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Why Does Medea Feel That She Must Kill Her Children?

            In the end of the play it is clear to the reader that she does not really want to commit that final act and kill them. Even though she places the blame of her faulty marriage on the boys, they are still her children. She is emotionally attached to them and it affects her to loose them. It despairs her to have to kill them. The real question would be why she felt that she had to kill them. Would it not be enough to simply kill Jason's new wife. To talk his only offspring and leave him alone without anyone to give him more children. This is the question that is most difficult to understand.
             At the beginning of the play Medea does not have these same ideas of how to punish Jason. She talks of killing him and destroying his house, but the killing of her children never enters the picture. She seems to believe that the children will have little bearing on the downfall of Jason. It is only after she is banished from Corinth that her mind turns to the idea that for a complete revenge she must kill her children as well. It is almost as if it wasn't until he truly turned from her that this comes to her mind. It was then that she decided to truly turn from him as well and completely destroy his life. At this point in the play Medea turns completely from any sort of morality and hate consumes all of her being. All that she care for is hurting Jason in every possible way. This includes killing her children. At this point hurting him is far more important than anything else could ever be. Even more important than the love and maternity that she feels towards her children.
            


Essays Related to Why Does Medea Feel That She Must Kill Her Children?

1. Medea

Maybe if she had just killed the princess and vanished into exile with her children, she would have been justified. ... Her first decision is to kill her children, but then when she is faced with them she decides to fall back on it. ... Why didn't Medea hide her children or move them far away to be brought up by someone who knows nothing of the famous "Medea and Jason." ... Medea, on the other hand, was the one initially hurt, so in her mind why should she be the only one suffering, she uses the children again, to make herself feel better. ... However, the issues that occurred in Euripide...

  • Word Count: 685
  • Approx Pages: 3
  • Grade Level: High School

2. Medea

In this paper, I am attempting to answer questions such as how Medea behaves like a female, how she acts heroically from a male point of view, why she killed her children, if she could have achieved her goal without killing them, if the murder was motivated by her barbarian origins, and how she deals with the pain of killing her children. ... There are two main reasons why Medea decides to kill her children. ... When asked about killing her children, she replies, "So it must be. ... However, she does struggle with her decision to kill them. She is sad that she must take their liv...

  • Word Count: 1974
  • Approx Pages: 8
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3. medea

This deeply angers Medea - her tragic flaw appears to be an over excessive sense of revenge - who goes absolutely berserk and kills the princess and her children to get back at Jason for leaving her. ... Alas, my sons, why do you gaze on me, Why smile upon your mother that last smile? ... Why should I seek to wring their father's heart, When that same act will doubly wring my own? ... Medea and Jason have had two children during their life together, but at the opening of Euripides' Medea, Jason and his father-in-law-to-be, Creon, say Medea and her children must leave the coun...

  • Word Count: 7698
  • Approx Pages: 31
  • Grade Level: High School

4. Revenge Rather than Justice:Euripides Medea

Davis 2001, p.13) Examining why Medea acts the way she does gives a good indication of the implications of becoming vengeful. The greatest moment of physical cruelty is displayed as Medea decided to kill her children. ... The reason why her passions run so deep for Jason is that she once loved him, and foresaw living out the rest of her life with him and their children, however her lovers intentions were far from recipient. The moral cruelty she is forced to endure from Jason's deception is a large factor in her decision to kill her own children, however other elements such as pri...

  • Word Count: 2228
  • Approx Pages: 9
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5. Medea and Greek Foreigners

Medea loved Jason with genuine passion; she was willing to do the impossible and retrieve the Golden Fleece for him, so that he could gain the kingship of Iolcus. ... She intentionally criticizes this superior knowledge of hers, claiming that she does not know much to avoid distrust; she finally succeeds in gaining pity. ... By making her children the real hand that delivers death to the new bride, Medea can convince herself that the children are meant to be murdered anyway and that it is a mercy they die in her hands instead, "Force every way will have it they must die, and since this must be...

  • Word Count: 1123
  • Approx Pages: 4
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6. ANALYSIS OF MEDIA

He tells her that she and her children must leave Corinth immediately. ... Her first decision is to kill her children, but when she faced with them and their smiles she changes her mind. At this point she says "why should I hurt their father with the pain they feel, and suffer twice as much pain myself." ... Medea's debates with herself over whether or not to kill her children showed motherly instinct in that she cared for her children. ... I personally do not feel that her actions were justified, I think her excuses had no weight against the fact that as a mother she could murder her ...

  • Word Count: 1123
  • Approx Pages: 4
  • Grade Level: High School

7. A Look at Two Characters in Greek Tragedy

When Medea is tossed aside by her husband, she has declared that she will get revenge. Medea does not want to directly kill Jason, "but one that shall bring down in ruin Jason, his new bride, his children, his whole house" (Kitto 195). She feels that if she cannot be happy then no one will. ... Medea has decided that she will end the lives of her two children as well as Kreon and his daughter. ... Now he must live in misery while Medea escapes to another life, moving on with no remorse or shame for the murders she had committed. ...

  • Word Count: 2458
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8. Reason versus Revenge

It is true, Medea gave and lost everything to the man she loved. ... Yes, the pain felt in a broken heart must be almost unbearable, however, the distress of one does not justify the murder of another, especially of those not directly involved. ... The way one feels and thinks about someone or something directly effects his or her actions toward that person, thing, or situation. ... One must be held accountable for his or her actions and receive the appropriate punishment. ... Medea may have done as she desired and taken revenge on Jason, but she will always tormented by the guilt and pa...

  • Word Count: 944
  • Approx Pages: 4
  • Grade Level: High School

9. Social Deviation- Medea

The nurse says, "But she hates her children and feels no joy in seeing them"(line 36-7). ... She never mentions her children on that line, meaning that she does not hate them directly. ... If Medea says she will grieve over the loss of here children, it means that she did not hate her children directly. ... She defies this standard of motherly love once more when she kills her children. ... Why do I delay to do the terrible but necessary crime?" ...

  • Word Count: 1020
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  • Grade Level: High School

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