In Euripedes’ Medea, Medea and her family were abandoned by her pompous husband, Jason. Then Creon ostracized Medea and her children from the city in the case that she might plot revenge. Even with his prudence, Creon’s efforts were fruitless because Medea feigned her understanding of Jason’s decision to leave her and actually connived her revenge on everyone. Medea was responsible for Glauce, Creon, and her two children’s deaths. Although Jason was haughty and not a very considerate husband to her, this is by no means an excuse for her crimes. Medea’s actions are considered unethical by three types of ethical theories: virtue ethics, deontology, and utilitarianism.
Under the virtue ethics category, Plato, Aristotle, and St. Thomas Aquinas’ theories will be used to analyze Medea’s deeds. Medea sought “justice” for Jason’s wrongdoing. She wanted revenge by harming Jason and Glauce. However, Plato in the Republic rebuked the idea that is is right to “do good to a friend, provided he is good, and to harm an enemy, provided he is bad.” (Plato, p. 14) Plato’s counterargument was that it is possible to misinterpret who is a friend or is an enemy, and that bringing harm is against the nature of a
…show more content…
good person. A good person makes others better, and it is counterproductive to have a good person mistreating enemies as it only adds more evil. Medea must have believed that harming Jason would make her happy. However, according to Aristotle, happiness is the final goal, which is a goal that is desired for its own sake and beyond which nothing else is desired. Happiness is durable, autonomous, and does not depend on fortune. This is only realized by virtue, which according to Aristotle in Nicomachean Ethics, is the excellence of the soul. It is a state of character trained by choosing the middle way between extremes. There are some exceptions such as murder as one cannot kill someone more or less. Harming Jason would not bring Medea happiness as happiness is realized by virtue. Medea lacked moral excellence. She committed murder there is no middle way for this act. It is an extreme act of evil. Not only did she murder Glauce and by consequence, Creon, but also she murdered her own children. Part of training the middle way between two extremes involves the will of the agent. Medea was completely aware of what she was doing. She even had second thoughts about murdering her children. MEDEA: Oh, what am I to do? Women, my courage is all gone. Their young, bright faces— I can’t do it. I’ll think no more of it. I’ll take them Away from Corinth. Why should I hurt them, to make Their father suffer, when I shall suffer twice as much Myself? I won’t do it. I won’t think of it again. What is the matter with me? Are my enemies To laugh at me? Am I to let them off scot free? I must steel myself to it. What a coward I am, Even tempting my own resolution with soft talk. (Euripides, p. 1033) Although this makes Medea a more believable character, it also makes the act all the more heinous.
She knew the difference between right and wrong and still chose to harm her innocent children. Also, Medea violated Aquinas’ natural law from the Summa Theologica. The natural law is a universal moral law that pertains to human nature. According to the natural law, all people are inclined to do good and avoid evil. All people have particular inclinations such as: preservation of life, family, sex, education of offspring, knowing truth, and living in a society. Medea egregiously violated the natural law. She murdered Glauce, Creon, and her two children; obviously violating the preservation of life inclination of human nature. She did not get to educate her children and murdered
them. Under deontology, Medea’s actions are also not justified. In Kant’s Grounding for the Metaphysics of Morals, the categorical imperative sought to define universal morality in an imperative. The categorical imperative is to act in such a way that your actions are elevated to universality in relation to oneself and the whole reality. This is the maximization of moral reason. Three formulations make up the imperative: the formula of the law of nature, the formula of the end in itself, and the formula of the kingdom of ends. Medea violated the formula of the law of nature, which is to act only in accordance with the maxim that at the same time will become a universal law. In no way could killing your enemies and your children be made a universal law. Also, she defied the formula of the end in itself, which is to act in such a way that you always treat humanity whether in “your own person or the person of any other, never simply as a means, but always as an end in itself.” Medea did not treat people, especially her children as if they had absolute value. They were simply tools she used to hurt Jason. Medea wanted to harm Jason more than she “loved” her children. She thought more about the pain she could inflict upon Jason than the pain she would inflict upon her children and herself for that matter. Even under utilitarianism, Medea’s actions are not validated. John Stewart Mill’s great happiness principle in Utilitarianism defines actions are right if they tend to promote happiness and wrong if they produce the reverse of happiness. The idea is to maximize pleasure and to minimize pain. This is the exact opposite of what Medea wanted and did. She wanted to inflict as much pain as possible to Jason and anyone associated with him. She even subjected herself to pain as she performed infanticide on her own offspring. This in no way promotes happiness and minimizes pain. From three different types of ethical theories, there is no way to condone what Medea did. It can be argued that Jason did mistreat Medea and he deserved what came to him. However, this “eye for an eye” mentality cannot be elevated to a universal law. To wrong someone because they wronged you is not justice, but instead it only perpetuates an evil cycle. If society was full of Jason’s and Medea’s, then society would not work as some kind of moral code or laws must exist to keep peace and prevent chaos.
