The play “Medea” opens up with Medea’s nurse that shows sympathy towards her. She wishes that the events happened differently. To summarize concisely, Jason abandons his wife, Medea and their children they had together. “My motive was the best: so we’d live well and not be poor,” lines 575-576). Jason goes off to marry the daughter of Creon who is the king of Corinth in order to gain more status and to live a better life. He believed that by marrying into royalty, he would strengthen the family and be blessed with fortune. “I wanted to raise sons in a style that fits my family background, (577-578). From that quote said by Jason, it shows that he is not content with what he had. I feel like he wanted more recognition to his self-worth by having some link to the royalty.
Something that really stuck to my mind was the idea that was introduced that gods might’ve been partially or fully responsible for the characters behavior. During the conversation between Medea and Jason, Jason says, “But I must say – at the risk of stirring up your envy and your grudges—Eros was the one who forced your hand: his arrows, which are inescapable, compelled you to rescue me, (540-544). From this quote, it seems that Jason is implying that a god was responsible for compelling Medea to do what she did which was to save him.
Jason abandons Medea and his children he had with her to marry into royalty for a better life. He believes by doing this, he is actually helping out his family live a better life and not in poverty and thus would be blessed.
What do you think of Jason’s resolution in solving his family’s financial problem and do you think that is the right approach? Do you think that was his true intention?
What other reasons would lead Jason to abandon them?
- Recognition?
- Fame?
- Power?
I believe Jason’s reason for leaving Medea was solely based on his ambitions. Medea brought up the point that if what he really wanted was a better future, he would have told her first. I’m convinced of this because of the time line of events. Let’s for a moment imagine that Jason was really just seeking a better life when he agreed to the marriage. Imagine yourself being in his shoes. The first thing any reasonable man would have done, is to find a way to inform your love of the plan. He didn’t, in fact Jason only appears after Medea faces exile. He let her suffer. That explains why she was so angry in their dialogue. Then as if heaping dry leaves on a flame, he tells her its all for her and the children. She is far too clever to fall for that and is now not just angry but also insulted. His predicament reminds me of a story I was told growing up, a dog walking past a river with a bone in his mouth, stops to investigate another dog with a bone inside the water. He begins to imagine how great it would be to have two bones instead of one. He makes the decision to jump in the water and take the other bone, in doing so he opens his mouth and looses his bone. By the time he realizes that the other dog was just his reflection, it was too late and he was left empty handed. Jason was the dog in this story he had a good life with no one but two sons but he wanted more. In the end he was left with nothing.
I find it interesting that you zoomed in in Jason’s motives and perspective. In my opinion, he was acting more on his behalf rather than the common good of his family. We all know how it is, you can never disconnect emotions and relationships between close people (especially family – wife and children in our case here).
Yet, he was blinded by the royalty concept and I find it very wrong. He should have thought about it before he married Medea. After you promise your vows, you can’t just leave and marry someone else for royalty (you can, but in those days it was much less common then today.
He wanted a better life for himself first of all. If it could or could not effect his family – it probably crossed his mind, but it wasn’t the main ingredient influencing his decision. He wanted more money and a better life for himself. I don’t believe it was his true intention. That’s just a cover up story to face Medea and try to save or defend himself.
All of the above – Recognition / Power / Fame. He wanted it all and he didn’t really care about the consequences of his actions – regarding his own family.
At the end of the day I don’t blame him, because all of us (like the first comment) are ambitions at some point for something. For him it was the royalty.