Year: 1990
Type: article
Abstract: In Western culture, the tragedy of Medea is a powerful vehicle for questioning the idea that a truly loving mother would not commit infanticide.The tragedy of Medea is the tragedy of all women whose lives are defined and constrained by the actions and choices of the men around them.Once obedient to father and brother, Medea was compelled by the gods to betray them and her country in order to help another man, Jason, secure the golden fleece.However, despite her continued love and support of Jason, neither Medea nor her sorcery could bind the loyalty of the man who had benefited so often from her assistance.When Jason forsook her for the daughter of a powerful king, Medea took revenge by arranging the bride's death.Medea knew that Jason would seek retribution and that she would have to flee her husband's country.Already exiled from the land of her birth, Medea feared that, wherever she and her sons went, her helpless sons would be taken as slaves.Believing it better that they die by the hand of their mother than the merciless hand of a stranger, Medea steeled herself and killed them.There are many parallels between Medea's decisions and those of Fumiko Kimura, a Japanese woman living in California who drowned her two young children shortly after learning of her husband's longstanding infidelity.'As in the story of Medea, Fumiko singularly devoted herself to her husband.2 Like Medea, Fumiko's decision to kill her children was tinged with revenge against her husband and despair for her children's future.And, like Medea, Fumiko believed she was entitled to bring death to the beings to whom she had brought life.Nevertheless, there are at least three major differences between
Source: UCLA Pacific Basin Law Journal
DOI: 10.5070/p881021960
Author: Taimie L. Bryant
Institution: University of California, Los Angeles
Language: English
Topic: Japanese History and Culture
Subfield: Cultural Studies
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: bronze
OpenAlex ID: W2765475771