Love and hate are both emotions that are used in our attempt to express ourselves to certain people. Like it or not, although hate is more sinister of the two, without hate, the scales would be upset. We cannot always get the best of everything. However, in the novel " A Tale of Two Cities" by Charles Dickens, hate only adds to the story's appeal.
In the novel, both emotions are displayed by the characters in the book through the actions they carry out and the words that they speak, even though it can be justified that there are more examples of love than hate. The love between Lucie Manette and her father, as well as that of Charles Darney and Lucie and indeed many other characters are just some of the many examples of love. The more baleful emotion of hate is also revealed many times in the novel, by the French commoners and especially by Madame Defarge when it came to Charles Darney being an aristocrat and the suffering of her own family.
The first strong example of love we read about in the novel is that of Lucie Manette and her father, Dr Manette who has been kept in the Bastille for eighteen years. Lucie meets him with the help of another character, Mr Javis Lorry, and tells her father that his agony is over and that she'll bring him to London and away from his previous sufferings. Later in the story, the night before Lucie is to be wedded to Charles Darney, we learn that Lucie has saved her last day as a single woman to be with her father and to reassure him that she'll still be with him even though she is to be married. "Lucie was to be married tomorrow. She had reserved this last evening for her father, and they sat alone under the plane-tree."( Pg 174 ) Throughout the whole conversation with her father that evening, it is evident that her love for her father prevails even that between Charles and herself. "If I had never seen Charles, my father, I should have been quite happy with you."( Pg 175 )
The affection for her father does not go only one way. Her father's for Lucie is also clear as we can see by the following quote:
"Quite sure my darling! More than that, my future is far brighter, Lucie, seen through your marriage, than it could have been - nay, than it ever
While there are many different emotions, there is one that stands above all others; Hate.
Love is considered a wonderful connection between two people that brings happiness to many. Although without hate no one would realize how marvelous love truly is. Does this mean hate is more powerful than love throughout the world? Hate overpowers love because there may be so much love in this world, but with the tiniest bit of hate everything could be changed in a split second. Hate is an indestructible power that will demolish anything in its way, like it did in The Coffin Quilt, by Ann Rinaldi. Roseanna McCoy and Johnse Hatfield’s love was simply not powerful enough to defeat the hate that came along with the love.
When an emotion is believed to embody all that brings bliss, serenity, effervescence, and even benevolence, although one may believe its encompassing nature to allow for generalizations and existence virtually everywhere, surprisingly, directly outside the area love covers lies the very antithesis of love: hate, which in all its forms, has the potential to bring pain and destruction. Is it not for this very reason, this confusion, that suicide bombings and other acts of violence and devastation are committed in the name of love? In Toni Morrison's Song of Solomon, the reader experiences this tenuity that is the line separating love and hate in many different forms and on many different levelsto the extent that the line between the two begins to blur and become indistinguishable. Seen through Ruth's incestuous love, Milkman and Hagar's relationship, and Guitar's love for African-Americans, if love causes destruction, that emotion is not true love; in essence, such destructive qualities of "love" only transpire when the illusion of love is discovered and reality characterizes the emotion to be a parasite of love, such as obsession or infatuation, something that resembles love but merely inflicts pain on the lover.
George and Lennie live in a hopeless present but they somehow try to keep a foot in an idealized future. They dream of one day running their own ranch, safe and answerable to no one. Others such as Curley's wife dreams of being a movie star, Crooks, of hoeing his own patch and Candy's couple of acres'.The dream ends with the death of Lennie.
Throughout Romeo and Juliet, love and hate are combined. However, even though they are combined, love still remains the principal theme in the play. Although in the play, the theme of hatred can be just as important and sometimes it intensifies the theme of love. For example, Romeo and Juliet’s love wouldn’t have been so extreme and powerful unless there was the hatred between the Montague’s and Capulet’s. We observe this from the very beginning of the prologue.
Lastly and most importantly would be Lucie’s elaborate expression of sentimentality in her constant fainting at the least sign of distress. However unbearable it might have seemed, the reader could not fully appreciate the significance of her character and why she was loved by so many equally sentimental; characters in the novel. When Lucie early on testifies at Darnay’s trial in the English court, she says, “He was kind, and good, and useful to my father. I hope,” and here she bursts into tears, “ I may not repay him by doing him harm here today.” Her deep sensitivity and generous nature shines through. And remember, when Lucie stands forlornly and devotedly at a place near the Paris prison in order for her husband, Darnay, to glimpse her and their child, it is clear that Dickens wanted to portray her as a loving, faithful, and sympathetic person.
