In a similar way, Duffy reminds us that traditional romantic relationships usually end in a restrictive marriage. In Valentine she compared the creamy white rings of the onion with the metal “platinum loops” of a “wedding-ring” which over time will, like the onion rings, “shrink” in size. The negative connotation og the verb ”shrink” suggests that marriage entraps a person and restricts them both physically as well as emotionally, like Martha is in Weekend. Duffy warns others of the consequences of romantic conventions, which can be destructive when compared to free romantic love. Unlike Havisham who perhaps has the thought of marriage on her mind, which stems from the pain of her being dumped at the alter, “Spinster.” The noun is spoken like …show more content…
In Valentine, the simile “like the careful undressing of love” can be interpreted both as a reference to the sexual aspect of the speaker’s relationship, but also the growth of their emotional bond, which the peeling away of clothes and layers of personality may bring. The adjective “careful” suggests tenderness, affection, warmth and sensitivity between the lovers as they gradually allow external barriers to come down and expose their true selves to each other. For Martin sex is enjoyable “Sex! Ah sex. Orgasm, please Martin requires it.” but “orgasm, please,” suggests that Martha has to fake her orgasms just to please Martin, as Martha wouldn’t want “his secretary providing a passion you neglected to develop.” This too, adds to the many insecurities of Martha as it seems sex is not important to her but she has to pretend to enjoy it so that Martin is happy and doesn’t feed into her fear of ending up as a replacement like Janet. To compare, the speaker in Valentines suggests that the sexual aspect of a relationship is something that pleases both partners as it brings the emotional connection together, whereas, Martha in Weekend only uses the sexual aspect of her relationship to please just her husband in order for their relationship to …show more content…
The image of the onion is used to reflect upon the powerful nature of love. The speaker describes love in relationships as having “fierce kiss” this metaphor represents the violence of a possessive and angry kiss, which will “stay on your lips”; the lover is attempting to articulate not only the romantic, positive aspect of love in relationships, but also its more negative, darker associations. There is also the continued allusion to the senses through the taste of the onion, which, just like some romantic relationships, is strong, unpleasant and difficult to erase. As the scent of an onion can be seen as hard to remove, love too can be seen as ‘possessive and faithful.’ It is at this point that Duffy again draws our attention to the contrasting sides of relationships. The adjective ‘possessive’ suggests a sinister side of love; that it can lead to obsession, whilst the adjective ‘faithful’ gives a more positive feeling that love can bring security and trust. Again, Duffy appears to be using her comparison to present the dual nature of love and reflect that relationships will not always remain so pleasing. This is all too clear in Havisham as years later Miss Havisham speaks of “love’s/hate behind a white veil” and warns that she will wreak revenge on the man who hurt her so badly. The “white veil” normally associated with the purity and virginity of a bride has now become something that
“Terminal Avenue” versus “We So Seldom Look on Love” Eden Robinson’s “Terminal Avenue” was published in the anthology or collection of fictional short stories called “So Long Been Dreaming” in 2004. Bose “Terminal Avenue” is a futuristic dystopian short story about a young aboriginal man named Wil, who is torn between his aboriginal community whose traditions are being punished for by the police and or being punished by his family if he becomes a peace officer to survive the adjustment. Barbara Gowdy’s “We So Seldom Look at Love” is a collection of fictional short stories and was published in 1992. (Broadview Press) “We So Seldom Look on Love” collections include a short story about a young woman that lives the life of necrophilia who grew up in a moderately normal childhood until the age of thirteen. Where one day she finds a forceful energy she gets from when life turns into death, and continues to experiment with dead animals and cadavers.
...s that he is “pure onion/ Of outside and in, surface and secret core.” (8-9) stating that there was no secrets to him, which was contrary to the person he was addressing. The onion was real in how he presented itself; very wise and assertive but the person was lost in her imagined truths, seeking an existence not possible. The constant war between the two was a result of the essence of love and the definition each character believed it to be. I presume the onion was trying to articulate his depression. He uttered that if he was causing a great deal of pain to the person then maybe they shouldn’t be together. The person’s definition of love, he could not fulfill and by the end of the poem both were mentally exhausted. The person had taken everything out of the onion and at the same time the person had lost everything that defined her for the sake of finding love.
