Medusa Case

The poem portrays the theme possession especially when Medusa is describing herself in the first stanza. 'Suspicion, Doubt, a Jealousy' the emphasis on the feeling of betrayal shows the extent of her grief, this shows that Medusa is possessed by the thought of her husband betraying her, which therefore caused her to develop terrible physical characteristics. She then describes these emotion as 'grew in my mind' this means that jealousy grows as we go along the poem. The destructive power of jealousy transforms her hair into 'filthy snakes' which are also described as possession over her thoughts 'hissed and spat on my scalp', Medusa also uses this metaphor to emphasize the transformation of her hair as hissing and spitting is the sound of a snake.

Medusa is also described as a monster in this poem; she describes her transformations further in the nest stanza suggesting that she has started to rot. She describes her smell as 'soured, foul, stank', these words suggest a rancid and unpleasant smell, conveying an image of discomfort and disgust. Imagery is then used to further describe her features such as 'foul mouthed now, foul tonged, yellow fanged' this is referring to her mouth as being dirty, horrid and decomposing. 'I stared in the mirror', completing the sequence of verbs beginning with 'glanced' and 'looked'. She sees her head as a mountain whose mouth is a volcano. This also is a description of a monster.