From the beginning of the novel, Lucie is willing to make sacrifices to take care of her family and keep the bond between them strong. Lucie’s first life-altering sacrifice begins when she realizes that her father, thought to be dead, is alive. While discussing Lucie’s father, Mr. Lorry says to Lucie, “Your father has been taken to the house of an old servant in Paris, and we are going there: I, to identify him if I can: you, to restore him to life, love, duty, rest, comfort” (Dickens 29). Given this information from Mr. Lorry, Lucie recognizes that her jaded father needs her help in order to return to a normal life. This requires great sacrifice, but, later in the novel, Lucie also takes on the task of caring for the rest of her family. While quietly sitting in her house, listening to footsteps, Lucie is “Ever busily winding the golden thread that bound them all together, weaving the service of her happy influence through the tissue of all their lives, and making it predominate nowhere” (Dickens 216). Lucie’s “golden thread” is the single thing holding the family together, keeping peace and eliciting happiness through her sacrifices. She is able to bring her father out of madness an...
Another type of love we are exposed to during the same scene is the love of Lady Capulet. Lady Capulet, as well as The Nurse, believes love comes from appearance, both physical and political, and has nothing to do with emotion. She shows this when she speaks favorably of Paris's looks and his nobility. She also shows that it is a superficial love by the way she treats Capulet when she publicly denounces him. “ CAP: What noise is this?
I have always been of the belief that in order to truly love, hate must exist within the core of the relationship. Nowhere in modern fiction is this dictum examined more accurately than in the novel by James Cain, Mildred Pierce. Looking at the concept in a familial context, James Cain has created two well-developed characters, Mildred Pierce and her daughter, Veda, that not only emphasizes the nature of mother-daughter relationships, but looks at how love and hate permeates the very essence of the relationship. The Irish poet Thomas Moore once described the fascination of these violently fluctuating emotions, “When I loved you, I can’t but allow/ I had many an exquisite minute/ But the scorn that I feel for you now/ Hath even more luxury in it” (Tresidder 57).
Throughout history, the powers of love and hate have constantly been engaged in a battle for superiority. Time and time again, love has proven to be stronger than hate, and has been able to overcome all of the obstacles that have stood in the way from it reaching its goal. On certain occasions, though, hate has been a viable foe and defeated love when they have clashed. In the novel A Tale of Two Cities, Charles Dickens presents several different power struggles between love and hate.
As part of my coursework, I intend to analyze Act 3 scene 3 of the
The two scenes that the essay will be focusing on are Act 1 Scene 1
Ultimately`, William Shakespeare shows in many different ways throughout the play, ‘Romeo and Juliet’, that love is the more powerful force than hate. The readers see how the characters continuously forgive one another, even when the conditions are tough. The friendships between specific characters display a loving bond that cannot be broken with hate. Shakespeare demonstrates that Romeo and Juliet’s love can overpower the hate of many events in the play. He shows that their love can even overpower the death of one of their own family members. Romeo and Juliet’s love brings friendship between their feuding families. This story is a true example of how love can conquer all.
Edna found herself questioning whether or not she ever truly loved her husband. In the 1800's women were expected to be married with a family. This is where infatuation played a role in the relationship between Edna and her husband, Léonce. Some examples of infatuation are when he/she get with someone just to spite a family member or friend, or when the relationship is prolonged, the passion and excitement that was once there is now lacking. In the case of Edna and Léonce, Edna thought that being married would conform her more to her society, and when she received the disapproval of both her sister and father that gave her an even higher inclination to marry Léonce. Love to me is having a family and being supportive of each others decisions. Edna and Léonce have half of that, they together have two children. Back then the women were supposed to be a mother-woman but Edna on the other hand was...
Charles Dickens utilizes his life for inspiration for the protagonist Pip in his novel Great Expectations. They both struggle with their social standing. Dickens loved plays and theatre and therefore incorporated them into Pip’s life. Dickens died happy in the middle class and Pip died happy in the middle class. The connection Dickens makes with his life to Pip’s life is undeniable. If readers understand Dickens and his upbringing then readers can understand how and why he created Pip’s upbringing. Charles Dickens’ life, full of highs and lows, mirrors that of Pip’s life. Their lives began the same and ended the same. To understand the difficulty of Dickens’ childhood is to understand why his writing focuses on the English social structure. Dickens’ life revolved around social standing. He was born in the lower class but wasn’t miserable. After his father fell into tremendous debt he was forced into work at a young age. He had to work his way to a higher social standing. Because of Dicken’s constant fighting of class the English social structure is buried beneath the surface in nearly all of his writings. In Great Expectations Pip’s life mirrors Dickens’ in the start of low class and the rise to a comfortable life. Fortunately for Dickens, he does not fall again as Pip does. However, Pip and Dickens both end up in a stable social standing.