Love and Lust in Orlando Furioso and Decameron - Research Paper Example

24 June Love and Lust in Orlando Furioso and Decameron Introduction Orlando Furioso, the eternal Italian romantic epic poem, was composed by Ludovico Ariosto, between 1516 - 1532 and centres round the mad pursuit and unrequited love of Orlando for a pagan princess Angelica which transforms into frenzy and madness. On the other hand, Decameron is a compilation of hundred novellas composed by the renowned writer of the fourteenth century, Giovanni Boccaccio. The composition of the novellas began in the year 1350 and it ended somewhere during the years 1351 to 1353. The novellas contained all tragic and exotic love tales which widen the vista of love and its relationship in the life of mankind and civilization. Thus, both these literary pieces are effective to understand and delineate the difference between love and lust and the importance along with the origin of love in the life of human beings. Thesis Statement Based on the deep delineation of the myriad aspects of love exposed in the immortal pieces like Orlando Furioso and Decameron , this paper intends to expose the difference between love and lust along with the exposition of true love. Also this paper intends to investigate the actual reason for manifestation of love resulting into absolute foolishness and loosing of control over mind by human beings. Origin of Idea The romantic epic poem Orlando Furioso centers round the unfulfilled love of Orlando for the pagan princess in the centre of the poem. But at the same plane there are other love stories that are captivated in this eternal saga of love and present various subtle and intricate cases to understand the effect and reason of love, desire and lust in their lives. This understanding when connected; implemented and most importantly percolated in the lives of common people, gives a newer definition and meaning to the concept of love. In Orlando Furioso, apart from the central love story of Orlando and Angelica, there are developments of amorous relationships between Bradamante, who was a female Christian warrior and that of Ruggiero. The chemistry of this couple also enables the readers to set their explicit idea on love. Thus the paper revolves around the mere idea of love and how the feeling develops and evolves between two people with time, and how this very bond created between the two can also break if the trust and loyalty is not able to persist after a point of time. Decameron is mostly a tale of love and Boccaccio dedicated the amorous tales to the ladies of the time who were compelled to lead a cloistered life suppressing their love and passion for the men of their choice. In the olden days, the women folk were supposed to stay at home and wait for their men, clean up and cook after them and take care of all their needs. However, rarely so did the men reciprocate these feelings that might have arisen out of compulsion for the women, but turned into a monotonous source of love. The allusion referring to the sub-title of the book bears the title of Prencipe Galeotto derived from Dante’s Galleotto in “Inferno V” who is the character responsible for arousing lust and passion in the episode of Paolo and Francesca. After delving deep into the two contemporary literary pieces, one evident query comes into mind that why the literature of the period expressed love at an extreme paradigm. Love as an ordinary facet nowhere found place in Decameron or Olando Furioso. In both the pieces, love is treated as an extreme vice for which people are shown meeting tragic end, losing control over their mind almost reaching the level of madness or frenzy. In a number of cases, people were ‘love hungry’ because of the lack of love that men gave to their women and the overdose of the same that the women were forced to provide for their men. This led to love becoming an extremity, in the general sense and thus no one understand whether or not this form of love was right or wrong. The medieval concept of love was unnatural. The expression of lust, passion or sex was treated as blasphemy. The Catholic Churches were responsible for the extreme control of human passion and conduct which the body used to execute in the name of “Four Cardinal Virtues” or “Three Theological Virtues”. Literature manifested by educated men gave the space for sex to get related in the natural scheme of things in the lives of mankind. Yet there was a mental shackle or barrier to transcend the fact and launch passion or lust into the natural scheme of things for mankind. This is the reason for which most of the men and women in love in the sagas of the medieval period are shown behaving in some abnormal ways or going to the extreme end to reach the happy ending of their love story; only because they were not permitted to have an outlet to their desires. In modern day and age, love is meant to be showered on the ones we love, and it is best showed in its true form, through both physical