Venus And Adonis Essays - Literature, Religion, Operas, Mythology

Venus And Adonis Essays - Literature, Religion, Operas, Mythology Venus And Adonis Venus and Adonis: Images of Sexuality in Nature Love is the answer, but while you are waiting for the answer, sex raises some pretty good questions. - Woody Allen Throughout his plays and poetry Shakespeare imbeds numerous and diverse themes, many of them relating to love, sexuality, life, death, religion and countless others. In his poem Venus and Adonis Shakespeare tackles the theme of sexuality as a representation of love, and a function of Nature. The characters of Venus and Adonis, often times reminiscent of an Elizabethan fallen Adam and Eve, create a sexually charged poem that lends much of the power and influence of love and life and death to Nature. Shakespeare creates a natural phenomenon that physically links the love and actions of these two characters to the forces, both positive and destructive, to Nature herself. The poem allows Venus and Adonis a certain power or authority over the forces that lie within the powers of Nature, but Shakespeare's creation of this sexual narrative as a depiction of erotic desire as a tragic event leads the characters to inevitable misfortune, and a complete loss of control over their circumstances. Shakespeare's text can be broadly divided into three sections. The first being Venus' expressions of love for Adonis, the second involving Adonis' death and the hunt, and the third and final section focuses on Venus' reaction to the loss of Adonis. In the first third, Venus tries with increasing desperation to entice Adonis into sex. The pastoral setting on the primrose bank is ideal for the sexually charged analogies she creates. She bombards him with oxymorons involving hot ice, showers him with floral metaphors, launches into an extended variation on the old carpe diem theme, and cracks familiar puns on words such as harts and deer. Venus seems to have inspired control over her own body, and wondrously metamorphosizes her form to suit her purpose, making it heavy enough to need trees to support it, then giving the violets she lies on the strength of trees (152). For all its desperation, the first section is energetic and hopeful, emphasizing Adonis' youth and Venus' constantly self-renewing flesh. The descriptions of love found here are wholly sexual and physically based, but there is a desperate strength in Venus' repeated attempts and persistence. However, at the center of the poem Adonis announces that he intends to hunt the boar the next day. Venus collapses with the boy on top of her, and follows what ought to be the sexual climax of Venus' attempts to lure Adonis into her bed, but all Venus gets from the encounter is frustration: 'all is imaginary she doth prove' (597). In this next section of the poem, which takes place in the forest, Venus speaks of fear, the fear of the boar and the terror of the hunted hare. Death, which has been a veiled presence throughout the first half, becomes the controlling factor of the second. Instead of urging Adonis to beget, Venus warns him that he will be murdering his own posterity if he fails to make love (757-60). The youthfulness of Adonis, which had been described in such vital terms in the first section, able to 'drive infection from the dangerous year' (508), suddenly finds itself subjected to more infections than it can hope to cure: As burning fevers, agues pale and faint, Life-poisoning pestilence and frenzies wood, The marrow-eating sickness whose attaint Disorder breeds by heating of the blood (739-42). At the same time Venus loses control over her body. As she hurries through the woods after the sound of Adonis' horn, her body is subjected to the intrusive gropings of bushes: Some catch her by the neck, some kiss her face, / Some twine about her thigh to make her stay (872-3). This attack on Venus' physical body, and her inability to stop it renders her even more powerless, and her dominating sexuality is turned to frightened reserve as she searches for Adonis. Her efforts to entice Adonis through her pastoral metaphors have failed, even after she evidences her love through the tangible elements of Nature. In the first half of Shakespeare's poem Venus struggles to create a poetic Eden out of the substance of Adonis' body and her own. She tells him that

Fear - Argumentum ad Baculum

Appeal to Force/Fear - Argumentum ad Baculum The Latin term argumentum ad baculum means argument to the stick. This fallacy occurs whenever a person makes an implicit or explicit threat of physical or psychological violence against others if they refuse to accept the conclusions offered. It can also occur whenever its claimed that accepting a conclusion or idea will lead to disaster, ruin, or harm. You can think of the argumentum ad baculum as having this form: Some threat of violence is made or implied. Therefore, the conclusion should be accepted. It would be very unusual for such a threat to be logically relevant to the conclusion or for the truth-value of a conclusion to be made any more likely by such threats. A distinction should be made, of course, between rational reasons and prudential reasons. No fallacy, the Appeal to Force included, can give rational reasons to believe a conclusion. This one, however, might give prudential reasons for action. If the threat is credible and bad enough, it might provide a reason to act as if you believed it. It is more common to hear such a fallacy in children, for example when one says If you dont agree that this show is the best, Ill hit you! Unfortunately, this fallacy isnt limited to children. Examples and Discussion of the Appeal to Force Here are some ways in which we sometimes see the appeal to force used in arguments: You should believe God exists because, if you dont, when you die you will be judged and God will send you to Hell for all of eternity. You dont want to be tortured in Hell, do you? If not, it is a safer bet to believe in God than to not believe. This is a simplified form of Pascals Wager, an argument often heard from some Christians. A god is not made any more likely to exist simply because someone says that if we dont believe in it, then we will be harmed in the end. Similarly, belief in a god is not made any more rational simply because we are afraid of going to some hell. By appealing to our fear of pain and our desire to avoid suffering, the above argument is committing a Fallacy of Relevance. Sometimes, the threats can be more subtle, as in this example: We need a strong military in order to deter our enemies. If you dont support this new spending bill to develop better airplanes, our enemies will think we are weak and, at some point, will attack us - killing millions. Do you want to be responsible for the deaths of millions, Senator? Here, the person doing the arguing isnt making a direct physical threat. Instead, they are bringing psychological pressure to bear by suggesting that if the Senator does not vote for the proposed spending bill, s/he will be responsible for other deaths later on. Unfortunately, no evidence is offered that such a possibility is a credible threat. Because of this, there is no clear connection between the premise about our enemies and the conclusion that the proposed bill is in the countrys best interests. We can also see the emotional appeal being used - no one wants to be responsible for the deaths of millions of fellow citizens. The Appeal to Force fallacy can also occur in cases where no actual physical violence is offered, but instead, just threats to ones well being. Patrick J. Hurley uses this example in his book A Concise Introduction to Logic: Secretary to boss: I deserve a raise in salary for the coming year. After all, you know how friendly I am with your wife, and Im sure you wouldnt want her to find out whats been going on between you and that sexpot client of yours. It doesnt matter here whether anything inappropriate has been going on between the boss and the client. What matters is that the boss is being threatened - not with physical violence like being hit, but rather with his marriage and other personal relationships being destabilized if not destroyed.