Love Letters Of Abelard And Heptameron Analysis

The contemporary times emphasize the importance of individuality and identity. The sense of community is held together by the knowledge that all individuals are one entity that contributes to the variant and vibrant diversity. Human nature is progressive, and progress is a product of intuition. Reasoning and logic is what leads to good intuitions. However, in a world filled with duality, where things tend to fill in the space between the black and white, there is desire that stem into love and kindness. This phenomenon has influenced writers like Naguib Mahfouz to claim that human nature “is one, in any place”. Literature pieces such as Antigone by Sophocles, Phedre by Racine, The Love Letters of Abelard and Heloise, and The Heptameron by Marguerite

For instance, Antigone and Phedre are both political allegories. Sophocles primarily depicts the influence of a higher order has through Creon. When Creon took the throne, he adopted the state principles of Polis which prohibits “(putting) family or friends ahead of the fatherland” (Sophocles 8). Creon prides himself in following the cosmic and social order and he believes that he is satisfying this order. However, refusing to bury Polyneices disrupts the Greek societal order. Despite the backlash and the disruption of the presumed order, Creon claims that everyone “must obey, Whether his commands are trivial, or right or wrong” (Pg. 29). To counteract his actions, Antigone is driven by the family affairs of Polis which is driven with love. She acts against the grain of the society by condemning the laws of a tyrannical power in the patriarchal society when she buries her brother Polyneices. In committing this action, she becomes a circumstantial culprit. The failures of the two main characters and their inability to recognize the them led to a chain reaction of tragic events. Both their reasoning is dictated by desire/love--desire for power and familial love and loyalty towards family. The differing motivating factors of the two foil characters, however, is what causes the detrimental disruption of