Filicide in Medea
Reflective Statement #3
In “Medea” by Euripides, Medea end up committing filicide. At the end of the play she kills both of her children. She claims that she does it to prevent their humiliation and her being embarrassed by her peers. I’ve learned that in most cases the mother is the one who commits filicide. That makes sense to me that it is more likely for Medea to kill the kids than Jason. I learned that in most cases of filicide the child is under six years old. In the play Medea specifically mentions her children’s future. She think about how much they could’ve done with their live because they are so young. Medea breaks one of the common points of filicide because of the reasoning behind killing her kids. She doesn’t kill them because of gender or financial problems like most parents do. I see this as another way that Medea breaks social norms. I have learned in the presentations that many parents that commit filicide have had frequent depression. Clearly this is a reason behind why Medea does what she does. She has had a very traumatic experience with Jason and it has affected her decisions. She is in an unstable state and I think she is crazy to get to the point of killing her kids. Which leads to the fact that in about 85% of filicide cases the murderer has psychotic traits. I have seen some of these traits in Medea already and I think that connects with the resources that talk about filicide. Although Medea connects with many of the characteristics of filicide, she breaks that point that only about 15% of the murderers have criminal histories. Medea has already killed her family and plans to kill Jason’s new wife, so this isn’t something new for her; but she is talking it to an extreme this time. Medea possesses many traits that relate to filicide. This helps me connect her reasoning and process of killing her children.
Word Count: 334
In “Medea” by Euripides, Medea end up committing filicide. At the end of the play she kills both of her children. She claims that she does it to prevent their humiliation and her being embarrassed by her peers. I’ve learned that in most cases the mother is the one who commits filicide. That makes sense to me that it is more likely for Medea to kill the kids than Jason. I learned that in most cases of filicide the child is under six years old. In the play Medea specifically mentions her children’s future. She think about how much they could’ve done with their live because they are so young. Medea breaks one of the common points of filicide because of the reasoning behind killing her kids. She doesn’t kill them because of gender or financial problems like most parents do. I see this as another way that Medea breaks social norms. I have learned in the presentations that many parents that commit filicide have had frequent depression. Clearly this is a reason behind why Medea does what she does. She has had a very traumatic experience with Jason and it has affected her decisions. She is in an unstable state and I think she is crazy to get to the point of killing her kids. Which leads to the fact that in about 85% of filicide cases the murderer has psychotic traits. I have seen some of these traits in Medea already and I think that connects with the resources that talk about filicide. Although Medea connects with many of the characteristics of filicide, she breaks that point that only about 15% of the murderers have criminal histories. Medea has already killed her family and plans to kill Jason’s new wife, so this isn’t something new for her; but she is talking it to an extreme this time. Medea possesses many traits that relate to filicide. This helps me connect her reasoning and process of killing her children.
Word Count: 334