Peeping into the uniqueness of Human Culture by analysing the Stepfather-Stepdaughter relationship in Jhumpa Lahiri’s The Lowlands and George Eliot’s Silas Marner
Denvor Fernandez, M.Phil., Scholar, PSGCAS, Coimbatore
What makes human beings unique from other entities, living and non-living, is their rationality, diversity of behaviour, imagination, spiritual quest and above all, the ability to love as no other creature can. Such love can be seen in the complex relationships we have with other human beings. Stepfather-Stepdaughter relationship is such a relationship. The Oxford dictionary calls it a relationship resulting from remarriage, but the word is used today flexibly. It is derived from the Old English word ‘steop’ that means ‘orphan’. A person becomes a Stepfather when he adopts a child, which does not belong to him biologically, as his own. Both The Lowlands and Silas Marner treat this relationship from different perspectives.
Silas Marner, …show more content…
There may be exceptions, but human beings are the only creatures on earth who have been able to transcend nature. In nature, the male and female of a species have only a sexual relationship between them; they cohabit only for survival. Animals are not confused about their emotions and urges as humans do; they purely follow their instincts. Morality and immorality do not exist in the animal kingdom; even the relationship between a father and a daughter can be a sexual one. The same cannot be said about human relationships. The clear existence of a mind and a soul apart from the body is what makes us unique. Nature might be a base upon which all of us stand, but human beings have built a superstructure of culture and tradition over the base. The depth of human relationships crosses naturalistic definitions and soars over into a spiritual plane. So, putting human beings on top in the hierarchy of life forms is justified by their
Denvor Fernandez, M.Phil., Scholar, PSGCAS, Coimbatore
What makes human beings unique from other entities, living and non-living, is their rationality, diversity of behaviour, imagination, spiritual quest and above all, the ability to love as no other creature can. Such love can be seen in the complex relationships we have with other human beings. Stepfather-Stepdaughter relationship is such a relationship. The Oxford dictionary calls it a relationship resulting from remarriage, but the word is used today flexibly. It is derived from the Old English word ‘steop’ that means ‘orphan’. A person becomes a Stepfather when he adopts a child, which does not belong to him biologically, as his own. Both The Lowlands and Silas Marner treat this relationship from different perspectives.
Silas Marner, …show more content…
There may be exceptions, but human beings are the only creatures on earth who have been able to transcend nature. In nature, the male and female of a species have only a sexual relationship between them; they cohabit only for survival. Animals are not confused about their emotions and urges as humans do; they purely follow their instincts. Morality and immorality do not exist in the animal kingdom; even the relationship between a father and a daughter can be a sexual one. The same cannot be said about human relationships. The clear existence of a mind and a soul apart from the body is what makes us unique. Nature might be a base upon which all of us stand, but human beings have built a superstructure of culture and tradition over the base. The depth of human relationships crosses naturalistic definitions and soars over into a spiritual plane. So, putting human beings on top in the hierarchy of life forms is justified by their