How Is Narcissus Forced To Face A Brutal Reality?

Narcissus Forced to Face a Brutal Reality Was there ever a moment in your childhood when your dreams were shattered and you were forced to come to terms with a harsh reality of the world? In “Narcissus and Echo,” a section of Ovid's epic poem, Metamorphosis, Ovid details a particularly brutal coming-of-age narrative: that of Narcissus. Narcissus is a gorgeous-looking adolescent who attracts the love of men and women alike, but the love of all of his suitors is unrequited because Narcissus turns them all down. One day, as a thirsty and exhausted Narcissus drinks from a spring, he sees his reflection in the water and falls in love with it. Later, in a moment when he confronts reality and his dreams are shattered, he realizes that the boy he loves is actually himself, and that he has been looking at his own reflection the whole time. In

The result of Narcissus beating himself is “a crimson weal on his naked torso / like apples tinted both white and red, or a multi-colored / cluster of grapes just ripening into a blushing purple” (Ovid line 483-485). Narcissus' wounds being “crimson,” an extremely bright red color, contrasts the previous “milk-white” description of his skin, underscoring the physical transformation that occurs. Ovid's subsequent use of simile to compare Narcissus' wounds to “ripe” fruit complicates the narrative surrounding Narcissus' transformation because ripeness is typically seen as a desirable quality. The bruise is described as being like “a cluster of grapes...blushing purple,” which is a juicy, delicious, and plentiful image. The image of grapes juxtaposes the fact that a bruise is quite literally a form of internal bleeding, the human body's indication of harm. In a twisted way, Ovid suggests, through this comparison to fruit, that there is a viscerally satiating aspect to Narcissus' painful