Pain for Pleasure Endured

Pain for Pleasure Endured

The intricate and complex nature of the relationship between pain and pleasure has been a source of contention and diversity of opinion for people of all eras. Shakespeare’s character Othello claims that "tis happiness to die." (Act 5 ln 295). In his situation the painful experience of dying is what he considers pleasure, he later verifies his belief in his statement by choosing to stab himself. Sir Philip Sidney, in his poem Astrophil and Stella states that "in my woes for thee thou art my joy" (108 ln 14). Astrophil finds his pleasure in the pain of his unrequited love for Stella. The complex relationship between pleasure and pain is reflected in the twenty-first century in addition to the Renaissance era. The Amish people choose to live in a world without modern conveniences and pleasures as they are acknowledged in the twentieth-first century. People who are taught from a very young age the dangers and health hazards contained in smoking continue and "Tobacco use remains the leading preventable cause of death in the United States, causing more than 400,000 deaths each year and resulting in an annual cost of more than $50 billion in direct medical costs" (http://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/issue.htm). In Wither’s emblem pain and pleasure are presented in a paradoxically coexisting relationship. Thomas More’s Utopia portrays pleasure as an entity unblemished by the experience of pain. Wither’s emblem entitled "By Pain on pleasures we do seize and we by sufferance purchase ease" (http://emblem.libraries.psu.edu/withe023.htm) expresses views on pain and pleasure which are the antithesis of those found in More’s "Utopia."

The divergence in the authors’ viewpoints on the relationship between pain and pleasu...

... middle of paper ...

...ous views. If the Utopians believed Wither to be a "heaven-sent" prophet then perhaps his words, which completely contradict all their views, could be accepted.

Wither uses the image of a rose to reflect the essential idea of pain and pleasure in his poem. He claims that "her sweetness fast is closed in with many thornes." The Utopians would find a violet sweeter without the necessity of fighting thorns to enjoy the beauty. More’s ideal society conflicts strongly with ideals that have permeated society for generations. If pleasure is received without any pain can it be as great as the pleasure that contains the knowledge of the pain?

Works Cited:

Damrosch, David; The Longman Anthology of British Literature. Volume 1. Addison-Wesley Educational

Publishers Inc: 1999.

http://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/issue.htm)

http://emblem.libraries.psu.edu/withe023.htm)