Medea Euripides - 5 Medea\'s

Medea Euripides - 5 Medea's Relationship to Her Children

Medea's Relationship With Her Children

Medea's relationship with her children is not an ideal parenting example. In Euripides' play, the fact that Medea and Jason have children is an important part of the storyline. The children are used as symbols to propel the message of the play by the author. Within the play, they are also used to obtain Medea's desired goals. She does not have a traditional parent-child relationship with the children.

Medea sees the children merely as a result of her relationship with Jason, and as tools which can be used to get what she wants.

Medea does not have a loving, nurturing relationship with her children. Rather, the children are simply a result of her relationship with Jason. If it were not for the fact that the children are blood relatives and happen to be in the same household as her, Medea would not have any relationship with them at all. Medea does express concern for their well-being under the care of their new step mother, a valid motherly thought. However, this is simply another extension of her feelings of jealousy and anger towards the new wife that Jason has chosen to marry. Medea does not care for the children herself, but leaves them in the care of their nurse and tutor while she goes about her life. Again, this shows that they are members of the family by blood and therefore cared for in the family household, but they do not share a special bond with their mother, nor does she take any steps towards creating a bond. The children are seen playing in the house without realizing the severity of the situations around them, as the mother does not include them as a part of the inside family.

The children are important to Medea only so far as they assist in her reaching her goals. For example, her children are the force which validated her marriage to Jason, which would otherwise have been unofficial because of her non-citizen status. "As a female foreigner whose relationship with Jason was only formalized with the birth of the children, Medea would have been viewed as an irregular companion, and after Jason's betrothal to Glauce, she would be reduced to the status of concubine." (Guastella in Claus) This makes them a helpful tool in securing her bond to Jason.

Another means by which they can be useful props for Medea is when she sends them carrying poison to their new step-mother. Medea spends time with them to make and carry out plans to kill her enemies, but she does not spend time with them out of love. "Jason and Medea's two children function as her primary props, her greatest source of power." (Taggle)