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Self-Governance In Euripedes Medea

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In Euripedes’ Medea, passion is the driving force of all of the actions that occur within the play. By allowing her passion to take over her, Medea does terrible things in order to get revenge on Jason. Medea’s passion ultimately leads her to poisoning the princess and the king, as well as murdering her own two sons. As a result, I believe that self-governance is not effective when one’s passion overpowers one’s reason. Medea’s passion to destroy everything Jason loves stems from the disloyalty Medea received from Jason. All throughout, and even before their marriage, Medea has been nothing but faithful and loyal to Jason, and it was that same loyalty that she had for Jason the lead her to destroy anyone who get in their way, including her own brother. In return, Medea gets a husband who “hast not kept faith with” her even after …show more content…

In the city of Corinth, there is no moral/ethical code that the residents live by, so why would anybody try to stop Medea? I believe, that is why when Medea discusses her plans to seek revenge on Jason with the chorus, nobody says or does anything to try to stop her because they either do not believe she will actually do anything or they are too afraid to stand up to Medea, given her ruthless past. In a person like Medea who is blinded by this all-consuming desire to destroy Jason’s happiness, self-governance is not at all effective. If self-governance was present, I believe Medea would have never thought about killing her own blameless sons whom should not be coupled with the unforgivable mistake Jason made. But Medea’s lack of self-governance does eventually lead her to victory as noted at the end of the play when she tells Jason that “it relieves my pain to know thou canst not mock at me” as she flies away in her chariot drawn by dragons (Euripedes

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