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.
The Essay on Romeo And Juliet Forbidden Love Leads To Death
Romeo and Juliet: Forbidden Love Leads To Death We just finished reading the play Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare. In this play we are introduced to the tragic story of their forbidden 'love' which ultimately leads to their deaths. Although Romeo and Juliet is considered to be a timeless love story, I find Romeo to be too immature for this to be so. When we are first introduced to Romeo, ...
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 angry nor destructive towards others, but more towards herself. She even says, “Oh, what curse is it that makes everything I touch turn ludicrous and mean?”(Act IV, pg. 171).
She is crying out because she believed that Lovborg had killed himself. When she found out that he hadn’t, she became very depressed. She was happy to hear that he had died, because she believed that it was suicide. If it were so, she would have succeeded in controlling a man’s destiny, but it wasn’t.
Since Hedda’s dream of controlling a man’s destiny was not fulfilled, she decides to kill herself. This is an act of strength, because, for once, she is controlling her own destiny. Hedda is much like the surrounding area of a volcano, because when her life becomes stressful, the volcano erupts and destroys her.
In both Hedda Gabler and Medea, the main character hopes for another character in the play to die. In Medea, Medea wishes for Creon’s daughter’s death. In Hedda Gabler, Hedda wishes for Lovborg’s. They do this because their desires motivate them. Hedda wants control; Medea wants revenge, yet Medea is the only one who succeeds in her desire. Her success ends lives and ruins others, much like a volcano. Hedda, on the other hand, is destroyed by the volcano. Their loves were destroyed, and it caused both to change, but more so for Medea. They both changed from somewhat normal people to people obsessed with revenge and control. They became volcanoes that destroyed and ended lives.
