Power Of Medea In Ovid's Metamorphoses

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Recommended: The metamorphosis analysis

The biggest theme in Metamorphoses by Ovid is, not surprisingly, transformation. These characters work toward transformation in order to end up as something completely unlike what they started as. Medea, however, doesn’t exactly fit that bill. One could say that Medea avoids the transformation of herself, but instead possesses the power of metamorphoses and uses it to her own advantage. Medea seems like a familiar story: a woman falls in love, the love changes her, and ultimately, pride and corrupted love becomes her downfall. However, the more one investigates Medea, the more they realize that she is much more complex than that. Medea is one of the most cunning and manipulative characters we read about. She makes Jason promise to marry her before he helps him, she betrays her father in order for Jason to love her, and she ultimately kills her children as the perfect revenge on Jason. …show more content…

She uses her power to escape from the consequences of the actions she has committed. However, instead of transforming, she really is just maintaining the manipulative, vengeful persona that she has kept from the very beginning. She’s a woman with a plan, and one can tell this from the very first soliloquy. She states that she is falling in love, and then proceeds to explain the conflict between wanting to do what she knows is right (not betray her father) and wanting to do what she wants (help

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