as well as mental aspects. However, in olden days and the medieval period, men and women were taught how to suppress these very feelings which led to them becoming unhealthy and thus carrying out abnormal activities that led others to believe that they had lost their minds behind love. But in truth, they were not mad about the person they loved, but because the emotion was not given a chance to be shown to the person they loved, in a proper manner. Also in most of the cases, the tragic end of the love tales were more pertinent because to a great extent the literature of the time bore the facts of the society which was a true reflection presented through the predicaments of the characters in the tales. “True Love” from the perspective of Orlando Furioso or Decameron is the love attained on the platonic realm. It is the form of love that people feel for each other without any negation in their emotions; it does not come equipped with feelings like lust, jealousy or hatred. And the pursuit of love, the chase and the desire to get the beloved become the only objective in life as seen in the case of Orlando. Angelica falls in love with Medoro whom she saves and elopes with. On the other hand, Orlando loses all his sanity and sets off in the search of the eloped couple thereby bringing catastrophe to each and every element coming on his way. True love is composed with fortitude, sacrifice and perseverance. Orlando’s love for Angelica is not true. It is an extreme outcome of passion or lust and the poet himself has termed it as a sort of insanity, only because he was not given a proper way to let his feelings out with. Orlando Furioso throws an explicit light on the relationship between lust and true love. Bodily affection or desire is a platform on which love can throb and grow. But it is not the optimum and most important aspect in a true love. Love is immortal and selfless. Extreme desire or mad pursuit is a symbol of insanity. This is the reason for showing Orlando falling out of love for Angelica after he is been sniffed off his sanity recovered from moon. Love cannot efface but lust can get diminished and through the example of Orlando’s desire for Angelica, the neat distinction between love and lust becomes evident. Avenues of Exploration True Love: A Perception from Men and Women Love appeals to men and women differently and this is subjected to the social conditions which are different for men and women. Men are more gallant in expressing their love and for them love is attainment of the body of the beloved to a great extent. At least this was the perspective of love for men during the middle ages. Men like to ‘show’ how much they are capable of loving their counterparts, the women, by being able to express it through a bodily platform and make their women feel good. However, when this feeling does not come hand in hand with purity or an innocence of sort, then it can be termed as lust because all the men want is the woman’s body in order to express them with. Angelica’s exotic beauty allured Orlando the most and he left no stone unturned, first to set her free form the Castle of Bavarian Duke Namo and next, a more violent pursuit is seen in Orlando when he chases the eloped Angelica madly. For women love was more on the emotional plane as the expression of passion or lust was a sort of social taboo for them and they mostly used to spend their life concealed within their chambers watching their man of choice from bay. For them love is an attainment through a spiritual plane where the mind is more important than the body. This is because women were better able to show their love and shower their affection through an emotional platform. Relationship between Lust and True Love Lust or passion is a very natural phenomenon among human beings as they are, at the end of the day, animals by instinct. Subversion of this natural tendency is a pretention of the civic society. Lust takes the initial place in mankind mostly. In Orlando Furioso, Angelica is initially driven by a lust towards Orlando. Orlando helps her to flee from the castle of Bavarian and both of them together undergo many adventures and thrills until Angelica meets the wounded Saracen knight, Medero and falls in love with him. At that juncture, Angelica is not even bothered to leave Orlando and elope with Medero the man she is in love with. On the other hand for Orlando the desire for Angelica is so obstinate that he does not even mind to spare his kingly duties in the pursuit of the pagan princess. Orlando is seen losing his sanity in the mad pursuit for the princess and again recovering it back. True love is a perpetual feeling and does not need requisition to find its end. In true love, desire for the beloved is just a means and not an end. True love does not make a person choose between various priorities; in fact this is what lust does to a man. A man forgets his duties in the quest for lust and gets seduced by a moment’s due of being able to be with a