Students will create a 1 page-long typed response to one of three review prompts. Responses must be in MLA format.
Purpose:
- Explore in writing what you have read and what we have presented in the modules.
Instructions:
- Reply to only 1 of 3 topics/questions located below.
- Students are to submit their assignment by Sept. 22nd, 11:59 pmusing the submission link on this page.
- Use citations and supporting evidence from texts/videos found in your Modules.
- Restate the chosen topic/question in the first few sentences of your response.
Topic/Questions:
- Compare and contrast any of the love myths/stories we have read. (Use at least two different regions, ex. do not use two Greek myths; feel free to compare/contrast two or more but do not go above four different myths/stories)
1.El Callejon del Beso: A Love Story in Guanajuato
When two lovers pass through the Callejon del Beso, the Alley of the Kiss, they must kiss on the third step in order for their love to last forever.
Thats why hundreds of people who pass through this narrow place dont hesitate to do so and hope that the story turns out to be true.
Callejon del Beso is a beautiful place, located about 360 km from Mexico DF, in the city of Guanajuato.
Legend has it that the beautiful young Doa Carmen was the only daughter of a greedy and uncompromising father.
Like many parents of that time, he looked for a rich and powerful suitor to give the hand of his daughter in holy matrimony.
Therefore, he jealously watched her every move to prevent her from meeting the common and ordinary men in the poor mining town.
Just thinking that his beautiful daughter could fall in love with a poor villager filled him with anxiety.
But as it very often happens, love breaks down all barriers, however strong they may be.
Doa Carmen met Don Luis, a poor miner whom she would meet at a church near her home, unbeknownst to her father.
One fateful day she was discovered when the young miner was courting the beautiful maiden by offering her holy water from his hands.
Furious her father locked her away at home and threatened to marry her to a rich old Spanish nobleman. This way he would hit two birds with the same stickhe would marry his daughter and increase his depleted fortune at the same time.
The beautiful and submissive girl sadly lived her confinement next to her beloved lady-in-waiting, Doa Brigida.
Every day from the balcony of her bedroom, both lamented over her distress and Doa Brigida did nothing but promise never to allow her to be taken to Spain against her will.
At first, the young lover didnt know what to do since he was not allowed to talk to his beloved, but passing near her house, he noticed that her bedroom window faced exactly toward the window of the house next door and that they were scarcely a few inches apart. This gave him the possibility of staying in touch with his beloved if he bought the house next door.
He offered a good price to buy the house from the owner but received constant negatives. Finally exasperated by the young man the owner set an extremely high price hoping to dissuade him.
Nothing would deter the young man and in order to purchase the house, he had to dispose of all his lifes savings in exchange.
However high the price, it was well worth it, for when he looked out the window he discovered that by extending his hand he could touch his beloveds bedroom window with his knuckles.
Doa Carmens surprise was also great when leaning over her balcony; she found the man of her dreams at such a short distance.
They swore eternal love and saw each other nightly from the adjacent balconies.
One evening while the lovers wrapped in a passionate kiss were distracted, violent words were heard from outside the bedroom.
It was Doa Carmens father scolding Brigida, who was risking her life trying to prevent her master from entering her mistress room.
The father pushed Doa Brigida away. When he saw his daughter kissing the miserable miner, he took a dagger and in a single stroke, drove it into his daughters chest full of anger and rage.
Don Luis was in shock and with horror he felt Doa Carmens hand, still in his, getting cold and motionless.
Knowing that his love was dead, Don Luis gave her one last, tender kiss on the smooth, pale, and now lifeless hand
The young man could not bear to live without his beloved Carmen and in desperation committed suicide by jumping from the wall of the main shaft of La Mina de la Valenciana, The Valencian Mine.
Callejon del Beso still exists in the beautiful city of Guanajuato; its located in the historic area in the foothills of Cerro del Gallo, a town that has existed since the 18th Century and is without a doubt one of the most famous streets of the city.
This alley has the peculiarity of measuring only 27 inches wide and its balconies are almost joined to each other, at a fateful distance of just a kiss.
2.Tristan and Isolde
Lady Jane Wilde (1821-1896) was an Irish poet who had a special interest in Irish folktales, which she helped to gather. The tale of Tristan and Isolde has roots in Celtic myth and Arthurian legends. In most versions, Tristan fetches Isolde for his uncle King Mark to marry, but on the journey, they ingest a love potion and fall for each other instead.
Tristan And Isolde. The Love Sin
by Lady Jane Wilde
None, unless the saints above,
Knew the secret of their love;
For with calm and stately grace
Isolde held her queenly place,
Tho the courtiers hundred eyes
Sought the lovers to surprise,
Or to read the mysteries
Of a loveso rumour said
By a magic philtre fed,
Which for ever in their veins
Burnd with loves consuming pains.
Yet their hands would twine unseen,
In a clasp twere hard to sever;
And whoso watched their glances meet,
Gazing as theyd gaze for ever,
Might have marked the sudden heat
Crimsning on each flushing cheek,
As the telltale blood would speak
Of love that never should have been
The love of Tristan and his Queen.
But, what hinders that the two,
In the spring of their young life,
Love each other as they do?
Thus the tempting thoughts begin
Little recked they of the sin;
Nature joined them hand in hand,
Is not that a truer band
Than the formal name of wife?
Ah! what happy hours were theirs!
One might note them at the feast
Laughing low to loving airs,
Loving airs that pleased them best;
Or interchanging the swift glance
In the mazes of the dance.
So the sunny moments rolled,
And they wove bright threads of gold
Through the common web of life;
Never dreaming of annoy,
Or the wild worlds wicked strife;
Painting earth and heaven above
In the light of their own joy,
In the purple light of love.
Happy moments, which again
Brought sweet torments in their train:
All loves petulance and fears,
Wayward doubts and tender tears;
Little jealousies and pride,
That can loving hearts divide:
Murmured vow and clinging kiss,
Working often bane as bliss;
All the wild, capricious changes
Through which lovers passion ranges.
Yet would love, in every mood,
Find Heavens manna for its food;
For love will grow wan and cold,
And die ere ever it is old,
That is never assailed by fears,
Or steeped in repentant tears,
Or passed through the fire like gold.
So loved Tristan and Isolde,
In youths sunny, golden time,
In the brightness of their prime;
Little dreaming hours would come,
Like pale shadows from the tomb,
When an open death of doom
Had been still less hard to bear,
Than the ghastly, cold despair
Of those hidden vows, whose smart
Pale the cheek, and break the heart.
