In Bradshaw Terms who is responsible for the death of the two children in Medea - Essay Example

In Bradshaw Terms who is responsible for the death of the two children in Medea? According to Bradshaw terms, Jason- children’s father- is responsible for the death of the two children in Medea. As Bradshaw says “The family needs a sense of worth, a sense of physical security or productivity, a sense of intimacy and relatedness, a sense of unified structure, a sense of responsibility, a sense of challenge and simulation, a sense of joy and affirmation, and a spiritual grounding” (Bradshaw, 32).

Absence of these virtues can lead to family breaking. Hence, Jason betrayed his family by breaking these virtues- marrying Glauce- hence leading to death of children. As Bradshaw (7) says “Another major factor in family dysfunction is the addiction to power and violence.” This is true because in his explanation to Medea as to why he married another wife, Jason confirmed that he didn’t marry princes due to love but so as to win wealth and power (Euripides &Warner, 52). This led to numerous conflicts which resulted to death of the children.

However, even though Jason was responsible for death of the children, Jason, Medea, Creon and Jason’s father also have blame to the children’s death. For instance, Jason has to be blamed for death of the children by marrying princes due to his disabled will (Bradshaw, 84). Disabled will led to dissociation as we saw Jason leaving his family and married princes hence leading to conflicts that left children dead. Medea on the other hand has to be blamed due to the fact that she was a tool to her father- protect the golden fleese- hence she used her own children as a tool- to get revenge (Bradshaw,77).

She killed her children and says that it was meant for them. She is completely out of control and doesn’t realize that the choice to kill the children is completely hers. Jason’s father also has to be blamed because he had disabled Jason’s will when he was a child. As Bradshaw (85) says, there will be dissociation if child’s will is disabled. Since Jason’s father had disabled Jason’s will when he was a child, Jason dissociated from his family leaving his wife and children to marry princes.

As a result, this led to death of children who Medea used as a tool. Creon is also supposed to be blamed for deaths for of the children. This is because he was easily deceived by Medea’s false self. While Medea had all revenge plans underway, he pretends and pleads for mercy. However, just like children who Bradshaw (10) says that they don’t have to question but follow instruction, he easily felt short of Medea’s false self hence giving her a chance to use her children as a revenge tool by killing them.

In conclusion, Jason is responsible for death of the children. He had created disabled will among his children in that what children wanted didn’t matter. He was not available for his children and family. This as a result led Medea to kill the children saying that it was meant for them and that she didn’t want but she had to kill them. Works CitedBradshaw, John. Bradshaw on the family: A new way of creating solid self-esteem. New York: HCI, 1996, 1-305. Euripides and Warner, Rex. Medea. New York: Courier Dover Publications, 1993, 4-63.