Theme Of Love In Ovid's Metamorphoses

What is love? Is it a feeling, or is it something much more than that? No one knows what love is or how to explain it, making it one of the most popular themes throughout the literary world. For example, in Ovid’s epic entitled “Metamorphoses,” he uses love many times as a recurring theme, and each time he uses it in a unique way. One of those being the story of Apollo and Daphne; where Cupid shot Apollo with his magic love arrow which caused Apollo to become entranced by the river nymph named Daphne. While, on the other hand, she was shot by an arrow of lead, causing her to hate him. In this story, Ovid portrayed love as a game of cat and mouse: where one wants the other and the other flees. The love Apollo felt could be characterized as an overbearing love. While Ovid chose to portray love as overbearing, many authors choose to portray it differently. In Kate Chopin’s works, “The Storm” & “The Story of an Hour,” Calixta and Louise …show more content…
Calixta found a sense of freedom while her husband wasn’t around and took it as an opportunity to find pleasure in a more sexual way, and in doing so she displayed an adulterous love. She showed that she could love her husband with her entire being, and yet, still want more from another man. While Louise too found freedom in her husband’s absence, she still never stopped loving him and died from being filled with the joy of her husband’s return home. Louise demonstrated a devoted love in doing so, because she never once stopped loving him, nor did she partake in any sexual relations with another man. Having examined both stories, one can claim that love truly is an enigma. Love can cause us to do unimaginable things, while also making those unimaginable things to happen to us. For some, their love could bring down a kingdom, for others, their love might be nothing more than a one-night