her revenge against Jason was final; the death of his own children along with his new bride will be the most severe injury he is capable of suffering, even if it means Medea must hurt herself in the process. She decides to proceed with the murder, “The evil that I do I understand full well. But a passion drives me greater than my will. Passion is the curse of man: it wreaks the greatest ill” (377).
The theme of betrayal is shown once again here, but it is Medea betraying her family now. How could she just kill her two sons that she carried for 18 months total and the whole process..? Sheesh.
A messenger comes to Medea shouting at her that she must flee. She is startled and asks why, but soon finds out that she is the suspect for Glauce and Creon’s murder. The messenger recreates the scene of the murder in which Glauce put on the crown and the gold dress, both are poisonous, and begin to eat away at her skin. Her father Creon frantically tries to help her, but gets tangled up in the poison as well, resulting in both of their deaths.
Going back to Medea’s contemplation of the murder of all these people, what other evidence in the play justifies her indecision at this moment? What do you think made her choose? Also, what do you think her punishment is going to be?
Now having taken a closer look into the meaning as whole, I think the characteristic of love is nonexistent in any of their hearts. No one person, if they truly love someone should be able to betray their spouse like that Medea says, I can unload some venom from my heart and you can smart to hear it. To begin at the beginning, […] I saved your life" (60). She believes she has done everything for Jason and nothing wrong, so to betray everyone after she has been betrayed is easy. Even if it is her own child. But, that really shows there is no love at all in this play.
ReplyDeleteAlso, how is she actually shocked that she is being suspected for the murder. She literally had the biggest motive out of anyone, so if I were her I would have run for the hills immediately.
So, to answer your last question I without a doubt believe the constant criticism of Jason and him torturing her verbally really sends her through to make her choice. He never lets her truly sit and think about the actions he made, he is constantly harrassing her saying that she is either overreacting or that the choice to remarry was in the best interests of everybody. He made her believe that it wasn't his own selfishness that led him to be unfaithful, he believed that it was the right decision to make at the time. He wanted a "better life for the children" and the only way to get that was marry the King's daughter.
So, what do you think of that statement. Do you think he was wrong in making that claim about the better like for the children? Or, do you think it was his own selfish ambition that wanted more for himself and was tired of Medea and wanted to try something new?
To also answer to what the punishment will be for her crimes, I really believe she should just be banished from Corinth. Her husband cheated on her (the reason really unknown) and no matter what she deserved justice for herself. Did she have to go through with every part of her plan by killing everyone in the situation that hurt her? No, but I don't think her punishment should be death as well. The nurse does tell us, "Ah, she [Medea] has merited this city's good opinion, exile though she came" (1). No matter what Medea did or who's favor she gained the punishment was going to be pretty significant and there was no way around that. Also, I dont agree with Jason not being allowed to see his final death of his kids. The kids always got the short end of the stick in any situation in this book. I thought it was overly cruel of her not to let him see them, but I guess that was the final peace to her revenge. Lost a little respect for her right then, but oh whale.
DeleteThanks Alex for going through this book with me!!!!
Ok I realized I didn't quite complete my thought on that last comment, why did she have to stoop to his immaturity level. She had the opportunity to gain favor back after even killing her own children out of anger for her ex, but no she had to do the petty thing and quite honestly I am not a fan of that.
DeleteAlso, on another note I thought it was quite cool how Jason got to die with a little symbolism mixed in. How he got hit over the head with a log from his old shipped seem "unheroic to her" but I wonder if it meant anything to him. I would like to know Jason's feelings at this point because she has basically cut of his communication so yea thats all . Thank you!