The story of Fences

The story of Fences

The story of Fences revolves around the life of Try and his family. Its main highlights remain the struggle of black men who suffer significant segregation and family life, especially how Troy was unfaithful to his wife. Medea also revolves around the subject of marriage, whereby Jason abandons his wife and two kids to remarry a wealthy daughter belonging to the loyalty. Medea asserts her revenge by killing everyone on the side of Jason, including her two children. The two dramatic plays, however, connect in the use of literary tools such as irony, flashback, and differ in the usage of the motif.

Both writers heavily employ the use of irony in the expression of the characters’ actions. Troy and Medea are expressed as the leading protagonists in each story. Importantly both characters have hidden secrets that others in the play but are well-known by the readers. For instance, Troy keeps a secret intimate affair with Alberta, which his wife does not have a clue about, but the readers understand. Troy later opens up about the relationship to Bono and his wife (Wilson, 2016). The irony, in this case, lies in the aspect that while Troy keeps the same a secret, the audience has an understanding of his activities. Medea, on the other hand, hutches a plan to assert revenge on Jason by killing everyone affiliated to him. She disguises her intentions by bringing gifts to Glauce, whom she hopes will plead with the king for her children to remain in Corinth. While Jason and others only come to find out the plans after the execution, the audience already knows Medea’s plan hence the irony.

Both stories rely on flashbacks to bring the reader to understand the current actions of the given characters. For instance, Try remembers his tough childhood and how he had an unsupportive father. He also remembers his prime years playing football and how those days passed. His frustrations on denying Cory the chance to play in the major league stem from his time as a brilliant player who could not play in the major league due to his skin color. His wife, on the other hand, remembers how much she has sacrificed for him to the point she abandons her interests to make him happy. It is why she cannot observe Troy’s wifely duties after he brings home the baby girl Raynell (Euripides, 1993). On the other hand, Jason’s decisions to leave his family and marry Galuce are founded on the flashback of life before coming to Corinth. He remembers the tough times and sees marrying Glauce as the possible channel to escape the event of turning back to such times. Her flashback also explains Medea’s revenge actions to the tough times she endured supporting Jason. She sees him as ungrateful for forgetting their past and choosing another life. To this point, the aspect of flashback becomes apparent in the current lives of the characters.

The motif of death is, however, different in the two plays. Troy reaffirms that he has passed through tough times and that death was never an option. He does not consider death and thinks of other ways to overcome challenges. Medea, on the other hand, sees death as the fulfilling element to suffering. By killing those close to Jason, she feels she has avenged her pain.

Concluding, the two plays focus on the different lives of the characters. The authors, however, excel in the application of various literary tools. The use of these tools helps improve the delivery of the message to the readers according to the authors’ perspectives.