The ethics of compassion and desperation: a contemporary reading of the tragedy of Medea

Abstract

Medea murders her children as revenge against Jason, who betrayed and abandoned her. This act turns her into a morally ambiguous subject: treacherous, vengeful and outside the law. In her collection of poems Medea, Chantal Maillard revisits the myth to explore the ethics of compassion and justice in extreme situations. For Maillard, compassion is not compassion, but an active attitude that recognizes the suffering of the other without justifying his or her actions.

Judith Butler, drawing on Emmanuel Levinas, brings another perspective on compassion and the ethics of the «face of the other». The face is not only appearance, but an ethical demand that interpellates and demands a response. However, this response becomes problematic when the face is dehumanized. In Medea, her face reflects pain and despair, but it can also be seen as an ignored or rejected cry.

Medea's ethical paradox confronts us with a difficult question: can we feel compassion for someone who, out of her suffering, commits atrocities? Her story forces us to question the limits of compassion and our ability to recognize the pain of others, even when it translates into destruction.