Why Did Medea Kill Creon

Euripides’ Medea is a play centered around Medea who has been abandoned by her one true love and husband, Jason. Jason leaves Medea to marry the princess of Corinth and finally achieve his dreams of reigning as a King. Creon, King of Corinth, orders Medea and her children to be exiled from the land out of fear of Medea’s evil ways. After pleading to Creon, Creon gives Medea one day to gather her children and find a new home away from Corinth. It is during her last days, Medea plans to murder Jason, the princess, and Creon. Even though Jason claims he is marrying the princess for the best interests of both Medea and their children, Medea still cannot forgive him for his actions of infidelity. For her own satisfaction, Medea changes her plans and decides not to murder Jason, but to have him live to mourn the loss of his own children and his bride. Yes, Medea plans her own children’s deaths. Medea’s mourning for her children will not outweigh the satisfaction she will feel as she watches Jason’s suffering. In my essay, I will focus on why Medea kills her own two sons in revenge against Jason. Medea decides to kill her

children because she is selfish, and never was a mother figure.
Medea takes out her anger for Jason on the children because she does not have another escape.

In the beginning of the play, the Nurse says, “For I’ve seen her already blazing her eyes at them as though she meant some mischief and I am sure that she’ll not stop raging until she has struck at someone” (4). Medea begins to get mad very easily at the children, and she resorts to physically hitting them. Medea feels that she can abuse her children because they remind her of Jason and her broken heart; however, it is not the children’s fault that her husband left her. In the play, readers can see that the Nurse knows not to even bring the children around their mother when she is in her “angry mood” (4). Because the Nurse knows not to have the children around Medea when she is in a bad mood, readers can imply that she often takes out her anger on her

children.
In my opinion, Medea was never a true mother figure. When she addresses the women of Corinth, she says, “I would very much rather stand three times in the front of battle than bear one child” (9). As I read this statement, I could not help but feel bad for Medea and Jason’s children. Medea makes this statement as if she wishes she would have never had any children. Because Medea compared battle to having children, this comparison shows that she really did not want children. Medea may have only tolerated children because Jason wanted to have them.
Medea decides to kill her children as a selfish act. As Medea tells the Chorus her plans, she says, “Next after that; for I shall kill my own children. My children, there is none who can give them safety” (26). I found this statement to be completely ironic. Medea basically says that no one can protect her children like she can; therefore, she will resort to killing them. This whole quote contradicts Medea being a mother to these children. As a mother, Medea should want her children to live their lives despite their father’s actions. After Medea kills her children, she says to Jason, “My grief is gain when you cannot mock it” (44). At the end of the play, Medea illustrates how satisfied she was after she killed her children. She knew the children’s deaths would bring Jason pain and suffering that he could not bear because he was helpless; therefore, Medea kills their children just out of satisfaction from Jason’s agony. When Jason asks Medea if he could bury the children, she says “No, that I will not. I will bury them myself…” (45). Medea does not even allow Jason to bury his own children because she wants to see him suffer like she did. This was Medea’s plan all along. Medea only killed her children to get sweet revenge on Jason, her estranged husband. Throughout the whole play, I have noticed Medea’s selfish attitude towards her children; their deaths only illustrate how far Medea would go to see Jason in pain.