A Woman Scorned in the Play "Medea"
A Woman Scorned in the Play "Medea"
Love can best be described as a dormant volcano. Most of the time it remains silent and life flourishes around it. If a large enough difficulty should occur, it may turn from a peaceful mountain to a malicious inferno that consumes everything nearby, sometimes even itself. The quote from William Congreve’s The Mourning Bride, “Heaven hath no rage like a love to hatred turned, nor hell a fury like a woman scorned” portrays this view perfectly. This view is supported even further in the plays Medea and Hedda Gabler. In both of these plays the women turn to violence as a means of escape from society. Their new behaviors bring about the destruction of both them and their surroundings. They are the volcano.
In Euripedes’ play, Medea, Jason’s disloyalty causes Medea’s love to become hatred. Medea becomes infuriated by Jason’s lack of devotion to her. She begins focusing on death and devastation. She makes her intentions known by saying “Death. Death is my wish. For myself, my enemies, my children. Destruction.” (Act I, Line 44). She becomes obsessed with vengeance. This transformation from unfailing love to sheer hatred causes Medea to become so enraged that she killed her own sons, just to spite Jason. Medea’s strength is unequalled. She has the courage to kill her own two sons, whom she brought forth into the world. As Congreve says, “Heaven hath no rage like a love to hatred turned”. This is true, because Medea’s rage and power are so great that she kills four people and destroys the life of another. Medea had so much hatred held inside her that when she erupted, much like a volcano, she destroyed everything that was dear and close to her.
In Ibsen’s Hedda Gabler, Hedda is portrayed as a well-off daughter of a general. She is a member of the upper class, and therefore afraid of scandal. She has only one desire in life, to control a man’s destiny; though she has difficulty in controlling her own. She is too fearful of her society to bring forth her true desires. Due to this, she married a man who was, though controlled by his work, acceptable in her society. She is not like Medea, in that she was neither as...