This week I read Part A of Cupid and Psyche. This is a good start to researching for my final project since it involves a story within a story, an element I am considering using. One part I really liked was that the story ensures that there is a reason for the Cupid and Psyche story, setting it up by having the older woman feel pity for the young girl. Their dialogue previous to this was simple and yet powerful enough to set the reader up for a desire to see the young girl comforted.
The story of Cupid and Psyche is extremely detailed and descriptive. I appreciate how much emphasis was put on Psyche's beauty. It's one thing to say that a person is beautiful but it's much more powerful to describe the effect her beauty had on people (saying that crowds of people were gathering to see her and that the news of her beauty spread from city to city). It's much more believable that she would have an affect on a goddess when her appearance is described like this.
I loved how descriptive the negative reaction to the prophecy was ("the whole city grieved at the cruel fate that had struck the afflicted house and public business was interrupted as a fitting show of mourning."), and then how brave Psyche's words were following them. Her words strike as even braver and stronger because of how the description of the situation was laid out right before. Characters are really built and shown through the events they are put through, and the writing here shows who Psyche is.
One aspect I would like to note is the miscommunication. If Psyche would have just been honest and told her sisters that her husband was not handsome and perfect, they would not have felt envy. Psyche's lies then got her into more trouble with them because she had forgotten how she had described her husband before, so she made up a new description. The sisters caught on to this and ended up persuading Psyche to kill him. This caused more trouble for Psyche.
I noticed when Psyche first moved in with her husband that there was very little description on him. Instead, the focus was on her despair. I like how the writing allows the reader to be curious about what she thinks of her husband, but then distracts the reader from this by drawing our attention to her sadness about wanting to see her sisters. Later everything is revealed about her husband and this reminds the reader that they were at one point curious about wanting clarification that he was Cupid.
Apuleius's Golden Ass, translated into English by Tony Kline (2013).
Image info:
Psyche and Her Sisters, by Giordano
Psyche and Her Sisters, by Giordano
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