Euripedes tugs and pulls at our emotions from every angle throughout The Medea. He compels us to feel sympathy for the characters abused by Medea, yet still feel sympathy for Medea as well. These conflicting feelings build a sense of confusion and anxiety about the unfolding plot. In the beginning, the Nurse reveals the recent background events that have caused Medea so much torment: "She herself helped Jason in every way" (13) and now he "has taken a royal wife to his bed" (18). Right away we are angry with Jason for breaking his wedding vows, and we are building up sympathy for Medea as the Nurse describes her acts of suffering. When we first see Medea, she speaks passionately to the women of Corinth and convinces them to side with her. She evokes their sympathy by drawing further attention to her suffering and speaking in terms that bring them all to common ground. Aegeus becomes Medea’s first victim when he, unknowingly, provides the final building block in her plan for revenge against Jason. We sympathize for Aegeus in his ignorance. Medea now has confidence in her plan, so she reveals it to the women of Corinth. She is going to send her children to Jason’s bride with a poisoned dress that will make her die in agony. We are still compelled to sympathize with Medea at this point because she has justified her reasons for seeking revenge. However, the princess is oblivious to Medea’s plot; she will accept the gift for its beauty then meet an unexpected, agonized death. The image of pain and agony elicits our sympathy as well. Medea presents her most perverse speech when she explains how she will kill her own children then flee Corinth. Alone, these acts provoke pure disgust, but Euripides has developed Medea’s character as a coercive force; we still sympathize with her for her plight, yet we also hate her for her decisions. The women of Corinth try to persuade her away from this morbid choice, but their arguments are ineffective. Euripides employs stichomythia in the exchange between the women and Medea to show Medea breaking down boundaries between self and other, which prevent sympathy (811-819). Euripedes focuses on suffering, ignorance, and rhetoric to leave us torn in our sympathy for every character.
*Although Medea is arguably the most intelligent character in Euripides’s piece, shown in her dialogue with Creon, she has become ridiculed, and viewed as barbarous and less desirable following her separation from Jason. She is no longer a wife to a Greek man. She is simply an outsider, and a burden on a prosperous
While both women do wrong by the law of man, and Medea against the law of the gods, they do it for different reasons. In the beginning Medea kills many people and monsters with little or no concern of the consequence. When the story deals with modern times Medea kills out of pure revenge and spite for Jason. She plots for weeks to kill Jason’s new bride and poisons her, and then before she leaves the country she murders her two sons, she had with Jason, before she rides off in her bright white chariot.
Medea is outraged that she sacrificed so much to help Jason, only to have him revoke his pledge to her for his own selfish gain. She asks him whether he thinks the gods whose names he swore by have ceased to rule, thereby allowing him to break his promise to her. Medea vows to avenge her suffering by destroying Jason's new family and his children. When Jason curses his wife for her murdering at the end of the play, she says to him, 'What heavenly power lends an ear / To a breaker of oaths, a deceiver?
Even though Medea’s crime are despicable, Jason is also a despisable character. When he encounters Medea for the first time in the play, he says, “Even if [Medea] hates me / I could never think badly of [Medea]” (Euripides 462-463). It is easy for Jason to say these kind words because he is not the one being abandoned for another spouse. He also undermines Medea again after she recites how she helped him in on the Ship Argo. Instead of giving her any credit or appreciation, Jason confesses, “since you make such a mountain of it, I think that Kypris, god of love, was the savior” (Euripides 525-526). It is not enough to leave Medea for another woman while allowing her and her children to be exiled, but Jason also felt the need to discredit her contribution to his
As with Medea and Jason, the battle between the two lead to former's madness, leading to the death of the enemies she considered, and, unfortunately, leading as well to the death of her own children. Medea felt betrayed and left behind by her husband Jason, as well as continuously aggravated by Creon despite the fact that it was she who was in a disadvantaged position.
In Medea, a woman betrays her homeland because of her love for a man. Jason is the husband that she ferociously loves and makes sacrifices for. They have two children together: Antigone and Ismeme. In Jason's quest for the golden fleece, Medea assists him in multiple ways. One of the things she does to help their cause is bring about the death of her own brother. Certainly this is a woman who would sacrifice anything for her husband. Weigel records the fierceness of Medea's passion in his critique: "As a woman of passion, Medea is wholly committed to Jason as the object of her emotional life, whether in love or hate. When she loved Jason she did not hesitate to kill her brothe...
