It would seem as though her excessiveness was the root of her evil. But, love, pride, stubbornness, or spitefulness could all be reasons of her excessive actions. Or is it mix of all three? What I'd like to know is why, what made it possible for her to get so murderous, to the point of killing her own children.
Well, in my opinion, what made Medea mad, first and fore most was her nature. This is for a couple of reasons.
ReplyDeleteFirst she is the grand-daughter of Helios, the Sun God. Because of this, she inherited his fiery temperament, and this can easily push her to excess, especially when it comes to taking the 'insults' that mortals inflict upon her.
Second, as she is the grand-daughter of Helios, she is, for all intensive purposes, unique (especially since she killed her brother Absyrdis). Because of this and the fact that she is the daughter of royalty, perhaps more important, second factor Medea has both always been an outsider (royal children were rarely able to interact with other children and so did not learn how to act in relation to their peers), and as the grand-daughter to the sun, this must have been even more exaggerated to the extent that Medea really had no one to whom she could relate: when you grow up,you learn academics from school, but you learn to act by those who surround you. In Medea's case she was most likely done via self-education or through the mimesis (mimicry) of her parents, one of which, most likely the more dominant one, was a descendant of the sun and thus equally in excess.
Good response Andrew!
ReplyDeleteHer nature may have seemed to be a factor of why she became crazy and killed her kids.
However, i think there could be another reason. First of all, in this play, Medea is seeking for revenge against Jason and it doesn't seem like anything else is on her mind. In my opinion, she became very selfish and did not think about anyone or anything around her and was only looking to hurt Jason or anything around him so that she can please herself. She was very selfish and it seemed that she would have done anything to kill Jason. It seemed that the only way she could kill Jason, WITHOUT GETTING CAUGHT (this is important because it shows how selfish she is and how she always wants to do things the easiest and most harmless ways possible) is through her kids but her kids would have to die as well. It seemed that she didn't mind loosing her kids because she was so focused on Jason and his death. Also, the kids were people Jason loved so if she killed their kids, Jason would be extremely saddened.
From the beginning, Medea is shown to us as excessive and completely insane. Everything she does is excessive, and we have not really analyzed why she needs to take such strong mesures to take her revenge on Jason. I think that a mix of love and pride are definitely the root of these rash actions.
ReplyDeleteThe love that she holds for Jason is toxic to her ; she loves him to such a point that she is willing to sacrifice everything that she has. When they first met and she was shot by Aphrodite’s arrow, she did whatever was necessary to be with Jason and for him to be safe. She did everything that he asked her to do : she killed Pelias, she even killed her own Brother. On top of this, she left her home and family. This sacrifice was enormous at the time and for someone to sacrifice all that for love showed extreme dedication. But now, when the person she loved has gone against her and ruined everything that they had, it is that love that pushes her to avenge herself. In a way, the love that she holds for Jason ruined her : it stripped her of her dignity, took her away from her family, took her power away, and it made her keep her "real" self hidden. Now, Medea feels like she needs to do the same thing to Jason : strip him of his manhood, take away his pride and dignity, take all his power away and take away the most important thing to him : his house, his sons. This was the only way for her to get full disclosure, but she ends up hurting her own children.
The pride that has been taken away from her also needs to be replaced, which is also why she commits these actions. Medea, as the grand-daughter of the Sun, is superior to the rest of the mortals ; at least, that is how she considers herself. The fact that Jason took this pride away from her makes her even more vengeful and determined to get it back. She believes that no one can make her inferior and because Jason made her power diminish, she needs to restore the pride. After all, no one can be superior than a God's grand-daughter.
Lastly, Medea is also being selfish because of how determined she is to hurt Jason. When she made her decision to hurt Jason in the same way that he hurt her, she did not even consider the damage that she would provoke and honestly, she did not even care. In her mind, the goal was to hurt Jason, and whoever got hurt in the process was collateral damage. This shows to what extent Medea wanted to take her revenge.
I quite agree with Andrew, and I just wanted to add some points to his idea. As she comes from a royal family, she must have been treated as such. When she left her family and killed her brother to follow Jason she accepted to leave this life and conform to the Greek values. Jason was what connected her to the Greek world, and what made her able to sustain this change of life. However, when Jason leaves her she loses all contact with these values, and can’t bear any more the way she is treated, as a woman and a stranger, she who was the granddaughter of the sun and the daughter of a king. She has lived the life of a Greek woman and been passive for many years, but now that she has no reason to behave in such way her real values come out and she feels she should be treated as she was in her country. This could be a reason why she reacts towards Jason and wants to take revenge on him.
ReplyDeleteFurthermore, and Andrew already said it, as she is the granddaughter of the sun, she is very reactive and excessive, and the fact that Jason broke an oath to the gods particularly irritated her. We can see that the gods seem to be on her side, as nothing stops her from accomplishing her plan, and she even gets help with the apparition of Aegeus or the chariot at the end of the play.
Although I found many arguments to answer to why she reacts towards Jason, I think if we ask why she reacts so violently there are no clear reasons: I could only suppose it was because of her excess, or because of her love, as Margaux said.
As Nietzsche said, "In revenge and in love woman is more barbaric than man is".
I like that quote Felix! I agree with a lot of what you guys said but I feel there's something that hasn't been emphasized enough. Medea, being the granddaughter of the sun is part deity, yet, for ten years, she spent her daily life slaving away at being the perfect wife for Jason. She kept the house, cooked, cleaned and took care of the kids, for ten years. If i were part deity, I know it would definitely take me some time to swallow my pride in order to fulfill my new role. I think that is partly where Medea's anger stems from. As was said earlier, Medea did not fall in love with Jason by her own will or nature; it was Aphrodite's doing. Medea's love for Jason has not diminished by the end, in my opinion (which is why she is so affected by his leaving her). In the very beginning though, when Medea first decides to follow Jason and help him aboard the Argo, her love does not come slowly: it is instant. The second she meets Jason, the spell is cast and she is his. I think that the lack of "transition" (if that can be said) into their relationship has caused (or if not caused, at least amplified) her anger against Jason.
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