When the concept of love and passion come up in literature, oftentimes the immediate reaction of a reader is one of identification or distance with the work. Love and passion are intimate and thus difficult to render universally in the external world, with the ineffectiveness of language, social and cultural impasses, and a multitude of other issues creating an “otherness” to the literary representation of the love/passion phenomena. The representation of love however, often hides within subtleties that transcend social constructs, or even perceived reality. In Jeanette Winterson’s Written on the Body, we are exposed to, as the book cover explains “love stripped of all of its cliché’s and categories” through ornate metaphor in a real and gripping manner. But also the effectiveness lies within Winterson’s deconstruction of societal and ideological views, which demonstrate how the unconscious impressions of modern ideology regarding love and desire cause immense conflict within one’s self, leading to a passionate anxiety, or also repression of desires through objectification of memory, as the fulfillment of our desires inevitably leads to the expression of mortality, e.g. all human emotions, even love, come to a logical end.
One of the finer points of Written on the Body is the exploration of desire in multiple viewpoints, but from one narrator. The natural erosion of philosophy of the un-named narrator can work to draw in a reader, as there is essentially no judgment. The shoes of the narrator are there to be filled as a voyeur, as a recollection or relatable experience, or as a rejection. The unabashed display of passion against social norms, highlighted vividly in the first pages by the mother of a traditional family scorning t...
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...the experience, a cathartic act of self-preservation aimed towards completion or closure, both unattainable goals, but still a desire in their own right. As quoted by Harold Bloom in The Western Canon, an out of context reference to a Friedrich Nietzsche quote, but applicable here, as the enactment of passion outside of ourselves is always the remnants of the actual experience: “That which we can find world for is something already dead in our hearts; there is always a kind of contempt in the act of speaking” (Bloom 137). Once we identify the source of our passion, and quantify it against our previous experience, essentially “speak” it out within our phenomenological dialog between experience and interpretation, we are essentially the mother on the riverbank, speaking how we should be ashamed of ourselves for such excess and disobedience to traditional structures.
When we think about the force that holds the world together and what makes humans different from animals, one answer comes to our minds - that humans can love. Love is a state of mind that cannot be defined easily but can be experienced by everyone. Love is very complicated. In fact it is so complicated that a person in love may be misunderstood to be acting in an extremely foolish manner by other people. The complexity of love is displayed in Rostand’s masterpiece drama Cyrano de Bergerac. This is accomplished by two characters that love the same woman and in the course neither one achieves love in utter perfection.
Bordo, Susan. "Beauty (Re)discovers the male body." Bordo, Susan. Ways of Reading: An Anthology for Writers. Ed. David Bartholomae and Anthony Petrosky. Ninth Edition. Bedford/St.Martin's, 2011. 189-233.
One of the key components of literature is the usage of elements, these elements of literature provide readers with underlying themes that authors put into their story. Without these elements of literature, the author would have no way to convey their true messages into their works. In Zora Neale Hurston’s story “Sweat”, Hurston uses many elements of literature to convey the seriousness and true relationship of couples that have a history of domestic violence. However, a specific element of literature that Hurston uses are symbols which give readers a clearer understanding of domestic abuse and most importantly, the characteristics of the victim and perpetrator of an abusive relationship. The symbols that Hurston uses in her story are what fortifies her plot and characters in “Sweat”.
In Toni Morrison’s Beloved, love proves to be a dangerous and destructive force. Upon learning that Sethe killed her daughter, Beloved, Paul D warns Sethe “Your love is too thick” (193). Morrison proved this statement to be true, as Sethe’s intense passion for her children lead to the loss of her grasp on reality. Each word Morrison chose is deliberate, and each sentence is structured with meaning, which is especially evident in Paul D’s warning to Sethe. Morrison’s use of the phrase “too thick”, along with her short yet powerful sentence structure make this sentence the most prevalent and important in her novel. This sentence supports Paul D’s side on the bitter debate between Sethe and he regarding the theme of love. While Sethe asserts that the only way to love is to do so passionately, Paul D cites the danger in slaves loving too much. Morrison uses a metaphor comparing Paul D’s capacity to love to a tobacco tin rusted shut. This metaphor demonstrates how Paul D views love in a descriptive manner, its imagery allowing the reader to visualize and thus understand Paul D’s point of view. In this debate, Paul D proves to be right in that Sethe’s strong love eventually hurts her, yet Paul D ends up unable to survive alone. Thus, Morrison argues that love is necessary to the human condition, yet it is destructive and consuming in nature. She does so through the powerful diction and short syntax in Paul D’s warning, her use of the theme love, and a metaphor for Paul D’s heart.
