Throughout "Medea," both Jason and Medea make choices which can be
considered selfish, passionate, reasonable, and sometimes made with careful
judgment. For example, Medea's murder of her brother, her murder of her own
children, Jason's marriage to Glauce, and his acceptance of the fact that Medea
calms down so quickly after being mad at him for marrying Glauce without notifying
Medea first. However, Jason's choices do not have any elements of careful
judgment in them at all and certainly no elements of passion.
When Medea decides to kill her brother to be with Jason, her decision is
based on passion, selfishness, reason and careful judgment. To understand how
Medea is passionate, it is necessary to understand what passion means: a
powerful emotion, such as love, joy, hatred, or anger. This sometimes causes
people to use drastic actions, thherefore clouding their judgment. From this
definition, it can be surmised that Medea is passionate because she is "mad with
love for Jason" and wants to run away with him to Iolchus. This passion causes
Medea is also passionate when she decides to kill her own children. This
time, the passion is an uncontrollable rage at being betrayed by the person she has
loved for so long. She feels betrayed because Jason does not even consult with her
about his decision to marry Glauce and to leave Medea. Controlled by her immense
and unquenchable rage, Medea decides to kill her children to "deal Jason the
Medea is also selfish when she kills her brother. To understand how, the
reader must understand that selfishness is a state of mind when a person only cares
about him/herself. This is truly shown in that particular action because Medea is so
much in love with Jason, that she does not care whom she has to hurt, or murder, to
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