So: love.
But what about love?
- How do the episodes and vignettes of this novel treat love? What might set them apart from "the so-called historical romances" and "erotic novels" from which the stone is eager to distinguish his inscription?
- What issues, questions, claims or assumptions about love emerge from the events of this novel?
- How might reading this novel cause some small arrest in the deterioration of your vital forces (as Vanitas determines it will on p. 76)?
Deadline: Friday (2/18), start of class.
5 comments:
You could probably write a lot about Cao Xuequin has to say about love here, but the key point for me is how equivocal this text is about love. I was reminded of Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights by the way Dai-yu and Bao-yu fought, but both were concealing a deep love for each other, but though The Story of the Stone features an intense and destructive love, it is not nearly as constant.
We can ship Dai-yu and Bao-yu all we like - they are so obviously in love. But after Dai-yu's death, "Bao-chai proved herself a gentle and devoted companion [and Bao-yu] found that a small part of his love for Dai-yu began to transfer itself to her." (p. 145) Love is not constant and unshakeable like it might be in an historical romance or erotic novel.
Love is also rooted in familiarity. Just as Bao-chai's companionship attracts Bao-yu's love, it was the familiarity with Dai-yu that "developed an understanding so intense that it was almost as if they had grown into a single person." As an aside here, I also suspected that the story might go the way of advancing the idea of soul-mates, given that Dai-yu and Bao-yu are both 'Jades', but this didn't exactly play out. There is also the tension between that idea and the match between 'Jade' and 'Gold'. So I think there is some suggestion that fate has a role to play in love, but it is not absolute.
In the Land of Illusion very different ideas about love are also proposed. Love is based on sensuality - "every carnal congress of the sexes is brought about precisely because sensual delight in beauty has kindled the feeling of love." (93) Lust comes in different forms, such as the common sense of it or the "lust of the mind". (This compares well with the ancient greek distinctions between types of love, such as agape and eros).
Love is also an illusion. As the fairy argues, "Even in these immortal precincts love is an illusion, the love of your dust-stained, mortal world must be doubly an illusion."
To sum up, The Story of the Stone is very equivocal about love - it is an illusion, kindled by lust, powerful, destructive, its loss and thoughts of its loss causes grief (p. 109), it may be fated or inevitable, but can also be weathered and eroded by the companionship and affections of another.
You could probably write a lot about Cao Xuequin has to say about love here, but the key point for me is how equivocal this text is about love. I was reminded of Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights by the way Dai-yu and Bao-yu fought, but both were concealing a deep love for each other, but though The Story of the Stone features an intense and destructive love, it is not nearly as constant.
We can ship Dai-yu and Bao-yu all we like - they are so obviously in love. But after Dai-yu's death, "Bao-chai proved herself a gentle and devoted companion [and Bao-yu] found that a small part of his love for Dai-yu began to transfer itself to her." (p. 145) Love is not constant and unshakeable like it might be in an historical romance or erotic novel.
Love is also rooted in familiarity. Just as Bao-chai's companionship attracts Bao-yu's love, it was the familiarity with Dai-yu that "developed an understanding so intense that it was almost as if they had grown into a single person." As an aside here, I also suspected that the story might go the way of advancing the idea of soul-mates, given that Dai-yu and Bao-yu are both 'Jades', but this didn't exactly play out. There is also the tension between that idea and the match between 'Jade' and 'Gold'. So I think there is some suggestion that fate has a role to play in love, but it is not absolute.
In the Land of Illusion very different ideas about love are also proposed. Love is based on sensuality - "every carnal congress of the sexes is brought about precisely because sensual delight in beauty has kindled the feeling of love." (93) Lust comes in different forms, such as the common sense of it or the "lust of the mind". (This compares well with the ancient greek distinctions between types of love, such as agape and eros).
Love is also an illusion. As the fairy argues, "Even in these immortal precincts love is an illusion, the love of your dust-stained, mortal world must be doubly an illusion."
To sum up, The Story of the Stone is very equivocal about love - it is an illusion, kindled by lust, powerful, destructive, its loss and thoughts of its loss causes grief (p. 109), it may be fated or inevitable, but can also be weathered and eroded by the companionship and affections of another.
Like Shaun pointed out, The Story of the Stone does not essentialize love – it shows love has different factors and can be encouraged in different ways (lust, familiarity, fate). What I found most interesting is the juxtaposition between the relationship of Dai-yu and Bao-yu throughout the story and when Bao-yu visits the Land of Illusion in chapter 5. Bao-yu is intrigued by the departmental chambers he passes – Dept.s of Fond Infatuation, Cruel Rejection, Early Morning Weeping, Late Night Sobbing, Spring Fever, and Autumn Grief - until finally Disenchantment lets him look into one, the Department of the Ill-Fated Fair. Throughout the portion of the novel we read, Bao-yu and Dai-yu assume they will always stay together (until her death and his marriage at the end). So the chamber Bao-yu does explore is almost fitting – it could be descriptive of their relationship (ill-fated). In fact, many of the departments could describe their relationship seeing as how the two are always crying because of the other. Taken together, I think this text shows more of the agony and complications of love, rather than a fated love or love that brings only happiness.
I agree with katiebug5 in that the novel portrays the complications of love instead of love that produces happiness. Love can make one sick like it did to Bao-yu and Dai-yu especially towards the end of the novel. A lack of love can even kill one which led to Dai-yu’s gradual death. The novel shows the consequences that come with being in love. After receiving news of Dai-yu’s death, Bao-yu “cried in horro”
(143), “began howling unrestrainedly”(144), and experienced “helpless desolation”
(144). During his grieving process, he even contemplates committing suicide but refrains when considering the affects that his death would have on his family. Bao-yu experiences many different types of consequences as a result of his lover, Dai-yu’s death. He endures physical pain especially from the initiative shock of Dai-yu’s death and emotional trauma when he weeps uncontrollably. Bao-yu suffers social affects because he refuses to continue on with his normal daily routine and leave his bed or communicate clearly with his relatives. Also, he mentally struggles comprehending the loss of his lover when he blacks out and has a conversation with a man. He finally snaps back to reality with the impression that he was dreaming. I think the novel shows the power of love and the affects that it can have on people who are in love.
One idea I think Cao Xueqin was trying to get across was the irrationality of love. Dai-yu and Bao-yu were both clearly in love, as shown by their constant fighting and the rather unique conversation they had on page 122 in which the true thoughts of Bao-yu and Dai-yu were revealed. The irrationality I think Xueqin was trying to get across was the pair's behavior. Even though their thoughts were straight and they completely understood their own emotions, the two were constantly behaving as if they detested each other. They might really have feelings for each other, but it's so concealed by their fear of the other not reciprocating that they both put their guards up and refuse to let them down.
Bao-yu even acknowledged later in the book that the cause of his terrible sickness was his Dai-yu, and Dai-yu only got sicker after hearing of Bao-yu's engagement to Bao-chai. A couple people have posted that the author is representing love as destructive and sometimes fearful, and I think with these scenes they both hit the nail on the head. It was the pair's love that drove them apart while they attempted to be together, and eventually became their undoing.
Oddly enough, it would be this same love that would apparently strengthen the bond between Bao-yu and Bao-chai.
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