Theme Of Betrayal In Medea And Ozymandias

The short play “Medea” and the poem “Ozymandias,” both emphasize the same theme of betrayal. Both the poem and the play show the ability to make the audience feel sympathy for Medea and the sculptor in Ozymandias. The acts of betrayal that are shown in both of these readings are similar but are expressed in different ways.

In the poem Ozymandias, the speaker remembers when he met a traveler “from an antique land,” this traveler tells him a story about the ruins of a statue that stands in the desert of his native country. The statue stands “two vast and trunkless legs of stone” without a body, nearby lies the head half sunk into the sand. The traveler sees the face of the statue as it indicates the emotions of the sculptor. The traveler could understand the emotions of the lifeless statue that stood on the pedestal. On the pedestal the words “My name is Ozymandias, king of kings.” The idea of betrayal is clearly shown here because the sculptor clearly shows his emotions as he stamped them into the lifeless statue that he created which travelers pass and feel sculptors’ emotions. They see this statue and feel the same emotions that the sculptor felt when he created this piece in the middle of the “lone and level” desert. The death of the sculptor and his subjects show betrayal in the decaying statue and the emptiness of his life and the empty area which surrounds this statue..

The play Medea also shows the key idea of betrayal because Medea herself reminds Jason of what she did for him in the past and how she has taken revenge for his betrayal. When Jason abandons her, he not only dishonors her, because a divorced woman is not respected, but also deprived her of an identity. She later “betrays her own city” for him in exile will be dependent on the help of king Aegeus. With the lack of shame and refusal to credit the help she gave him it clearly shows acts of betrayal. She also “kills her brother and betrayed her father” to help Jason. Medea then manipulates the daughters of Pelias into killing him and then uses her sons to deliver her deadly gift to the princesses and then kills the sons to make Jason suffer. Medea uses trickery and manipulation which are forms of betrayal to show her magical powers and execute revenge on Jason.

Both the sculptor and Medea show betrayal in different ways, Medea wants to prove herself so she uses acts of betrayal to try and plan revenge on Jason. The sculptor shows betrayal when he leaves the remains of his work in the lone and leveled sand far away.