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Narcissus: A Consuming Tale Of Ill-Fated Love

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Narcissus: A Consuming Tale of Ill-Fated Love The story of Narcissus most commonly known in the world today was written by Ovid in 8 AD. In Ovid's version of Narcissus' story he describes a mythological character who thrives on his newfound love of self. However, when Narcissus realizes that he can never gain this newfound love he perishes from depression into a beautiful flower. The most interesting thing about Narcissus is how entranced he was able to become with the sight of his reflection. This is especially interesting because he had so many suitors who lusted after him but he spurned every one of them, those suitors were eventually avenged after Narcissus was spurned by his own self-love. There are many literary and artistic representations …show more content…

These authors who based their characters of Narcissus in their stories include Johann Goethe who wrote Die Wahlverwandtschaften (1809) and Geoffrey Chaucer of Canterbury Tales: The Franklin's Tale written around the 14th Century. In Chaucer's story he uses a man named Aurelius who so desperately loves a woman but she continues to spurn him at every chance by trying to get him to complete task impossible to most but he does them. Eventually, her promises catch up with her and she must go to Aurelius. When she does make it to Aurelius he says she must stay with her husband because he cannot bear to break up a marriage. Therefore, a love that has been looked after for so long is damaged due to masked circumstances just like in Narcissus' story. According to Elizabeth Dobbs Aurelius is so much like Echo the nymph because he has speech difficulties, but also like Narcissus because he cannot reach his full loving potential for Dorigen the woman he loves desperately (Dobbs 297). In Goethe's book he describes relationships that are being tormented which definitely relates to the story of Narcissus. This torment is dominant between the characters Ottilie and Eduard who are both so in love but cannot be together. Mary Dupree explains that because of Eduard and Ottilie's tormented love affair that they both perished because of this (Dupree

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