Love is probably one of the things most written about and it is a peculiar thing: love; it makes us smile, cry, angry, and do crazy things. Everybody needs to feel loved at some level, whether it is the love of a parent of their child or the love between a couple. Love has been written about for ages and has brought us stories like those of Cupid and Psyche, Romeo and Juliet and Orpheus and Eurydice. And then there is Sir Orfeo, the retelling of the Orpheus myth, in which there are several kinds of love displayed. They show loyalty, love and the things that this love makes the characters do. All show in detail just what crazy things deep devotion to someone can make us do.
The first kind of love displayed is that of a wife to her husband. Heurodis loves Orfeo so much she tears up her face with her own nails in despair ‘And crached her visage, it bled wete’ (line 80) upon hearing she is forced to leave him. She knows there will be nothing Orfeo can do, even though she is able to warn him ‘Ac now we mot delen ato Do ƥi best, for Y mot go.’ (lines 125-126). She is swept away into the Fairy kingdom to spend eternity in a state approximating death. Having been married to Orfeo for a long time she knows him and suspects her being gone will devastate him ‘Ƿe king hadde a quen of priis’. (line 51). This proves true when they see each other by accident on a morning when he can see the Fairy King hunt with his company, “For messais ƥat sche on him seiȝe, ƥat had ben so riche and so heiȝe, ƥe teres fel out of her eiȝe.” (lines 325-327) Her fear has come true.
While Heurodis is pining under the tree in the Fairy world, Orfeo takes action to find her. He loves her so much that after her disappearance he leaves his kingdom to dwell as a beggar...
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...hing it was him who was dead instead of his lord, which proves to Orfeo he is an utmost loyal person, deserving the throne if he had indeed died. ‘King Orfeo knewe wele bi ƥan His steward was a trewe man And loved him as he auȝt to do’(lines 553-555). The people cry tears of joy upon hearing their king has returned with his beloved. Orfeo and Heurodis are reinstated as king and queen and reign many years more, and the steward after they passed away.
A steward fainting when hearing his king has died, a wife pining away while wanting for nothing and a husband living in the wilderness for ten years, all done out of love and loyalty. This romantic story shows typical examples of what fictional love is thought to be. Not only the fictional love between a husband and wife but also the ties between a king and his people.
Works Cited
Sir Orfeo, the Auchinleck Manuscript
Love, what a small word for being one of the most powerful and complicated emotion someone can receive. Love grants people an experience of other emotions such as, sadness, happiness, jealousy, hatred and many more. It is because of those characteristics that love creates that make it so difficult to define the emotion in a few words. In the play, “Romeo and Juliet” by William Shakespeare, two star-crossed lovers, Romeo and Juliet, defy their parents in hopes of being able to be together and live a happy life. The characters in “Romeo and Juliet” show the characteristics of love through their words and actions throughout the play. The attributes the characters illustrate throughout the play are rage, loyalty, and sorrow.
... for them but all of this challenged as both embark on journeys that will challenge everything they have come to know. Okonkwo is exiled from his village for seven years sent to his motherland, reputation lost, and land taken over by missionaries. Odysseus originally a man of pride and glory spends twenty years trying to find his way home after fighting in the Trojan War. At first he lets his love of fame, power, and impulse get to him causing the lost of his men with. After years away from home Odysseus patience is taken from his their experiences. Unfortunately Okonkwo’s pride gets the best of him and he chooses death rather then to conform to the ways of the white men, while Odysseus adapts to his experiences and takes man of patients and intelligences over being a man of action. It is because of time and experience that these two men meet two different faiths.
The William Shakespeare tragedy Othello features various types of love, but none compare to the love we find between the protagonist and his wife. In this essay let us examine “love” as found in the play.
upon her. She knew she had fallen in love with Duke Orsino and had the
Love is often perceived as something perfect and flawless in today’s society. However, Romeo and Juliet, a play written by William Shakespeare, portrays love as a form of passionate and violent force that comes with both rewards and consequences.The tragedy focuses on two young lovers called Romeo and Juliet, whose families are intertwined in an ancient feud that disrupts the peace in Verona, Italy. For love, the two teenagers are driven to overcome obstacles they will never imagine doing, and as a result, they along other family members are forced to pay the price of their lives. Through the play Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare exhibits the reality of young love through the portrayal of the Queen Mab Speech, the impulsive actions taken by both lovers, and the results caused by the powerful nature of their love.
