The short story “The Ring” by Isak Dinesen begins in the nineteenth-century Danish countryside on a bright July morning. A young, newlywed couple, by the names of Sigismund and Lovisa, walk happily across their land, until they reach a meadow filled with Sigismund’s Danish sheep and prized Cotswold rams. Once they reach the field, Mathias, Sigismund’s shepherd, informs Sigismund that many of the sheep and prized rams have fallen ill and some have died. Though she is uninterested in their conversation, she marvels at her husband’s intelligence on the matter. The conversation catches her attention at once when she hears that a man has been ravaging the quiet countryside by “kill[ing] and drag[ging] away his prey like a wolf” (Dinesen 884). During one of his most recent transgressions, he killed a shepherd and wounded his son at their nearby farm. Lovisa is horrified at hearing this, agreeing with Mathias at the notion that the thief should be “str[ung] up” (Dinesen 884). Sigismund does not agree with the two, wishing no ill-will on the man and claiming that he is a “poor devil” (Dinesen 885). Sigismund then turns to his sheep, and his examination causes them to wail horribly. Seeing that this disturbs Lovisa, he urges her to head towards their home, but advises her do to this slowly, so that he may catch up with her quickly. She obeys him, and while she is walking she contentedly admires the land and its contents, which belong to Sigismund, thus belonging to her.
As Lovisa is walking, rebellious thoughts cross her mind. Scornful and angry that the sheep had taken precedence over her, she conjures the idea that veering from the path home and hiding herself from her husband in the nearby forest would give her the redemp...
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... was allowed to see “the sorrows and sinfulness of this earth” (Dinesen 888). Lovisa’s changes are suggested to be permanent and profound, for Sigismund notices that when he kisses her hand, “[i]t was cold and not quite the same hand as he had last kissed” (Dinesen 888) . Lovisa’s character evolved from an obedient, ignorant child, to an independent, knowledgeable woman. Her journey home is symbolic of life itself, and her detour is symbolic of the point in which all people come to realize that one’s life is experienced in isolation, amidst a malicious and belligerent world. The dramatic changes that the character Lovisa experienced throughout “The Ring” communicate the story’s existential theme.
Works Cited
Dinesen, Isak. “The Ring.” Elements of Literature: World Literature. Ed. Patricia McCambridge. Austin: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, 2006. 883-88. Print.
She started to try and forget and just fall asleep, but her thoughts would always wander too far for her to return to her natural state of mind. She contemplated with herself, why she was running away? What she was running away from?
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