Saturday, October 27, 2018
Medea Hath Done No Wrong in Her Mind
Medea seems to think she is entirely blameless regarding her current situation. While she is correct in saying that Jason is an awful man for betraying her after all she did for him (i.e. make enemies with all who loved her by killing her brother to flee her homeland with Jason after falling in love with him), she is at fault for going to such drastic measures for a man she just met! Jason is awful—that I am not debating. Medea’s decision to run away with a man she just met, however, is almost as ridiculous as the women on the hit tv series the “Bachelorette” marrying a man they have known for merely six weeks. Medea herself admits that women face a challenge in discerning if men are good or not. My question to you, Medea, is why would you make the decision you did when you readily admit that men cannot be trusted? While Jason’s actions are indeed horrible, Medea was crazy to think such a rash decision of hers would produce a good relationship.
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Well @Bennett, I am not sure if Media made the decision to marry/run away with Jason all by herself. I seem to recall Mrs. King mentioning that Aphrodite had cast a spell on her to make her fall in love, to begin with. Why Aphrodite did this, I am not sure. But it is worth noting that the decision possibly wasn't her own. She might not think that her current situation is relatable to the past because 1. it wasn't a conscious decision and 2. she doesn't like to think about her own flaws in any way. She is blinded by her own mistakes, and we see many of them. One small mistake that comes to mind his her plotting to kill her children along with loads of other people, but no biggy. Why she blocks this out, I am not sure? What we do know however is that her inability to understand her own flaws will seriously hurt not only her but the people that she loves, she might want to hurt Jason, but there is a possibility that she still loves him and will be devastated when he dies.
That's a really interesting point! Firstly, I'll agree with you. Jason is terrible--it would be one thing if he left Medea for love, but he left her for power. I have absolutely zero respect for his decision. Although I think it's depressing that women had to rely on men in Ancient Greek society, it was a fact of life. Therefore, as a man who took an oath to be loyal to woman (Medea), he needs to live up to his promise. He should've recognized that as a man in his community (and correspondingly as the sex with the control), it simply was his responsibility as a respectable human to provide for Medea. He's despicable. There's no debating that.
But, getting to your main point: I understand what you're saying. Medea's decision to follow Jason to the ends of the earth, in a sense, was foolish. But you have to consider the fact that often times, love is all-consuming. It's an intoxicating force that can overwhelm the senses and repress logic and reason. I think it's truly tragic that "love" really wasn't a primary driving force behind Ancient Greek marriages. It's almost like Medea is being punished by the world for having genuine love for someone else; she doesn't fit neatly into the box the Ancient Greeks have carved out for women. It's also worth noting that some myths recount that Hera convinced Aphrodite to send Eros to put a love spell on Medusa. Those darn gods/goddesses! They robbed a clever and (probably) formerly sensible woman of her control. Whether it was her emotions or goddesses, Medusa was *blinded* by love (Oedipus reference!). She failed to *see* the truth about Jason because of that.
That being said, I like your connection to the Bachelorette/the Bachelor. It's really hard for me to fathom that people think that marriage after six weeks of knowing each other is a good idea. I do believe in "love-at-first-sight" and developing love after a short period of time, but I don't think it's as common as these shows lead people to believe.
I definitely see your point, Bennett. However, I think we forget marriage customs were vastly different in this culture than ones we see today in the present. Fortunately, today people take the time to get to know their partner to see if this is someone worth spending the rest of their life with based on compatibility and experience; one could call this free will ;). Based on today's views, I would say a quick engagement is one that happens after less than a year of "dating." (However, who are we to tell someone about their capabilities in love!) In ancient Greece, like Chinese and Indian cultures, most marriages were arranged. At only 5 years old, a little girl's future husband was picked out for them and they married 10 years later. They would not meet their husband until their wedding day. In comparison to these actual customs, Medea had more time to choose her OWN husband than a common girl (yes, girl, because they were 15!!) would and that detail of the storyline Eurpides wrote might have been a bit radical to their times, as opposed to merely "rushed" in today's standards.
I agree with some of this. Madea definitely rushed into things when she got into a relationship with Jason and then married him. As you said, they hadn’t known each other for that long. Due to her situation, however, technically couldn’t make a 100% rational decision when given to chance to Marry Jason. What I mean by this is the way that marriage was held at such a high standard for women. At the time, it seemed like a good idea for her to marry Jason so that she wouldn’t be looked down upon by others considering that it was seen as a bad thing for women to not be married at all. Madea couldn’t have just passed up a chance to get married like this because it might have never happened again for her. Therefore, she took her chances and married Jason even though she didn’t know him all that well. Look where this decision left her: Madea ended up being in a horrible relationship with a man who is unfaithful. As a result of this, she starts to think even more irrationally than before by making a plan that involves straight up killing her own children. So, yes, you are definitely correct in saying that it is Madea’s fault despite Jason being a horrible man and I think her irrational thinking will probably only get worse as the play goes on. However, think about it this way: Madea needed to marry because marriage was important for a woman in those days (socially anyway, I’m not saying a woman should’ve married because they need a man to protect them or whatever but just to have a better life and not looked down upon as I previously mentioned). This doesn’t mean the person she had to marry needed to be Jason but who knows when she’d get another chance like this. So my question is this: if Madea has passed up this chance, would her life have gone for the better or the worse in a way? I think it’s debatable. After all, any man could easily have just divorced a woman on the spot if he wanted and women had no say in marriage.
O.K.- Whoa whoa whoa. Let's not get too rash with what we say. FIRST AND FOREMOST: the Bachelorette in no way should be affiliated with Madea because to counteract your argument, these women do not *have* to marry the man after 6 weeks. They don't even have have to get engaged after six weeks-- they can just continue to be BF and GF after the season is over and see where it goes. Secondly, these women are desperate, we all know that. I'm in no way saying I aspire to be one or that going on the Bachelorette is the ~right~ way to find love. However, it's not like they're just picking some random guy off the street and making them get on one knee. No, there's a selective casting that goes into the show with background checks, interviews, the whole works. AND even with that, the Bachelorette herself still gets to choose from 20-something eligible bachelors who are just as equally desperate. Is it true love? Probably not. Is it just some blind infatuation with the idea of not being alone and being in love? Probably. Does it ultimately make these psychos happy and end up working out? Pretty much. Does it relate to Madea at all? Not a shot.
Do you research before you dog classic cinematic television, Bennett.
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