Love is a powerful emotion, capable of turning reasonable people into fools. Out of love, ridiculous emotions arise, like jealousy and desperation. Love can shield us from the truth, narrowing a perspective to solely what the lover wants to see. Though beautiful and inspiring when requited, a love unreturned can be devastating and maddening. In his play, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, William Shakespeare comically explores the flaws and suffering of lovers. Four young Athenians: Demetrius, Lysander, Hermia, and Helena, are confronted by love’s challenge, one that becomes increasingly difficult with the interference of the fairy world. Through specific word choice and word order, a struggle between lovers is revealed throughout the play. In A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Shakespeare uses descriptive diction to emphasize the impact love has on reality and one’s own rationality, and how society’s desperate pursuit to find love can turn even strong individuals into fools.
Love is often misconstrued as an overwhelming force that characters have very little control over, but only because it is often mistaken for the sum of infatuation and greed. Love and greed tread a blurred line, with grey areas such as lust. In simplest terms, love is selfless and greed is selfish. From the agglomeration of mythological tales, people deduce that love overpowers characters, even that it drives them mad. However, they would be wrong as they would not have analyzed the instances in depth to discern whether or not the said instance revolves around true love. Alone, true love help characters to act with sound reasoning and logic, as shown by the tales of Zeus with his lovers Io and Europa in Edith Hamilton’s Mythology.
Born to King Laius and Queen Jocasta in the city of Thebes, Oedipus is surrounded with controversy after a prophecy shows that Oedipus will be destined to murder his father and marry his mother. Fearing the potential consequences of the prophecy, Oedipus’ parents made the decision to abandon their baby at the top of a mountain to die using one of their servants. The servant’s consciousness, however, causes him to instead deliver the baby to a shepherd, who in turn sends him to King Polybius and Queen Merope of the kingdom Corinth. After raising the child as their own, Oedipus becomes suspicious that these weren’t his biological parents and leaves Corinth upon hearing the prophecy by the oracle Delphi. As he unknowingly travels to his birth city, Thebes, Oedipus murdered a man along with his servants after a dispute between them. Before entering Thebes, Oedipus is confronted by the guardian of the city’s Gates, the Sphinx who presents him with a riddle. If he solves the riddle, he will be able to pass. If he doesn’t, he’ll die. Oedipus’s superior intelligence and cleverness allows him to easily solve the riddle, however unbeknownst to him will be a foreshadowing of his tragic downfall. The citizens of Thebes praise Oedipus and Queen Jocasta offers to marry him since her husband was mysteriously murdered. Upon marry Jocasta and becoming the King of Thebes, a powerful plague decimates the citizens of
Love is a force that can overtake large adversities and can stumble over small challenges. Love is an intense feeling of deep affection. Love is eternal, but can be deflected. Different forms of love are expressed by Othello, Desdemona, and Iago in Shakespeare’s play Othello. As a result of romantic love, Desdemona splits from her family, and Othello slays his wife. Next, familial love, not as dominant as romantic love, is evidenced in Desdemona's choice to marry Othello against her family's requests. Lastly, Self-love is the basis for characters such as Iago and Othello to abandon moral reason. Love comes in different forms.
After Oedipus becomes king of Thebes, the people of Thebes become plagued. Oedipus’ feels responsible for saving the people of Thebes. Oedipus’ pride to save the city later turns to pity after he divulges the sin he has committed. His pride forces him to find the traitor who murdered Laius. He eventually finds out that he is the sinner and gouges his eyes out to prove that he is not worthy of sight.
The fallout of the once blissful mother and son, and husband and wife, is inevitable as it was the predestined fate of the glorified king and savior of Thebes. Through Oedipus’s traits and motivations, interactions with others, and language of others it is evident that fate is not something you can run or hide from.
Orsino is the first deceiver we meet. He is also being deceived, by himself. He is fooling himself by believing that he only has to tell a woman he loves her, and she will fall in love with him. He is in love with the idea of love itself. He is so infatuated with love, he makes parallels about love. He says it is that same as music and flowers. He then continues the parallels and makes the connection about love being the food of life. Without it, you would be needing the 'hearts and flowers.'
“The Wife of Bath’s Tale” is written in an entertaining and adventurous spirit, but serves a higher purpose by illustrating the century’s view of courtly love. Hundreds, if not thousands, of other pieces of literature written in the same century prevail to commemorate the coupling of breathtaking princesses with lionhearted knights after going through unimaginable adventures, but only a slight few examine the viability of such courtly love and the related dilemmas that always succeed. “The Wife of Bath’s Tale” shows that women desire most their husband’s love, Overall, “The Wife of Bath’s Tale” shows that the meaning of true love does not stay consistent, whether between singular or separate communities and remains timeless as the depictions of love from this 14th century tale still hold true today.
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.
Another tragic event that Okonkwo had to go through in his life was when he became attached to a boy that he had taken in when Udo’s wife was murdered. The boy was given to Okonkwo and a virgin was given to Udo from the tribe that killed Udo’s wife so they wouldn’t have to go to war. After three years the boy, whose name is Ikemefuna, still missed his family but was beginning to feel at home. The boy even thought of O...