Medea: Passion vs. Reason

Medea Passion vs. Reason The passions are like fire, useful in a thousand ways and unreliable only in one, with their excess, stated Christian Nestell Bovee a famous mid-19th century author. Logic, like whiskey, loses its beneficial effect when interpreted in too large quantities, stated Lord Dunsany a famous Anglo-Irish writer during the 1900s. These quotes demonstrate a strong theme in the Greek play Medea written by Euripides. In the play Medea, the protagonist Medea learns that her husband Jason breaks every vow and betrays her by taking another woman to bed.Feeling offraged and hurt, Medea decides to take revenge. She carries out her intent successfully and the play concludes with Medea escaping finish to Athens. Throughout the play, two distinct concepts of beliefs and point of views are revealed in the two main characters of the play, Medea and Jason. Medea sees the world through the views of passion whereas Jason sees the world through the views of yard. The main char acters express an extremity of either passion or precedent which leads them to their witness down settle moreover, through some(prenominal) Medea and Jasons actions, the efficiency and weakness of each attribute is revealed.According to the Oxford Dictionary, passion is define as a strong and barely controllable emotion and a state or burst of strong emotion. The protagonist of the play, Medea, demonstrates an excessive passion which leads her to destruction. The strongest factor that contributes to Medeas un primerable passion is her uttermost(prenominal) turn over it away for Jason. In the beginning of the play the nurse mourns that, Medeas heart on fire with passionate dear for Jason nor would she have persuaded the daughters of Pelias to kill their father and she herself helped Jason in every way (P. 1).The protagonist passionate love for Jason deceives her thoughts and leaves her with slide fastener but hope for Jasons love. However, Medeas hope strips and shatters to pieces when she learns that Jason has left her for another woman. Medea explains to the chorus that, It has broken her heart. She is finished. (P. 8). Medea simply wishes to die. However, Medeas suicidal bear in mind fades away as her excessive passion feeds upon her hatred and rage which leads her to uncalled acts of revenge. She calls out to the gods to pray that she may see Jason, him and his bride and their entire place hattered for the wrong they dare to do her without cause (P. 6). prompt by animosity, Medea successfully murders the Princess and the king. However, lost in the sea of hatred Medea then decides to kill her own children (P. 26). From her own actions, Medea destroys everything that she cares for due to an excessive in both love and hatred. Medeas superfluous love makes her sacrifice her family, status, and home. Furthermore, Medeas actions due to hatred destroy her future. For example, to achieve ultimate revenge, Medea kills her own two sons to make Jason suf fer.However, at the identical time Medea whole tone the pain herself. She shares in Jasons sorrow (P. 44). The killing of her own children will make her smelling a invigorationlong agony. For Medea, love does not simply turn to abhorrence. A main cause of this explosive shift in passion is Jasons betrayal. Also to Medea, it is her redundant and hurtful pride that unleashes the hate inside(a) her. Many times throughout the play Medea expresses For it is not bearable to be mocked by enemies (P. 26). Medea cannot allow others to trick at her misfortune and only through the murder of her enemies could she feel redeemed and her pride restored.Reason defined by Oxford Dictionary means to think, understand and form judg custodyt logical systemally. Through his own excessive reasoning, the resister of the story, Jason, falls to destruction. Firstly in his mind, Jason sees everything to be explained by reason. Jason betrays Medea by marrying the Princess of Corinth. His purpose for s uch a insensate hearted action is simply that they might live well, and not be short of anything (P. 18). To Jason, all the betraying is just a desperate act in hope to have what is best for the family. Secondly, in Jasons mind he never expects Medea to act irrationally because he neglects her feelings.In Jasons eyes it would have been for better far for men to have gotten their children in some other way, and women not to have existed (P. 18). Jason believes that the only reason and decreed issue of marriage is children. Another example is when Jason argues that, women have got such a state of mind that, if their life at night is good, they think they have everything but, if in that quarter things go wrong, they will consider their best and truest engagement most hateful (P. 18). Jason thinks that Medea is outraged because he took another woman to chamber. In addition, because he disregardedMedeas love for him, he does not take into consideration that it is his betrayal that o utrages Medea. Having too much reasoning and too humble passion, Jason is left with nothing but hopeless and misery. Jasons inability to see Medeas revenge causes him to fall from the top to the bottom leaving him with nothing no power, wealth, family, bloodlines and respect. In his last conversation with Medea, Jason cries that, for him remains to prognosticate aloud upon his fate, who will get no pleasure from his newly wedded love, and the boys whom he begot and brought up, never shall he speak to them alive.Oh, his life is over (P. 44). Medeas final blow to Jasons life is providing him with a prophecy about his death. In his character, Jasons ratio of reason to passion is surely not proportional which blinds him from seeing Medeas unreason thus his downfall resulted. Everyone in society has both passion and reason. No one has one without the other. some(prenominal) passion and reason have its own strengths and weakness which expresses through the main characters of Medea. T hrough the behaviors of Medea, many strength and weakness of passion are seen.For Medea, Passion is able to become strength and motivation for her reprisal. In text, Medeas abundant love for Jason causes her to do anything for him, including sacrificing her own family. On the other hand, Medeas excessive hatred overpowers her mind and becomes overboard with her actions. For instance, Medea plans Next after killing the princess for she shall kill her own children (P. 26). Medea killing her own children will surely be the most evil act of humanity and all result from immoderate passion. Also, positive and negative aspects of logic are shown through Jasons arguments.Strength of being rational is to be able to think about the positive and negative of things before making a decision. For example, when Jason arrives here from the land of Iolcus he is, in every kind of difficulty, he exclaims, what luckier chance could he have come across than this, an exile to marry the daughter of the k ing? (P. 18). The outcomes of Jasons plan have far more advantages than disadvantages. However, an extremity of reasoning may lead to neglecting the feelings of others. For instance, Jason neglects Medeas love.Even though both have positive and negative aspects, in Euripides view having excessive passion is better than excessive reasoning. He consummates the play with Medea having her triumph and escaping to Athens with such a chariot has Helius, her fathers father tending(p) her to defend from her enemies (P. 43). With Medea having the final victory, readers may tell that Euripides chooses passion over reason. One may think, without the ability to feel and to have emotions, human would be no different from robots. These qualities are what make one human.The play Medea justifies both Christian Nestell Bovees point, The passions are like fire, useful in a thousand ways and dangerous only in one, through their excess and Lord Dunsanys view, Logic, like whiskey, loses its beneficial e ffect when taken in too large quantities . The extremity of passion and reason are revealed in the play Medea. Jason contend a role of a rationalist and Medea an irrationalist. Via Medeas superfluous passion, disastrous events occur in which sin and grief will accompany Medea for the rest of her life. On the other hand, Jason is left with nothing due to his shrill logical mind.His inconsideration for feelings and desire for acquisition are all causes of Jasons denouement. Through the events in the story, properties, reason and passion have its own strength and weakness. Too much passion could lead to poor choices. On the contrary, de trop reasoning could lead one to a stone-heart. Both Jason and Medea possess an extremity of passion or reason which proves to be their hamartia. Even though each attribute has its own strength and weakness people should have a harmonic balance between reason and passion. Only then would one be exalted in making decisions. Just like in life, everyth ing needs to have a balance.