Can a simple emotion such as love be regarded as one of the greatest weapons to create or attain power? It’s a renowned fact that human beings are by nature designed to need, crave, and even require love as part of their survival mechanisms. It comes to no surprise that one of the first accounts of antique poetry maintains love and the craving for it as its main theme; thereby, reinforcing the deep importance that it upholds in the lives of many individuals. Sappho’s “Deathless Aphrodite” clearly epitomizes the suffering and bitterness that arises from an unrequited love. In Sappho’s case, which portrays the case of many, she constantly finds herself in loneliness and despair for though she tries repeatedly, she is only let down recurrently as no one reciprocates the love she gives. It is only the Greek goddess Aphrodite, who holds
Anton Chekhov and Ernest Hemingway both convey their ideas of love in their respective stories The Lady with the Pet Dog and Hills like White Elephants in different ways. However, their ideas are quite varying, and may be interpreted differently by each individual reader. In their own, unique way, both Chekhov and Hemingway evince what is; and what is not love. Upon proper contemplation, one may observe that Hemingway, although not stating explicitly what love is; the genius found in his story is that he gives a very robust example of what may be mistaken as love, although not being true love. On the other hand, Chekhov exposes love as a frame of mind that may only be achieved upon making the acquaintance of the “right person,” and not as an ideal that one may palpate at one instance, and at the another instance one may cease to feel; upon simple and conscious command of the brain. I agree with Hemingway’s view on love because it goes straight to the point of revealing some misconceptions of love.
Eliza Haywood is a visionary. In her set of love letters, Love Letters on All Occasions, Haywood distinctly uses select words, such as metaphors, to subconsciously drive home the message to the reader. Whether it be re-enforcing the relationship between the two writers, or rather undercutting it, the reader understands their relationship more fully thanks to Haywood’s choice words. In Haywood’s collection Love Letters on All Occasions from her novel Fantomina and Other Works, two letters in particular, “Letter XXV” and “Letter XXVII”, Haywood’s use of metaphors and select word choices help to reinforce the sentiment between the writers to the reader.
Love has always been a controversial issue throughout centuries. However, it was, and is, still one of the most popular topics in literature.One cannot help but be reminded of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet when that particular topic is brought up, which is one of the finest examples on this topic. Despite all the literary works written about love, love itself remains unexplained. The questions “why” and “when” is often asked –it can usually be answered vaguely or deeply, but sometimes it remians unanswered. In Pride and Prejudice Jane Austen makes Mr Darcy, who has captured young girls’ hearts for decades, say “I cannot fix on the hour, or the spot, or the look, or the words, which laid the foundation. It is too long ago. I was in the middle before I knew that I had begun.”, which is both very informative and a vague answer, when asked by his love of life. It is vague, because it doesn’t exactly answer the question “when”. On the other hand, it is a perfect answer to describe the mysterious nature of love.
Love has always been a controversial issue throughout centuries. However, it was, and is, still one of the most popular topics in literature. One cannot help but be reminded of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet when that particular topic is brought up, which is one of the finest examples on this topic. Despite all the literary works written about love, love itself remains unexplained. The questions “why” and “when” is often asked –it can usually be answered vaguely or deeply, but sometimes it remains unanswered. In Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen makes Mr Darcy, who has captured young girls’ hearts for decades, say “I cannot fix on the hour, or the spot, or the look, or the words, which laid the foundation. It is too long ago. I was in the middle before I knew that I had begun.” which is both very informative and a vague answer, when asked by the love of his life. It is vague, because it doesn’t exactly answer the question “when”. On the other hand, it is a perfect answer to describe the mysterious nature of love. It proves that in order to be in love, some time for each part to contemplate on the nature of the emotion must pass after two people meet. In other words, if it is described as that romantic “love at first sight” it’s not the love that brings a happily ever after, but merely a form of cursed obsession that leads to disappointing endings.
In Literature and Life, Love is a powerful force. Sans love; feelings, desires and relationships may seem empty. This force however, can also be destructive, even may end a marriage. Marital discord, arising in general, due to infatuation, lust or affection for a third person, may crop up primarily facilitated by adverse familial, economic or societal conditions that do frequently find their mention in the written word. Some of these concerns like family, marriage, sexuality, society and death, are notably illustrated by the authors, Gustave Flaubert in Madame Bovary and Laura Esquivel in Like Water for Chocolate.
The definition of love is not entirely universal. Acclaimed author Jane Austen explores two different types of love through the characters that lead the plot in her novel, Pride and Prejudice. The story surrounds two couples, Bingley and Jane, and Darcy and Elizabeth, who share in their own unique and individual versions of happiness. This essay will aim to explore the effects of the two different types of love, why it matters and how Austen provides commentary on love in general through the actions, decisions and effects of each of her characters.
Here, the distinction is made between the physiological aspect of sex and the meanings inscribed in it. In this discussion, Merleau-Ponty is referenced in explaining that the body continually realizes a set of possibilities. In framing the body in such a manner, one does not merely have or one is not merely a body – one “does” one’s body. However, there is a constraint to these possibilities made by historical conventions. What this means is that when Merleau-Ponty and Beauvoir claim that the body is a historical situation, the body does three things with that historical situation: it does it, dramatizes it, and reproduces it. These can be seen as the elementary structures of embodiment. This embodiment can then be viewed specifically from the perspective of the act of gender. Gender can then be understood differently from the biological sex as gender has a cultural interpretation that is used as a strategy for cultural survival. In its deep entrenchment, gender seems almost natural in the punishments that arise from deviating from acting in a way that creates the very idea of
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.
make a choice between the love of your life and going to a football game, a
According to the principles of Hippocratic medicine passionate love almost invariably turns into ‘love melancholy’ - a form of depression. Moreover, anybody who has experienced falling in love will know something of love’s illness- an emotional roller coaster that seems to carry the occupant between the two extremes of heaven and hell (Paul, 1993, p. 91). Even a superficial examination of artistic works on the theme of love will reveal a striking duality. Love is rarely described as a wholly pleasant experience. It is an amalgam of seemingly incompatible