Theme Of Love In The Glass Room

3980 Words8 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Gender and sexuality in literature

Love is significant in people’s lives. Many forms of love are in their relationships with others, whether it is romantic, platonic, sexual or a mixture of all the above. When someone experiences love intensely for the first time, the feeling can send them into a euphoric shock. A natural concept that young lovers feel is that their relationships are transparent and their love is unconditional. However, Simon Mawer points out that budding relationships progress to eventual collapse due to sexual frustration and a want to avoid confrontation, consequently leading to the questioning of an existence of any emotional connection whatsoever. In the novel The Glass Room, Mawer introduces multiple characters with different relationships with one another. …show more content…

Ultimately, these characters feel the effects of one’s unfaithfulness and inability to confess to such thoughts, leading to emotional turmoil for all. A large part of romantic relationships revolves around the physical way of proclaiming love for the other. Consensual sexual intercourse is an intimate activity, indicating that both partners have grown a trust in the other. Nonetheless, sex is merely a pure indulgence for some and does not prove that profound emotions exist. Those who do not share the same ideologies regarding enduring physical and emotional attraction experience the effects of psychological contagion: when one’s feelings and behaviours directly trigger others correspondingly. The result is a creation a tension between both parties, causing both to act drastic, which is what happens to Viktor and Hana. For the duration of Liesel’s pregnancy with their first child, Viktor becomes distant from her; his attraction towards Liesel shifts. Liesel comments that “…he treats her with a kind of remote sterility, as though she was some kind of virginal mother about to give birth to the Messiah or something” (44). Liesel is ‘virginal’ in Viktor’s eyes; not displaying the same kind of affection towards her as he did before. After the birth of the child, Viktor distances

Show More
Related

  • Comparing Relationships In 'The Manhunt And One Flesh'

    908 Words  | 2 Pages

    Elizabeth Jennings, author of “One Flesh”, uses the idea of love diminishing over time in order to represent a difficult relationship between the couple. For the couple are “lying apart now, each in a separate bed”, suggesting the separation has gradually increased over a prolonged period of time perhaps caused by domestic tension consequently resulting in a strangely uncomfortable dissipation of the intimacy and closeness they once possessed. This is a literal and metaphorical representation of the isolation and emotional distance that has led to the mental and physical solitude. Another example of the waning of love is the “Silence between them

    Read More

  • Comparing Relationships in Susan Minot's Lust and Coraghessan Boyle's Carnal Knowledge

    1356 Words  | 3 Pages

    This quote from Minot summarizes the love affairs in her short story "Lust" and T. Coraghessan Boyle's short story "Carnal Knowledge." The protagonists in these stories go to great lengths to please their significant others hoping to find loving, fulfilling relationships. They make sacrifices and relinquish certain degrees of power to find happiness, only to discover that this happiness is temporary. Both authors use literary techniques to enhance these themes. The short stories "Lust" and "Carnal Knowledge" maintain that relationships that lack an honest, loving foundation and a lack of balance of power end abruptly and cause pain and loneliness.

    Read More

  • Separation Anxiety and Attachment in Infants and Toddlers

    2903 Words  | 6 Pages

    Karen, R., (1998). Becoming Attached: First Relationships and How They Shape Our Capacity to Love. New York: Oxford Press.

    Read More

  • Egyptian And Chinese Poem Analysis

    956 Words  | 2 Pages

    Love and affection is an indispensable part of human life. In different culture love may appear differently. In the poem “My god my lotus” lovers responded to each other differently than in the poem “Fishhawk”. Likewise, the presentation of female sexuality, gender disparity and presentation of love were shown inversely in these two poems. Some may argue that love in the past was not as same as love in present. However, we can still find some lovers who are staying with their partners just to maintain the relationship. We may also find some lovers having relationship only because of self-interest. However, a love relationship should always be out of self-interest and must be based on mutual interest. A love usually obtains its perfectness when it develops from both partners equally and with same affection.

    Read More

  • Binaries Of Love Essay

    1410 Words  | 3 Pages

    The Lais of Marie de France is a compilation of short stories that delineate situations where love is just. Love is presented as a complex emotion and is portrayed as positive, while at other times, it is portrayed as negative. The author varies on whether or not love is favorable as is expressed by the outcomes of the characters in the story, such as lovers dying or being banished from the city. To demonstrate, the author weaves stories that exhibit binaries of love. Two distinct types of love are described: selfish and selfless. Love is selfish when a person leaves their current partner for another due to covetous reasons. Contrarily, selfless love occurs when a lover leaves to be in a superior relationship. The stark contrast between the types of love can be analyzed to derive a universal truth about love.

