Medea is known to be one of the most outstanding among the women presented in Greek dramas. In the play, she has been presented as a champion, a rogue and at the same time as a victim. Her husband is Jason who is a Greek from Greece and so she moves to live with him in Greece. Medea loves her husband and is ready to do to protect the love hence she sacrifices so much just to make him love her. In the play we see her doing things she did not like to keep Jason by her side. Such things include bearing his children despite the fact she very much hated the idea of having her own children. She gets to a point where she says that she would prefer to be involved in three fights but not have even one child. She decides to follow Jason to his homeland Greece where she remains a stranger all through her living there (Mack 19). Above all she even commits criminal acts like when she killed her own brother which is the highest form of betrayal to her family to have a man who failed to appreciate her (Mack 24). Despite all that, Jason falls in love with another woman and decided to leave Medea to marry Creon’s daughter.
Medea felt Jason had betrayed her love for him and due to her desperate situation she was depressed and her normal thinking was affected that she started thinking of how she would revenge the man who would never appreciate her love for him. The love turned to hatred and yet again, she is involved in murder cases thinking it would help her bleeding heart. She schemed and killed the woman Jason was supposed to marry by using a poisonous dress, after that she then kills her own children as they were fathered by Jason. She wanted Jason to be fatherless and killed his bride to close all chances of his ever being happy for she knew that the children and the bride were the greatest valuables for Jason. It is one of the greatest animosities a human being can ever do.
Although we can condemn her for her actions, on the other hand we sympathize with her situations and to extent justify her actions. We see her claiming some form of restoration of virginity after she killed her first born meaning she regretted ever meeting her husband and anything to do with him, she want total freedom from anything that would be a constant reminder of the love she had for him. He had caused her pain and suffering and made her the animal she was. From all we know, she had been sympathizing with those in afflictions and was godly despite her having sorcery powers, she does not misuse not until she was pushed to the edge by the husband. She remembered all she had ever sacrificed to make Jason happy yet he could not sacrifice for her and felt like it was total betrayal and selfishness on his part hence decided to deny him the happiness too (Mack 54).
She was courageous and did what very few people would do in their lives. She feels that Jason had taken advantage of her love for him and decides that she would not let him walk out of it freely while she suffered alone. She does not allow men to intimidate her which is also depicted when she revenges using the magic powers she posses when Pelias refuses to obey their agreement of giving up the throne for Jason. After her criminal acts, she runs back to Athens maybe to reorganize her life. She does not allow Jason to take charge over her by enjoyed happiness while she suffered defeat and betrayal. We can attribute her actions to anger which was instilled by her husband and look at her as a victim. It can be looked at to be psychiatritic case. She could have chosen to kill her children as she knew her fate was doomed and could no longer entrust Jason to anything she valued.
Works Cited
Mack, Maynard. The Norton Anthology of World Masterpieces. 5th ed. Yale: Norton, W. W. & CompanyInc, 1987. Print.