Introduction
Love has many shapes and comes in many forms. What is the love in Romance like? What is the nature of love in the postmodern story? How is love expressed in the novel written by A.S. Byatt named Possession – A romance? This paper explores the motif of love reflected in the novel and provides the analysis and explanation for the representation of this motif in the story. The main aim ist to explore the possessive connotation of the love in the Possession as the author believes that love in Possession is more the obsession. The reader is also acknowledged about the whole romance theme included in the novel. This paper uses quotations from the text to support the idea that there is more obssessive and different kind of love in this …show more content…
The story starts with a discovery of Roland Michell, scholar that focuses on the works of the Victorian poet Randolph Henry Ash. During his research, Roland discovers a love letter written by Ash to an unknown woman, despite he was known for his devotion and loyalty to his wife. The quest for the answers begins and he finds out about Christabel LaMotte to be the mysterious woman. Roland meets Maud Bailey, another scholar, whose major is LaMotte and they start to work together, revealing the mystery of the secret love of the two poets while in one breath falling in love with each other. (BERTOLDI, 2012, p.16) The motif of love is constantly present in the story from the beginning. The reason for the quest of the protagonists and the main discovery in the narration (in the beginning) is a love letter. The exploration of the mystery of the secret letters becomes an exploration of the romantic love of the two people writing them. However, the two researchers, Roland and Maud do not believe in such epic love as the one they started to discover through letters. Even though they seem to be sceptical about love matters in the beginning, they cannot help it but to fall for each other in the …show more content…
One between Roland and Maud (present) and the second between two Victorian poets Randolph and Chistabel (past). Next quote is taken from Randolph´s confession about the woman he was in love with. He also uses expressions such as possession or madness leading to the possessive nature of his love. "For the last year perhaps I have been in love with another woman. I could say it was a sort of madness. A possession, as by daemons. A kind of blinding." For many times, the word possession is mentioned in the story either to express the ownership of something (mostly the love letters) or as the other expression for love. The author even uses this word to express a sexual relationship between characters, as taking possession of the other: "And very slowly and with infinite gentle delays and delicate diversions and variations of indirect assault Roland finally, to use an outdated phrase, entered and took possession of all her white coolness that grew warm against him [...]" (BYATT, 1991, p.550) Another example of the man obsessed with his lover. Once again, direct reference to the possession is used in the text and the way the author uses the expressions and speaks denotes the depth of the character´s emotions, and a obsession for the one that he speaks
Love has many shapes and comes in many forms. What is the love in Romance like? What is the nature of love in the postmodern story? How is love expressed in the novel written by A.S. Byatt named Possession – A romance? This paper explores the motif of love reflected in the novel and provides the analysis and explanation for the representation of this motif in the story. The main aim ist to explore the possessive connotation of the love in the Possession as the author believes that love in Possession is more the obsession. The reader is also acknowledged about the whole romance theme included in the novel. This paper uses quotations from the text to support the idea that there is more obssessive and different kind of love in this …show more content…
The story starts with a discovery of Roland Michell, scholar that focuses on the works of the Victorian poet Randolph Henry Ash. During his research, Roland discovers a love letter written by Ash to an unknown woman, despite he was known for his devotion and loyalty to his wife. The quest for the answers begins and he finds out about Christabel LaMotte to be the mysterious woman. Roland meets Maud Bailey, another scholar, whose major is LaMotte and they start to work together, revealing the mystery of the secret love of the two poets while in one breath falling in love with each other. (BERTOLDI, 2012, p.16) The motif of love is constantly present in the story from the beginning. The reason for the quest of the protagonists and the main discovery in the narration (in the beginning) is a love letter. The exploration of the mystery of the secret letters becomes an exploration of the romantic love of the two people writing them. However, the two researchers, Roland and Maud do not believe in such epic love as the one they started to discover through letters. Even though they seem to be sceptical about love matters in the beginning, they cannot help it but to fall for each other in the …show more content…
One between Roland and Maud (present) and the second between two Victorian poets Randolph and Chistabel (past). Next quote is taken from Randolph´s confession about the woman he was in love with. He also uses expressions such as possession or madness leading to the possessive nature of his love. "For the last year perhaps I have been in love with another woman. I could say it was a sort of madness. A possession, as by daemons. A kind of blinding." For many times, the word possession is mentioned in the story either to express the ownership of something (mostly the love letters) or as the other expression for love. The author even uses this word to express a sexual relationship between characters, as taking possession of the other: "And very slowly and with infinite gentle delays and delicate diversions and variations of indirect assault Roland finally, to use an outdated phrase, entered and took possession of all her white coolness that grew warm against him [...]" (BYATT, 1991, p.550) Another example of the man obsessed with his lover. Once again, direct reference to the possession is used in the text and the way the author uses the expressions and speaks denotes the depth of the character´s emotions, and a obsession for the one that he speaks