Euripides’s creation of a character who thirsts for vengeance was groundbreaking. Medea stopped at nothing to settle the score with those who had wronged her, even if that meant sacrificing her own children. In Medea, Medea specifically wants to exact her retribution on the man that left her, Jason. She has lost everything, whether it be her home, her marriage, or even her sanity. Medea must question herself why this desire for vengeance is so potent. She decided that killing her children was necessary in order to gain the last laugh, and she suffered no consequences for it.
Many steps also had to be taken in order for Medea to achieve her ultimate goal. Vengeance may have been seen as justice in the eyes of Medea, but the two are very different. Medea feels that it is necessary to kill her sons in order to get revenge on Jason, for she feels that it is the only way he will truly suffer. Jason has just recently left Medea in order to marry into a noble Greek family. Medea is also being exiled from Greece, as she is seen as a threat, and an outsider. This infuriates Medea, as she managed to destroy her own life out of her love for Jason.
Medea says, “I shall murder my children, these children of mine. No man shall take them away from me. ” She does not want Jason to have their children, because she feels that he is undeserving after what he has done. Later in the text, Medea is having a conversation discussing murdering her children. The Leader expels in disbelief that Medea does not have the heart to kill her own children. She goes on to say, “I shall. It will hurt my husband most that way. ” This again reiterates the explanation that Medea kills her children in order to make Jason suffer in the most excruciating way possible.
This shows exactly what type of person Medea is. This act only further convinces us that Medea is deranged, and is not capable of thinking and acting in a rational way. Killing her children was also a way to draw attention to situations like Medea’s. Medea was the subject of sexism in Greece, and she could have possibly wanted to make other people aware of the growing problem. After carrying out the murders of her children, King Creon, and Jason’s new wife, Medea suffers no consequences afterwards. This fact can be interpreted to mean that these events were destined to happen.
A common belief in ancient Greece was that the Greek gods were the deities who decided if the events that transpired were supposed to happen. The belief of divine law being much more powerful than human law was very common the Greek society. This is why I believe that Medea suffers no consequences after all of the horrible deeds she committed. The fact that she suffers no consequences, points to the fact that the gods already knew of what was going to happen, and that those events were what was supposed to happen.
However, I feel as though Medea should be punished for all of the heinous acts she executed. Medea killed her two innocent children for the sole reason that her husband did not love her anymore. When discussing the death of children, the Chorus goes on the explain that it is “the worst evil of all humanity. ” This makes Medea look even more despicable, for she kills her children on her own accord. This is why I believe that Medea should not have gotten off without punishment. To achieve her revenge, Medea had to undergo a series of steps.
Her multitude of steps toward revenge shows just how elaborate and demented her plans are. Medea first starts with convincing King Creon to let her and her children stay one more day in order to prepare for exile. Medea never intended to use this day to prepare, for she used it to plan her revenge. Medea devised a plan to kill Creon’s daughter in order to make Jason suffer. Creon’s daughter is Jason’s new love interest, and her untimely death would leave Jason heartbroken. Medea also conceived a new procedure that involved the death of her own two children.
She would kill her children in order to make Jason suffer and leave him with unimaginable grief. Medea needed to come up with a way to kill the princess without actually directly committing the act. She decides to use poisoned gifts that the princess could not refuse. Medea also undertook an escape plan in which she would flee to another city, and was promised to be safe there. She strikes this deal with Aegeus of Athens who promised Medea safety in his city in exchange for her to work her magic to help him with fertility issues.
Medea must then commit the acts, and does so by sending in the poisoned gifts with her two children as a peace offering. The gifts not only kill the princess, but kill King Creon as well. She then kills her own children, and must plan a way to escape to Athens. Medea does this by flying away in a chariot pulled by dragons. These steps show how convoluted Medea’s plan is. The act of revenge is to exact punishment or expiation for a wrong on behalf of, especially in a resentful or vindictive spirit.
Justice, on the other hand, is righteousness, moral rights, or lawfulness. These two entities are contrasting of one another. While both have to do with correcting wrongs, justice is the right way, and revenge is the wrong way. Revenge is enacted when someone is full of hate a rage, and usually does not end with satisfaction. Once the act has been committed, the individual doing it normally will not get any benefit out of it. Justice is presented when a fair punishment is distributed out to someone who deserves it.
