“The Adamantine Perfection of Desire”
“Nothing more strong /than to be helpless before desire.” (Hirshfield 1-2). The idea that nothing is stronger than desire and nothing can overcome the feeling of it, is a central theme in The Battle of the Sun, by Jeanette Winterson. Jack is kidnapped by a man who dreams of wealth and power in the midst of his own city of gold. The man disapproved and stopped helping with his studies. The Magus was , the Magus, was trained to be an alchemist by his mentor, but when the Magus began to turn to dark magic his mentor already strong with his power and he trapped his mentor in a cellar and waited for him to die. When he heard of Jack, and what his soon to come powers would be able to accomplish, his desire for the boy and his dream overcame him and he did everything he could to keep Jack unaware of his plan until the time came. “No reason, /the simplified heart whispers, /the argument over, /only This.” (Hirshfield 3-6). Desire is stronger than any reasoning our brains can create. Even if the Magus realized what he was doing was bad for others, his own personal want of power and wealth would still take over his thoughts.
Jack had a different desire though. His was to defeat the Magus and save his mother from the Magus’ dark powers. To keep Jack under his power the Magus began to turn his mother into a stone statue whenever he did something that the Magus disapproved of. This only made Jack’s desire stronger. Jack’s drive to save “The Sunken King” (Winterson 53), the mentor of the Magus who was being held captive until he died in a chamber, and in turn receive the help of a magic dragon to defeat the Magus was his source of strength in his journey. Without his desire he might have lost hope of escaping from the Magus. But along his journey to get home to his mother, he fulfilled his Destiny. His desire led him to free The Sunken King, escape with his now stone mother and, in a battle between light and dark, defeat the Magus and return the city from its golden state back to normal. Winterson and Hirshfield prove that whether desire is selfish or admirable, its power over us reigns supreme.
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ReplyDeleteAn author’s background always affects his or her works, consciously or not. Your presentation truly pointed out how true this is. When reading, many don’t consider the author in the forefront of the action. Your thesis and presentation proved that you should: Winterson’s past had a profound effect on her subject matter. Characters from her childhood, such as her mother, act as templates for characters in her novels.
ReplyDeleteI like how thoroughly you related this poem to your text; I can totally understand the links between the two. I also found the correlation between the language interesting: you mentioned that Winterson likes using patterns of three and four. In this poem, negatives, "Nothing . . . no reason . . . no longer" (Hirshfield 1,3,7) also appear as a set of three. This use of the negative emphasizes the action taking place. Like "Blind Man's Mark," from first trimester, the speaker has a complicated attitude towards desire. Her final example of desire, geese flying and crying, doesn’t create the most positive imagery. Although Hirshfield's view is more positive, the ending, "the living cannot help . . ." (Hirshfield 13) could imply a sense of finality and lack of control over one's actions.