Medea is Not Responsible for her Actions

1.) Medea does not want to do this, having to kill her children, but to her, there is no other choice. It's clear that Medea is stuck between deciding on whether to commit the act or not, after seeing her children smile. "Why do you gaze at me with your eyes, children?" Medea is a mother, and her children's smiles are making her decision that much harder, because seeing her innocent children and "the shining eyes of the children," makes her want to spare them, makes her conflicted. 2.) Medea, after seeing her children's smiles and wanting to spare them, realized another thing. Even if she sacrificed herself, and herself alone, she would still be causing her children pain. Leaving her children with the memory of their mother killing herself would be terrible. They would not know what to think, or feel, just that their mother is no longer with them. Medea even tells herself, her heart, to "leave them alone, wretched heart, spare the children!" 3.) After seeing her children's smiles, Medea realizes that if she killed her children, she would suffer twice as much than who she was actually trying to cause pain: the father. By killing her children herself, she is causing both herself and the children great suffering. Her children having to die at her hands, and her having to kill her own children. It would be very hard for a mother, especially one who raised her children and such high hopes for them, believing it was all for nothing. She even felt "bearing the sharp pains of childbirth" was for nothing. 4.) Not only that, but in Medea's eyes, if she left her children alive, they would be subjected to the "enemy's (the father)," torture and insult: "I swear I'll never leave these children for my enemies to insult and torture!" By saying this, Medea understands what it means to kill herself and leave her children with their father, and she doesn't want to have them deal with that pain and suffering. 5.) Medea cares for her children a lot, and she thinks long and hard about what would happen should she do anything, be it kill herself only, kill herself and her children, or even run away with them. Medea should not be blamed for her actions because she is going through every possible decision and tries to make the best one, deciding, in the end, killing her children and herself. 6.) Medea is only trying to give her children the best life they can, and to Medea, killing her children and then herself seemed like the best way she could keep them safe from further harm. To Medea, by killing her children herself seemed the best way to prevent further harm, and because she was their mother, and since she brought them into the world, an act she felt was for nothing, she believed it was her duty to kill them, rather than anyone else. 7). Therefore, Medea is not responsible for her actions. __________ Controversial Premises: 3 (It is unclear at this point what Medea is trying to do, cause her husband harm or protect and save her children, however, it seems her children stop her from killing them to cause her husband pain) 4 (It is not known exactly how their lives would turn out with their father, if the father even takes them in, but in this time period and the given situation, it is most likely that they will live without their father) 6 (to us, it seems as though there is always another option, but to Medea, and when one thinks about that time period, there is not as many options as there are now). Non-Controversial Premises: 1(it is statement of what she was feeling and what she thought about at that point in time) 2 (again, just Medea trying to reason with herself and her conflicting thoughts) 5 (Another statement to what Medea is feeling and what is going through her head, and what she did)