In the beginning of “Medea”, Medea is depicted as a weak woman who is mourning over Jason, her husband, leaving her and her children behind. Toward the middle of the passage, she grows into a strong character who is plotting revenge for what Jason did to her. I agree that Medea deserves revenge for what has occurred, but the fact that it involves the death of her kids seems like it crossed the line. Although Medea feels guilty for plotting to kill her kids when she says, “Once that’s done, the next thing I must do/ chokes me with sorrow. I will kill the children-/my children” (lines 811-813). This shows that Medea feels guilty for plotting to kill her kids, but her hatred toward Jason overpowers the guilt.
As the plan proceeds, Medea makes Jason an accomplice, without him knowing it. Since Jason is asking his wife to persuade Creon to let the kids stay, he is helping expedite Medea’s plan. As a result, this would make Jason feel even guiltier after the wife and kids die, since he was a part of it. This will leave Jason with a lot of regrets, knowing that he could’ve prevented all of this from happening. This trickery shows Medea’s deviousness, since she says “And ask your wife to ask her father: please” (line 968). Knowing that Creon wouldn’t let the kids stay, Medea told Jason to ask his wife in order to persuade Creon.
After the plan was executed and the wife, Creon, and the kids are all destroyed, I feel like Medea doesn’t feel guilty for killing her kids, which contradicts what she stated earlier in the passage. As Jason confronts her, Medea says, “The pain is good, as long as you’re not laughing.” (line 1411). This proves that as long as Jason was hurt, the death of her kids was justifiable. She also blames Jason for their death when she says “Your outrage, and your newfound bride, destroyed them.” (line 1415). Medea is trying to convince herself and Jason that she had no part in the death of her kids, in an attempt to make Jason feel guiltier about his losses.
I disagree that Medea doesn’t feel pained by the loss of children at the end. It’s just as you said, she just felt that her pain was fine because she could see Jason in pain. I agree that Medea making Jason the fault of her children’s deaths is just not right. She may be just be trying to convince herself of that. After killing the princess and king Medea thought, well I should kill them first before others chasing me will. In actuality Jason came racing to save his children because they were being threatened, only to see that Medea killed them.
I think you many good points in your blog post. I agree with the fact that Medea’s justification for killing her own children comes from the immense hatred she feels for Jason. I think towards the end of the play, Medea loses her sense of humanity as she is willing to risk everything to accomplish her goals of ruining Jasons life. In the play, Medea states that she is willing to die to accomplish her goal and to put icing on the cake she was willing to take her own innocent children lives to serve her vigilante purposes.
I agree with you that Medea killing her own children was solely for the purpose of ruining Jason’s life but I don’t agree that she doesn’t feel guilty for killing them. I believe that by the end of this play, Medea has lost all ties to society and no longer thinks about her reputation or what is right or wrong. She is hell bent on destroying Jason for his betrayal. Medea was willing to destroy her own life in order to get into Jason like nothing else could which was to kill her kids. So I agree that it was completely immoral but I don’t think her actions should be looked at from a point of view of a sane human being but instead look at her as a impaired figure who cannot think straight.