woman. Love is a lasting phenomenon, for example, the love that grew and lasted between Alcin and Bradiamant. Love is not an emotion that makes a person mad in fact helps in regain his sanity because it helps him see the bigger picture clearly. However, lust on the other hand, is enough to make a man mad and take his priorities, as well as family away from him because it is a powerful emotion that helps a person to give into his desires for a few moments. Love Worthy of Death True love is sometime worthy of death but it is very essential to distinguish between a true, selfless love and lust before sacrificing or taking away any life. Like the death of Rodomonte in Orlando Furioso cannot be justified as no one can attain love forcibly and as a consequence the death of Rodomonte is a sort of eye-opener from the behalf of the poet to display that love grows at the plane of free will and force can never be an option for it. Through this, the poet has tried to depict how people give up their lives because they cannot or are not able to achieve the actual things they love and become confused with respect to what they actually need with what they desire. Thus, sacrificing life in the pursuit of one’s beloved is not worthy always. Insanity of Orlando The pertinent reason of Orlando after a thorough reading of the poem can be contended as a blow to his male chauvinism in the first place other than any factor. Angelica’s elopement with any other male thereby sanctioning the amorous relationship with the Saracen knight was not at all acceptable for Orlando and moreover it was a big blow on the gallant, chivalry, youth and vigour of Orlando more than his love for the pagan princess. If Orlando would have been into the true love then he would not have been able to come out of it easily as well. His mad pursuit was more because his beloved lost virginity with another man and left him forever. He felt incompetent and felt that he was not good enough for Angelica because the woman ran away with someone else. This made him angry at himself and made him doubt his capabilities with respect to keeping a woman happy. Thus, the reason for him becoming insane was this more than him being in love with someone. Cost of Love Attainment of true love does not require anything in return. True love is selfless and it transcends the narrow barrier of individuality and transports the lovers into a plane where the both the souls get amalgamated into one body and only the desire of love becomes the only pursuit for the lovers. Both lovers are able to sacrifice equally and try to keep the other as happy as possible without letting them make too much of a compromise. Thus, when it comes to measuring the cost of love, if two people truly love each other, they will say there was nothing too pricey to give up in order for attaining the other. Conclusion In conclusion, after the detailed delineation of the two contemporary literary pieces of the middle ages, it becomes quite evident that not only Orlando Furioso but Decameron also captivates the essence of love within its huge compass. The distinction between true love and lust is an important factor that the readers gain after a thorough introspection into these literary pieces of the middle age. Love and lust are far apart from one another but despite this, most people had a habit of confusing the two in order to probably make their selves feel better about being there for someone else. In order to make themselves believe that they were bring selfless, people thought they needed to be in love with someone to be able to give back what they received. However, both these poems, along with a number of other examples from the era itself, helps to show how people had the wrong notion of love and often blamed the very emotion on the reason for their insanity which sometimes even lead to death. What they failed to understand was that love is a very simple emotion, extremely pure in nature, and not forced upon anyone. The overlapping ideas of love and lust especially against the conservative backdrop of Middle Ages get completely clarified with the vision of the writers from the period through the texts. Works Cited Ariosto, L. Slavitt, D. Orlando Furioso: A New Verse Translation. Harvard University Press, 2009. Boccaccio, G. The Decameron. Digireads.com Publishing, 2010. Cavallo, Jo Ann “Women and the Making of Poetry in Ariosto's Orlando furioso.” 2008. Highbeam.com. 18 Jun. 2011 The Parco Della Musica, “Love And Lunacy: Vivaldi's 'Orlando Furioso'”, 2009. npr music.com. 18 Jun. 2011 "Ludovico Ariosto." Encyclopedia of World Biography. 2004. Encyclopedia.com. 18 Jun. 2011 William Stewart Rose. “The Orlando Furioso by Ludovico Ariosto”. In which I read vintage novels. January 11, 2011. inwhichireadvintagenovels.blogspot.com. June 20, 2011 Marion Lignana Rosenberg. “The Uses of Enchantment: A Program Essay for Handel’s Alcinaat New York City Opera”. Mondo marion. mondo-marion.com/alcina.html. June 20, 2011 Read More