When Jason left Medea to marry Glauce, Medea was plagued with sadness and then with anger. The man she loved, the man that she gave up her life for, had betrayed her. In the patriarchal society that Medea lived in, it was not acceptable for a woman to protest any decision made by her husband. Medea went against all social standards and took revenge on Jason for the wrongs that he had committed. She was willing to take any chance and sacrifice even her most valued possessions. Medea knew that the best way to avenge the wrongs of Jason was to kill Glauce and the children. It was a huge sacrifice for Medea to kill the children that she loved, but she allowed herself to look past that love and only see her hate and contempt for Jason. Medea was willing to go against every rule that society set, so that her husband wouldn't get away with leaving her for political reasons.
In Medea, a play by Euripides, Jason possesses many traits that lead to his downfall. After Medea assists Jason in his quest to get the Golden Fleece, killing her brother and disgracing her father and her native land in the process, Jason finds a new bride despite swearing an oath of fidelity to Medea. Medea is devastated when she finds out that Jason left her for another woman after two children and now wants to banish her. Medea plots revenge on Jason after he gives her one day to leave. Medea later acts peculiarly as a subservient woman to Jason who is oblivious to the evil that will be unleashed and lets the children remain in Corinth. The children later deliver a poisoned gown to Jason’s new bride that also kills the King of Corinth. Medea then kills the children. Later, she refuses to let Jason bury the bodies or say goodbye to the dead children he now loves so dearly. Jason is cursed with many catastrophic flaws that lead to his downfall and that of others around him.
The problem set at the beginning of the play is that Jason has decided to marry another wife, Glauce. Medea is angered and will not let Jason off without punishment. The loss of Jason is not only a matter of passion; Medea has been completely humiliated by Jason's decision to take a new bride. Her pride shows again when she refuses Jason's aid. Though her situation is difficult, she would rather destroy all than accept help from one who has wronged her so horribly. Living as a barbarian among Greeks has made her more defensive, more full of hurt pride. To punish Jason, Medea had her children deliver poisoned gifts to the new bride, to kill her children, Glauce, and Creon. . Medea is not without feeling, nor is she a sociopath. She comprehends the difference between right and wrong, but chooses to follow the dictates of rage.
Medea’s illegitimate marriage and the betrayal of Jason drive Medea to extreme revenge. Medea chooses to act with her immortal self and commit inhumane acts of murder rather than rationalize the outcomes of her actions. Medea see’s this option as her only resort as she has been banished and has nowhere to go, “stripped of her place”. To create sympathy for Medea, Euripides plays down Medea’s supernatural powers until the end of the play. Throughout the play Medea represents all characteristics found in individual women put together, including; love, passion, betrayal and revenge. Medea’s portrayal of human flaws creates empathetic emotions from the audience. The audience commiserates with Medea’s human flaws as they recognize them in themselves. Medea plays the major role in this play as she demonstrates many behavioral and psychological patterns unlike any of the other Greek women in the play; this draws the audience’s attention to Medea for sympathy and respect.
Later in the story, our sympathy transfers from Medea to Jason. Her revenge turns immoral, leaving readers with a sense of uneasiness. It is not so much the fact that she kills Creon and his daughter, but the fact that she slays her children in cold-blood.
Although Medea killed and did things that people felt were wrong it is evident that through out the play that along with her other characteristics, she was a caring and loving person. The first time we are shown this is when we discover everything she did for Jason. If she did not love him she would not have done those things. We are also shown that Medea can be a caring person by the love that she had for her children. Although she killed them in the end during the play she was a mother to her children, she showed affection to them, and she did think twice before she killed them. It is because Medea was a caring and loving person that she did what she did. Her feelings were hurt and her heart was broken; and she did what she felt she had to do to hurt Jason for hurting her.
In The Medea, Medea gives up her home, murdered her brother and tossed the pieces of his corpse and betrays her family to escape with her lover Jason. Against her father's wishes she helps Jason recover the Golden Fleece. Afterwards, Medea and Jason fall in love, get married and Medea gives birth and raises two sons. Unfortunately, Jason abandons Medea and marries King Creon's beautiful daughter. Medea alternates her role from a lover and partner in crime to an obsessive prideful monster. Me...
Medea is a tragedy of a woman who feels that her husband has betrayed her with another woman and the jealousy that consumes her. She is the protagonist who arouses sympathy and admiration because of how her desperate situation is. I thought I was going to feel sorry for Medea, but that quickly changed as soon as I saw her true colors. I understand that her emotions were all over the place. First, she was angry, then cold and conniving. The lower she sinks the more terrible revenge she wants to reap on Jason.