As we were discussing in class, all women were expected to marry and have kids. However, the decisions who they were to marry was not up to them. It was left to chance, fate, and the gods to decide who your husband was to be. Due to this, you could be stuck with a good or bad husband who you had to live the rest of your life with.
In Medea’s case, she was to marry Jason. Whether this was “love at first sight” or the doings of Aphrodite, we are not totally sure. She sacrificed everything for him and was ultimately left alone. Jason began seeing a new women and left Medea in the dust. Men were allowed to have these “outside relationships,” but women were not. When Medea find out about his relationship with this the princess, she goes crazy. In addition to this, she was made aware that she and her kids are going to be exiled. She then begins to carry out her next action: REVENGE. This leads me to the point of my post: does Medea think she was given a good husband?
In my opinion, Medea is still very much in love with Jason. In order to hate someone, you have to care very deeply for them. The greater the degree of hate, the more you care about that person. Medea dedicates all her time on carrying out this revenge plan of hers just to prove to Jason that she has power as a woman. Again, if you have to prove something to someone, you CARE about what they think about you. Medea is still consumed with Jason’s actions, therefore indicating she still has feelings toward him.
If Medea were to not not care about Jason, she would have just left and went to Athens. She didn’t have to kill anyone, but she wanted to carry her plan out! Medea expends so much energy on Jason’s life that it is clear she wants him.
The question then is: does Medea consider herself to be blessed with a good husband/ex-husband? My answer to this question is YES! I am not saying that what Jason did in leaving her was right in any means, I’m just saying that Medea is fighting for/against him to show she cares and wants to be with him. If she thought Jason was a “bad husband,” she would have been relieved when he left her. Instead, her life fell apart and she is left alone. Despite all the terrible things Jason has done, I think Medea would take him back!!
2 comments:
I disagree and think that Jason is a terrible husband. He may have been a good husband in the past but after he leaves her we see how he is in reality a terrible person who treats Medea like an old toy and just throws her away after he meets Kreon's daughter. She wanted revenge for the terrible things he did as he was once considered a good person by Medea. But once his true colors are revealed we see how he is not a good guy.
I agree with Lindsey. Unfortunately for Medea, her feelings were completely out of her control when it came to Jason. She was forced to fall in love with him and help him, which is why his betrayal of her stung so badly. However, no matter how heartbroken, I think she would have accepted him back into her life in a heartbeat. In the beginning of the play, it’s clear to see that Medea does not think life is worth living without Jason. She moped and whines all day about how death would be better than the pain she’s feeling. She really wanted him back. It was only after she was sure that he wasn’t coming back that she decided revenge would be the next best thing. Basically, if she can’t have him, no one can. Her incredibly strong love for him was what drove her to violence in the first place, it wasn’t out of a place of complete hatred, but instead a place of spite.
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