Like the title said, this will be a short discussion of The Jewelry only;
I have Freshman English in forty-five minutes.
I would like to talk about the element of love in the story,
particularly the love between Lantin and his first, dazzling,
and maybe unfaithful wife.
If Lantin's suspicions about how she obtained the jewelry are true,
we can make the three logically incompatible statements:
1. She loved the other but not him.
2. She loved him but not the other.
3. She loved them both.
If we presume true love to be non-gradient,
then only one of the above can be true.
Let's look at them one by one:
1. She loved the other but not him.
What this implies is that she enjoyed herself more when she was with
the other than when she was with him.
The economy of the household, the loving scene with the necklace,
the sweet nothings they undoubtedly uttered to each other in the marital bed;
all of these, therefore, were only a facade to preserve the well-being of the
marriage and the status of her husband.
All the while, she longed for the theater,
and the warm and excitingly clandestine embrace of her secret lover.
2. She loved him but not the other.
All those gestures of love and exemplary housekeeping were from the heart;
she loved the other only for his jewelry, as a means to an end.
This can be summed up in the scene where she drapes the diamond necklace
around Lantin's neck and laughs and laughs,
and then finally kisses him to death:
Jewelry and Lantin, the two loves of her life all in one - of course she
would kiss him to death!
If my love were holding a badminton raquet, I would do the same thing!
3. She loved them both.
I am SO going to be late for class!!
Is it possible to love two lovers with sincerity and without conflict?
I myself believe so.
Perhaps Lantin, being the gentle and silent type, provided an anchor in
her life, letting her know that, no matter what might happen,
he would always love her.
On the other hand, this sort of man just can't keep her satisfied (innuendo
intended)!
So she meets this fun-loving extrovert at the theater,
and they spend many a wild evening together.
When she goes home, does she pang for her charismatic lover?
Or is she relieved that, after all that passion,
she can come home to a quiet and peacefully bliss marriage?
Oh, how her heart must have thumped when she placed the necklace on Lantin!
The two sides of her heart, never meant to meet, yet meeting before her eyes!
The laugh would have been hysterical; the kisses, frenetic.
Lantin would have been hard-pressed to see her act like that in any other
situation.
And, that's about it!
Ms. Chung is going to kill me.
B98102119 (我沒忘記喔～XD)