ea's children is certainly caused in part by herbarbarian origins. The main reason that Jason decides to divorce Medea to marrythe princess is that he will have a higher status and more material wealth beingmarried to the king's daughter. (553-554) In other words, Jason believes thatMedea's barbarian origins are a burden to him, because there is a stigmaattached to that. In his mind, having the chance to be rich outweighs the loveof a barbarian wife. Medea's barbarian status is a burden to herself as well.Once separated from Jason, she becomes an outsider with no place to go, becausethe barbarians were not thought too highly of in Greek society. Had Medea notbeen a barbarian, it is likely that Jason would not have divorced her, andtherefore, she would not have had to kill her children. But since she is abarbarian, this sets in motion the events of the play, and in her mind the bestcourse of action is to kill her children. Just because she is non-Greek doesnot necessarily mean that her way of thinking would be different from theGreeks; in other words, her way of thinking did not necessarily cause her tokill her children. Medea deals with the pain that the deaths of her children cause herquite well. She does this by convincing herself that her revenge against herhusband was worth the price of her children's death. When asked about killingher children, she replies, "So it must be. No compromise is possible." (819)This shows that she is bent on revenge, and that she is justifying their deathsto get her revenge. However, she does struggle with her decision to kill them.She is sad that she must take their lives, but also tells herself that it is intheir best interests, as evidenced by what she says to her children: "I wish you happiness, but not in this world." (1073) She does not seem to have a problemwith killing her children once it comes time to actually carry out the act. Buther motherly instincts will not allow her to totally abandon he...
