Memory is fickle. Rarely can one remember in detail the past few months, let alone the past few years, and to even attempt to remember one's birth is absurd. Given human nature's curiosity with the unknown it is no wonder that "all children mythologize their birth," as Miss Winter says; it is easily the greatest unknown in one's life. This is particularly true for Aurelius Alphonse Love. Abandoned on the porch of the grandmotherly Mrs. Love in a game bag with only some scraps of paper, a silver spoon and the scent of smoke, Aurelius must contend with the mystery surrounding his birth. From an early age, Aurelius was compelled by his empty past to find his family. In the complex novel The Thirteenth Tale, Diane Setterfield employs Aurelius' …show more content…
Near the finish of the novel he tells Margaret that, "All my life I have wanted to find my family" (391). Obvious as it is, given Aurelius' actions, it is clear that he differentiates between finding "a" family and "his" family. Aurelius was raised, surrounded by motherly dedication of Mrs. Love who did everything but birth him, yet even so he feels the need to find "his" family. Blinded by this obsessive need, Aurelius turns away from the family he already has, refusing to allow himself to feel complete without his birthmother, even aware as he is that she abandoned him. Fueled by the inadequacy of the family he has, Aurelius devotes obscene amounts of time scouring his meager "inheritance," a few pages torn from Jane Eyre, for clues. When speaking to Margaret, Aurelius uses the past tense; he "used" to think there was a secret meaning. While this implies that he no longer believes so, as he already "tried the first letter of each word, the first of every line" and "replacing one letter for another," covering a multitude of sheets with his trials, he still turns the pages with his "eyes feverish, as though there was still a chance he might see something that had escaped him before" (234). Tormented by uncertainty and plagued by his own ignorance, Aurelius is obsessed with uncovering his past and even sixty odd years …show more content…
When he confronts Miss Winters on the subject of his past, she describes him as sweating and sickening for the truth with his eyes "glistening with an intent fever" (7). Aurelius is entirely invested in his past, he lives and breathes with the all encompassing need to understand his beginning. Miss Winter sends him away with a lie and he "shuffled away up the street, shoulders drooping, head bowed, each step a weary effort. All that energy, the charge, the verve, gone" (8). Similarly, this same downtrodden state is present again the last time Margaret sees Aurelius. Sad and pale, he says, "I've worn myself out on wild goose chase" (391). All-consumed, Aurelius allows his unyielding need for information to rule his life, allowing it dictate what he talks about and where he goes. He wanders his birthplace, haunting the ruins akin to the way his own past haunts him. Like an unhealthy addiction he lives off of information about his past, cherishing connections to it and despairing when he winds up empty-handed. Unable to function without knowledge, Aurelius gives his absent family too much power. His obsession, his abandonment, his birth, was everything to him and without it he is a hollow shell; when all his searching turns up fruitless, he has worn himself down to nothing. Aurelius invested his entire life into figuring out his past, futile as it was; wasting his future
In Dryden's Lucretius, the speaker argues that (1) Love is a sickness, (2) Love's sickness enslaves, and (3) all attempts to remedy Love's sickness are vain and will only frustrate the lover. Just as Milton's Adam and Eve become enslaved to sin by disobeying God, so mankind becomes enslaved to Love when pierced with Cupid's "winged arrow". In Milton, there is redemption and freedom through Christ, but in Dryden, no salvation from love is possible. This poem leaves mankind in a hopeless, frustrated state, unable to break free from love's yoke. This essay will center on the last heroic couplet: "All wayes they try, successeless all they prove,/To cure the secret sore of lingering love".
In Aphra Behn’s Oroonko, and Voltaire’s Candide, love is a subject of prominence; it serves as a starting point for both of these characters. For example, if Candide hadn’t fallen in love with his insatiable beauty, Cunegonde, he would not have been thrown from his home, castle Thunder-Ten-Tronckh, and sent on his dreadful journey across Europe. “The Baron of Thunder-Ten-Tronckh passed by the screen and, talking note of this cause and this effect, drove Candide out of the castle by kicking him vigorously in the backside (Voltaire 356). Throughout the entire story, Voltaire discusses Candide’s impalpable feelings for Cunegonde; he even commits twice to be with his fair maiden. Throughout the entire story, Candid, discusses his impalpable feelings for Cunegonde; he even commits twice to be with his fair maiden. “It was a quick, clear chain of reasoning; without giving the inquisitor time to recover from surprise, he ran him through and laid him beside the Jew” (Voltaire 367). Candid will even leave the “best of all worlds”, Eldorado, to retrieve Cunegonde, from the Governor of Buenos Aires, whom Cunegonde willing accepted a proposal from, thinking only about her own wellbeing. “We have enough to pay off the governor of Buenos Aires-if indeed; a price is placed on Miss Cunegonde” (Voltaire 385). Likewise, Oroonko’s’ love for his beautiful, Imoinda marks the starting point of his unfortunate journey. For example, Oroonko’s lover Imoinda is sent a veil, from his grandfather, the king; the veil signified that Imoinda was now his wife, therefor, she and Oroonoko, were no longer able to pursue marriage. “He sent the royal veil to Imoinda; that is the Ceremony of Invitation: he sends the lady, he has mind to honour with his bed, a vei...