Robert Nozick’s Love’s Bond is a clear summary of components, goals, challenges, and limitations of romantic love. Nozick gives a description of love as having your wellbeing linked with that of someone and something you love. I agree with ideas that Nozick has explained concerning the definition of love, but individuals have their meaning of love. Every individual has a remarkable thing that will bring happiness and contentment in their lives. While sometimes it is hard to practice unconditional love, couples should love unconditionally because it is a true love that is more than infatuation and overcomes minor character flaw.
Firstly, the literary technique symbolism has been used to represent power. The ruby choker, given to the Bride by the Marquis, is a symbol of power. The Bride describes the choker as a ‘choker of rubies, two inches wide, like an extraordinarily precious slit throat...bright as arterial blood’. This depiction is a useful method of representing the Marquis power because the necklace acts like a collar. This signifies how the Marquis behaves like his Bride’s master. (why master?) An example of the Marquis expressing this power is when the Marquis takes the Bride’s virginity. The Marquis tells the Heroine to wear the choker before consummating their marriage; in relation to power, this shows how the Marquis has the right to her body. Moreover, the overwhelming presence of lilies in the bridal chamber represents the loss of virginity. The quote ‘[mirrors] on the wall...reflected more white lilies that I’d ever seen in my life’ (pg10-11). This exhibits the overpowering image of lilies for the reason that lilies in reality connote death or loss, in the context of the story; this is the loss of the Brides virginity. In addition to this, the resemblance of th...
As the poem progresses, the flower blooms underneath the touch of the man, representing that their passion for each other allows her spirit to bloom just as a flower does. Philip Jason notes the effectiveness of Williams’ metaphor to Queen Anne’s lace, writing, “…it is mainly through metaphor that he transforms his observation, his still life, into a dynamic field of action that reveals the life and energy hidden.” Just as Jason proves, the metaph...
Love is a powerful emotion, capable of turning reasonable people into fools. Out of love, ridiculous emotions arise, like jealousy and desperation. Love can shield us from the truth, narrowing a perspective to solely what the lover wants to see. Though beautiful and inspiring when requited, a love unreturned can be devastating and maddening. In his play, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, William Shakespeare comically explores the flaws and suffering of lovers. Four young Athenians: Demetrius, Lysander, Hermia, and Helena, are confronted by love’s challenge, one that becomes increasingly difficult with the interference of the fairy world. Through specific word choice and word order, a struggle between lovers is revealed throughout the play. In A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Shakespeare uses descriptive diction to emphasize the impact love has on reality and one’s own rationality, and how society’s desperate pursuit to find love can turn even strong individuals into fools.
The article, “Measurement of Romantic Love” written by Zick Rubin, expresses the initial research aimed at presenting and validating the social-psychological construct of romantic love. The author assumed that love should be measured independently from liking. In this research, the romantic love was also conceptualized to three elements: affiliative and depend need, an orientation of exclusiveness and absorption, and finally a predisposition to help.
6. Describe the concept of immature versus mature love using Rilke and Fromm among other sources for elaboration. How does immature love relate to the concept of completing oneself through another? Draw from the Plato's myth of Aristophanes and other sources to illustrate your thoughts.
Karen Horney “Distrust between sexes” proceeds go into the different aspects of Love and Relationships. In this book Horney gives examples on how women deal with emotions which transitions from childhood to adult life. The fundamentals of documentation are displayed in unavoidable ways in most occurrences people run into. People are blind to the fact that love in relationships can be destroyed by overt or covert? In some cases lack of sympathy is then blamed, when relationships don’t work out between two individuals. Some couples fall into social, economic defaults which impacts the relationships. These are issues people never stop to think about, all they want to do is shift the blame to one another in a relationship. Self-preservation is a basic instinct for everyone and is present at birth. This can enhance the natural fear of losing ourselves in a relationship (Horney 1930). In Horney discussions I found that a person only feels despair because of the deep emotions of abundant from “Love” during childhood. That can develop more mixed emotions that turn into mistrust, which causes delusions that tell them they are not getting love from their partner (Horney 1930). With these types of feelings mistrust sips into relationships, starting from a child carries over into adult life. Reasons are when a child comes into the world learns everything it needs to know from its parent. If the child’s emotional needs are not taken care of when the family increases, the child will feel a need to compete for affection from the parents, which could turn into a painful situation. With this being said the child grows into an adult with suppressed aggression. If he/she has not learned how to deal with...