    Read More

  • Whats Love Got To Do With It; Everything!

    1453 Words  | 3 Pages

    This passage marks the first of several types of love, and gives us an intuitive

    Read More

  • The Gargoyle

    1563 Words  | 4 Pages

    There exists no power as inexplicable as that of love. Love cannot be described in a traditional fashion; it is something that must be experienced in order for one to truly grasp its full enormity. It is the one emotion that can lead human beings to perform acts they are not usually capable of and to make sacrifices with no thought of the outcome or repercussions. Though love is full of unanswered questions and indescribable emotions, one of the most mystifying aspects of love is its timeless nature. Love is the one emotion, unlike superficial sentiments such as lust or jealousy, which can survive for years, or even generations. In the novel The Gargoyle, the author, Andrew Davidson, explores the idea of eternal love between two people, a union that spans over centuries spent both together and apart. Davidson, through the use of flashbacks, intricate plot development and foreshadowing, and dynamic characterization, creates a story that challenges the reader’s preconceived notions regarding whether eternal love can survive even when time’s inevitable grasp separates the individuals in question.

    Read More

  • Blind Pragmatism In Macbeth

    1072 Words  | 3 Pages

    This blind pragmatism then leads to detachment—emotional or physical—from close relationships as these characters advance in their hierarchical societies. Their rise is followed by a final karmic downfall, as both characters pay moral penance at the hands of the victims of their immorality through methods they had employed in their rise.

    Read More

  • E.E. Cumming's Poem I Carry your Heart with Me

    1233 Words  | 3 Pages

    Cummings theme of how strong someones love can be appeals to readers minds, because everyone wants that connection with their partner, That undying love for one another. Some people long for a love...

    Read More

  • Romantic Intimacy: Alan Gillis And Vona Groarke

    1449 Words  | 3 Pages

    Author, Alain de Botton once said, “Intimacy is the capacity to be rather weird with someone - and finding that that's ok with them” (Intimacy). Relationships are founded on an understanding and connection found between two people. Intimacy is often treated as a should be hidden away aspect of relationships. Alan Gillis and Vona Groarke use their poetry to tell the struggles and triumphs of everyday relationships. Both of them do not shy away from portraying the natural and mundane acts that occur in life such as describing the romance and intimacy between people. However, both of them choose to portray romantic intimacy in their own way. In their poetry, Alan Gillis portrays romantic intimacy directly and Vona Groarke depicts romantic intimacy

    Read More

  • Glass Menagerie: Symbolism of Laura’s Fragility and Escapism

    935 Words  | 2 Pages

    Tennessee Williams’ play, “The Glass Menagerie”, depicts the life of an odd yet intriguing character: Laura. Because she is affected by a slight disability in her leg, she lacks the confidence as well as the desire to socialize with people outside her family. Refusing to be constrained to reality, she often escapes to her own world, which consists of her records and collection of glass animals. This glass menagerie holds a great deal of significance throughout the play (as the title implies) and is representative of several different aspects of Laura’s personality. Because the glass menagerie symbolizes more than one feature, its imagery can be considered both consistent and fluctuating.

    Read More

  • Love in Much Ado About Nothing by William Shakespeare

    1211 Words  | 3 Pages

    In this essay I would like to emphasize different ideas of how love is understood and discussed in literature. This topic has been immortal. One can notice that throughout the whole history writers have always been returning to this subject no matter what century people lived in or what their nationality was.

    Read More

  • Almost, Maine: Plot Analysis

    1263 Words  | 3 Pages

    AUTHOR’s fictional setting allows him to explore love through extraordinary, ironic events happening to each resident in their situation.The

    Read More

  • Symbolism in The Glass Menagerie

    1021 Words  | 3 Pages

    Symbolism is an integral part of every play. The author uses symbolism in order to add more depth to the play. In Tennessee Williams’ play, The Glass Menagerie, he describes three separate characters, their dreams, and the harsh realities they face in a modern world. The Glass Menagerie exposes the lost dreams of a southern family and their desperate struggle to escape reality. Everyone in the play seeks refuge from their lives, attempting to escape into an imaginary world. Williams uses the fire escape as a way for the Wingfields, the protagonists of the play, to escape their real life and live an illusionary life. The fire escape portrays each of the character's need to use the fire escape as a literal exit from their own reality.

    Read More

  • Madame Bovary And Like Water For Chocolate Essay

    1554 Words  | 4 Pages

    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.

    Read More

More about Theme Of Love In The Glass Room

Open Document