Attitudes Towards Love in Pre-1900 and 1990's Poetry “The Despairing Lover” written by William Walsh was written pre 1900 whilst the second poem “I Wouldn’t Thank you for a Valentine” by Liz Lockhead was written in the 1990’s. These poems are almost a century apart. Attitude towards love changes over time and these poems represent this. I Wouldn’t Thank you for a Valentine is about how people think about Valentine’s Day in the 1990’s, while The Despairing Lover is showing what people think and how important they see love in the 1990’s.
In the Symposium, a most interesting view on love and soul mates are provided by one of the characters, Aristophanes. In the speech of Aristophanes, he says that there is basically a type of love that connects people. Aristophanes begins his description of love by telling the tale of how love began. He presents the tale of three sexes: male, female, and a combination of both. These three distinct sexes represented one’s soul. These souls split in half, creating a mirror image of each one of them. Aristophanes describes love as the search for the other half of your soul in this quote: “When a man’s natural form was split in two, each half went round looking for its other half. They put their arms around one another, and embraced each other, in their desire to grow together again. Aristophanes theme is the power of Eros and how not to abuse it.
The Range of Feelings Associated with Love in Catullus and Lesbia' Poems Of Catullus’s poems, the Lesbia poems are the most memorable, particularly as they contain such a wide range of feelings and emotions. Whilst we do not know what order the poems were written in, it is tempting to arrange them in a progression from constant love, to confusion and despair and finally hatred. Poem 87 appears to be at the beginning of the relationship between Catullus and Lesbia. The symmetry of the couplets beginning “nulla” and ending with “mea est” emphasizes the idea that no one loves Lesbia as much as Catullus. The placement of “nulla” at the beginning of the
Nearly everyone experiences the feeling of love. Whether it’s for another person or for food, almost everyone feels love during their lifetime. In the play Antigone, the writer, Sophocles, illustrates a very important fact regarding love: love is our most important and most dangerous motivation for doing anything, and without moderation, love can be deadly.
The Giver starts off as the ordinary story of an eleven-year-old boy named Jonas. When we meet the protagonist, he is apprehensive about the Ceremony of Twelve, at which he will be assigned his job. Although he has no clue as to what job he might be assigned, he is astonished when he is selected to be the Receiver of Memory. He learns that it is a job of the highest honor, one that requires him to bear physical pain of a magnitude beyond anyone’s experience.
The tales of King Arthur and many of their numerous characters are well known in literature. The Arthurian world is one of the great myths of modern times. Those great pieces of literature have many common themes, one of them being courtly love “L’amour Courtois”. This paper talks of courtly love as seen in King Arthur’s world especially examining “Yvain or the Knight with the Lion” and “Lancelot: or the Knight of the Cart”. Furthermore, one of the goals is to show how that courtly love could be seen in today in our world.
Heather Love starts her essay, “That there is perhaps no term that carries more value in the humanities than ‘rich’. In literary studies, especially, richness is an undisputed - if largely uninterrogated good…” (371). She uses the word rich and richness multiple times since it is connected with interpreting and deep reading, but the critic loses richness, when he practices surface reading.
“Accordingly, two cities have been formed by two loves: the earthly by the love of self, even to the contempt of God; the heavenly by the love of God, even to the contempt of self. The former, in a word, glories in itself, the latter in the Lord.” (14.28) Love, in a present-day definition is normally a good thing. According to the brilliant St. Augustine, that would depend on the nature of the love in understanding. In his book, The City of God, Augustine skillfully drew upon two loves: on one hand, a love which is holy: agape, unselfish love, and on the other hand a love which is unholy: distorted love of self; selfishness. Augustine identifies with unselfish love, which is holy love, the love of God, and following God’s rules according to the bible. As contrasted to its opposite, love of self is to the point of contempt of God and neighbor in which these two loves conflict. In this essay, I will give a brief background of the author; I will be discussing the topic of love in The City of God, but more specifically, Augustine’s perception of self-love.
Shakespeare’s plays are very drastic with how he ties love into them. Shakespeare always adds comedy or tragedy to any romance that might be taking place. For example in Twelfth Night, As You like It and Romeo and Juliet there is romance but he also puts comedy in there so love is not that easy. In the play Othello he makes it into a tragedy which makes the love even harder to take place. Shakespeare has always found a way to make love as complicated as he can which leads me to believe that he feels that you must work for love and it should not be handed to you. Love is already complicated, but when Shakespeare is involved he makes sure at least two things come around that can make it harder for those who are in love to actually stay in love.
True love is not found within the goals of economic survival or societal gains, rather it is found when two individuals unite in marriage because they have a genuine affection for each other. In her novel, Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen depicts what love in a traditional Victorian era would be defined as. Austen displays love as the center of attention for all of society, along with the influences society has on it. Through various characters, such as Mr. Collins and Mrs. Bennet, Austen demonstrates how money and status can largely shape love and the idea of who to love. Yet, with the characters of Jane and Bingley, Austen conveys, in the end, that true love results not from economic necessity or societal gains, but from a sincere affection.
from the rest in that they describe a love that has ended or will end
George Herbert’s poem ‘Love (III),’ published posthumously in a collection of his works entitled The Temple, centres around a dialogue between two characters. The characters are that of Love and an unnamed speaker, who most likely represents Herbert himself. Love, an abstract principle, is here the personification of God and exists as a tangible entity. In ‘Love (III),’ Love is acting as host to the unknown guest, who henceforth will be called the guest. This essay will discuss the poem’s argument, as well as the language and literary techniques Herbert utilises to reinforce his argument.
The Theme of Love in the Poems First Love, To His Coy Mistress, Porphyria's Lover, My Last Duchess and Shall I Compare Thee?