Blog #2 Response: Eric Blonigen

Revenge is a dirty act. Fueled by boiling emotions and irrational thoughts, revenge is done without thinking about consequences. Though technically revenge can refer to the harmless retribution to a harmless insult, a prank war for example, it is usually used under the connotation that the acts referred to are serious.

I don't believe that you can justify revenge. It is merely an irrational act that prolongs spite. The entire legal system bases itself in the limiting of revenge, with "an eye for an eye" being the excepted maximum, and punishments in practice usually being less. Revenge only breeds hatred, and promotes violence and tragedy down the line as feuds develop. I do not have any personal examples, thankfully, but the fact that the Hatfield-McCoy feud began over a suspected connection between one of the Hatfields in the killing of one of the McCoys and the disputed ownership of a pig is testament to the bloody price revenge takes.

Medea has good reason to hate Jason; He used her to get what he wanted and then left for greener pastures. But her hatred goes beyond a healthy level. Ignoring everything else important, ignoring the many enemies that will be made, ignoring even the fact that technically she was the one responsible for the deaths of her brother and father, she plots to hurt Jason in every way possible. When the best option is to take the high road, she stoops just as low as Jason, maybe even lower. Murdering their kids just to spite Jason, killing his new love and father-in-law, the later of whom is the ruler of the city, just because they were the ones he left her for. She chose a path that could only ever lead to the destruction of herself and everything she ever loved, and treats it as inevitable. Remember, Jason is a chauvinist, philandering scumbag, but Medea is a mass murderer. Which is easier to forgive?