To start with, I should mention that I am completely justifying Medea”s actions. Even if it may be quite brutal to kill four people, she still has a chance to defend herself. Really, she needs to be held responsible for the deaths of King Creon, his daughter Glauke, and her two sons. She should be subjected to the due process of law and if convicted should be given an appropriate punishment. However, I rally behind her for asserting that her actions were necessitated by the changing events in her life.
She was so furious about the actions of her husband Jason. She felt that it was a great betrayal when he decided to abandon for a second marriage. Despite her love and support for him, Jason never respected her as his valuable wife. Medea really loved this man. This is why she opted to forsake her parents and motherland to relocate to Corinth, where she knew so well how scornfully she would be treated. Later, she used her wits to assist him in being a legendary winner of the Golden Fleece (Hall 2001).
Hence, she was so angry with Jason for not reciprocating her goodness by appreciating or mutually loving her. Instead, he decided to be unfaithful to her. This was a betrayal that needed revenge because, responding to her husband”s actions she says, “when one betrays another, all may be corrupted”. Therefore, it would show the rest of the society that women are also emotional and can rebel against the oppressive acts against them. Furthermore, killing her own sons signified that she was establishing a blissful future life for the female folk. Because they would become the same people who would propagate the suppressive male chauvinistic tendencies in Greece. It must be accepted that all these violent actions were caused by the discriminative acts of men. So, it would be a lesson for the Greeks to shun away from their prejudices to the given sections of the society because it will eventually spark off a revolution.
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Jason”s Defense
After winning the Golden Fleece, Jason found himself in troubles when she was accused of destabilizing his marriage. This was particularly after he decided to defy her wife”s plea to abandon this plan. However, he was justified to marry princess Glauke. In my opinion, he was right in making this decision because it was aimed exclusively at making their marital life better.
To begin with, it was not an act of infidelity because it was a secluded case. Polygamy was permitted by the Greek culture. Hence, he was not to be an infidel as he had not gone against their traditions. He was looking for more children that would obviously make him a proud father of many. Being that no male can bear children alone, he had to look for another woman. He confirmed this when he says, “What we poor males really need is a way of having babies on our own children…”. Furthermore, those with more children were highly regarded in this society.
Besides, he was justified to marry someone from the noble family not because he was tired of Medea”s attractions, but because it would be a gateway to a blissful economically stable family. Surely, marrying Glauke would liberate them from poverty. In fact, he said, “…it was simply that I wanted above all to let us live in comfort, not be poor.” This means that marrying from a rich family would help to liberate them from their persistent miseries and assure her and her sons a place in the highly stratified Greek society (Hall 2001).
So Jason should not be seen as the one who has acted subversively or betrayed his wife. He did not plan to create discomfort to his wife. Instead, he wanted them to be happier and lead a totally new admirable life. According to him, it would be the only way to financially liberate them.