Argumentative Essay On Medea's Fault

The human race has pondered for thousands of years whether our faults lie in our stars or ourselves, whether we have control over our own destinies. (Shakespeare, ####, p. 9) While Medea may have been a fictional character, her story once again brings that same question into conversation. However, Medea, as a fictional character, lives only within the confines of a morality story and therefore was doomed from the very beginning. Her stars were most definitely faulty, although it wasn’t only fate against her. She also made some very poor decisions that prevented her from salvaging what little goodness she had left.

Medea’s tale began when Jason came to her father’s kingdom on a quest for the Golden Fleece. The king gave Jason many impossible

46) When Jason abandoned Medea and ran off with another woman—a princess, no less—Medea was justifiably enraged. Because of her anger, she is banished from Corinth by the princess’s father. While her decision to make Jason suffer for his infidelity is harsh, it is understandable; many a scorned lover has exacted revenge even today, though perhaps a bit less severe. However, her anger goes much farther than just being cheated on: Medea had left her entire family behind, betraying friends and destroying relationships in order to follow Jason. (Luschnig, 2007, p. 1) Jason in return is not grateful, but instead “upgrades” to a better relationship once he believed he had expended Medea’s usefulness. He chose to “turn Medea into a useless dependent and reclaim their story as his story.” (Luschnig, 2007, p.

She could have easily killed the princess and taken her children to live with her in Athens. Here Medea had a choice. However, she decides that the high road is not for her. There were no gods interfering with spells or anyone at all forcing her to kill her children. Yet when finally given a choice, she made the worst decision a mother could make, an error that left her without children.

Medea attempts to convince herself that killing her sons is the moral high ground by insisting that if she doesn’t kill them, “much more savage hands” would do it for her. (Euripides & Roche, 1974, p. 71) Yet the women in the chorus can easily see the situation Medea has created for herself and they bewail the situation, praying that the divine would interfere, would prevent Medea from committing such a