Ninety percent of Americans marry by the time that they are fifty; however, forty to fifty percent of marriages end in divorce ("Marriage and Divorce"). Love and marriage are said to go hand in hand, so why does true love not persist? True, whole-hearted, and long-lasting love is as difficult to find as a black cat in a coal cellar. Loveless marriages are more common than ever, and the divorce rate reflects this. The forms of love seen between these many marriages is often fleeting. Raymond Carver explores these many forms of love, how they create happiness, sadness, and anything in between, and how they contrast from true love, through his characters in "What We Talk About When We Talk About Love". Four couples are presented: Mel and Terri, Nick and Laura, Ed and Terri, and, most importantly, an unnamed elderly couple; each couple exhibits a variation on the word love.
Even though the speaker is less than thrilled about the “filigree” of hair ribbons she still makes the choice to refer to women as flowers (Line 4). Speaking of women as flowers immediately evokes thoughts within readers of delicateness which appears contrary to what the speaker was saying a few lines prior. However, looking deeper into the lines that read, “…nor twine/ A flower with your strength” readers see that speaker uses contrast to depict the uniqueness of womanhood (Lines 3-4). Here the speaker suggests that yes, woman are gentle, but woman are also very capable and durable much like flowers that withstand rain and wind. Just like men, women can endure and handle situations. So, women’s “flowery” quality is merely an extra advantage that men of those times should not have exuded at all according to
Ferdinand is asked not to have lustful thoughts about Miranda as “Sour-eyed disdain and discord shall bestrew the union of your bed with weeds so loathly that you shall hate it both” meaning that sex before marriage will poison the lovers’ marriage bed so that they will both grow to loathe it. So they have to be careful, and make sure they respect the holy institution of marriage and the lifelong vows that it entails. In direct translation, the metaphorical “weeds” that would be strewn across their bed if they had sexual intercourse before marriage, as opposed to the well known phrase “a bed of roses” that they would have if they waited until after their wedding. Shakespeare has used the word “weeds” to show that nothing good can come from the union of the lovers’ bodies, weeds are unwanted and disliked by any gardener, whereas roses are beautiful and symbolic of all that is pure.
The overriding theme of the play "A Midsummer Night's Dream" by William Shakespeare deals with the nature of love. Though true love seems to be held up as an ideal, false love is mostly what we are shown. Underneath his frantic comedy, Shakespeare seems to be asking the questions all lovers ask in the midst of their confusion: How do we know when love is real? How can we trust ourselves that love is real when we are so easily swayed by passion and romantic conventions? Some readers may sense bitterness behind the comedy, but will probably also recognize the truth behind Shakespeare's satire. Often, love leads us down blind alleys and makes us do things we regret later. The lovers within the scene, especially the men, are made to seem rather shallow. They change the objects of their affections, all the time swearing eternal love to one or the other. In this scene Shakespeare presents the idea that both false love and true love can prevail..
Love plays a significant role in the life of the average person. There are both positive and negative effects of love. Both the novel Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen, and the poem “To My Dear and Loving Husband,” by Anne Bradstreet have similar ideas and qualities. Although they are different, both pieces of literature tie to the common theme, love. The poems’ explanation of love helps to highlight the growth of Elizabeth’s love throughout the novel.
Eavan Boland’s poem “Love” comes from her collection entitled In a Time of Violence. In the piece Boland both reflects on the history of her and her husband’s love and ties it in with the story of a hero who travels to hell. The poem’s form is stanzaic, broken into 7 stanzas with 38 lines. “Love” is rich with metaphor, simile, personification and imagery. The poem makes constant allusion to Greek Mythology, and the author’s story runs parallel to that of Odysseus from Homer’s “The Odyssey” . Boland is able to convey the journey loves take throughout the course of a relationship and how it is affected during difficult times.