Title is in reference that I never get EVERYTHING I want from a story... but ohhh so close.
I have never felt so unsatisfied. I know the ending is
supposed to be happy, and I am happy that everything ended up well for Emare.
However, her father’s desires for her kept popping into my head. About
three-fourths into the story, I decided that karma would seriously bite the
Emperor in the butt.
I guess I was wrong…
I appreciate Emare’s character, and I love how she is able
to endure hardship after hardship and still be a loving person. Her romance
with the King of Wales is one of the most pure to me out of all the stories we
have read. (He didn’t fall in love with her from a tower, sexually harass her,
or steal her from another marriage.) Minus her ship story, I feel like their
meeting and marriage is the most similar to a possible modern courtship
scenario.
(I know Can't Hardly Wait did follow this script, but I imagine wales was focused in on Emare just like that.)
1.)
Meet at a party
2.)
Ask friends and family about their opinions
3.)
Tell family, but respectfully reject their input
4.)
Pursue!
I feel like they have a mutual respect for each other. The
only reason why shit goes down the way it does is because the King has a crazy
mother. Even after being separated for so long, the King and Emare still love
each other. At the end, the King and Emare happily reunite, the King sees and
loves his son, and he exiles his crazy mother.
But then….
The Emperor, who banished his daughter because she wouldn’t
marry him, comes around because of a guilty conscience and is forgiven…
I honestly enjoyed most of the story. I felt like despite
the settings and what not… the love story is relatable. The beginning made me
angry, but the rest of the story made up for it… except for the end. There
needs to be justice. The King exiled his mother for trying to destroy his
family. Does a parent who desires his daughter and puts her in harm’s way not
deserve equal punishment? Ultimately, it is Emare’s loving nature that allows
her to forgive her father.
My perfect ending would be:
… The emperor grows old. He reaches out to his daughter, but
Emare tells him that he is dead to her. He feels so guilty for everything that
he has done… and moves on to a boat rocking on top of the crashing waves…
sobbing day and night until his death.
(Or can one of these guys do something in the name of Justice???)
However, I realize that there is a deeper message in this
story, which is perhaps why religion is referenced in the beginning and the
end. Perhaps this story is about mercy and forgiveness. The King shows mercy to
his mother by not executing her, and Emare forgives her father.
I agree with what you said about Emare. I was amazed that we got to read about a female character that I actually really liked, and who reminded me of a medieval Cinderella, except the things she has to experience are much worse obviously. But she maintains this amazing inner beauty that never gets shaken even after everything that she endures, and I really admire that about her.
ReplyDeleteAHHHHH YOU SAID THE "R" WORD!!!
ReplyDeleteThat being said, I think you're right. It's quite refreshing to see a (sort of) normal love story that doesn't involve scandal or killing someone to get what you want. And essentially, this story is about forgiveness, so I can look past the whole father-making-moves-on-daughter thing. And I really like how gender roles can't really come into play here, because Emare is the epitome of a strong woman. If I'm a medieval woman reading this, I'm going to feel empowered, not pissed off because her father got forgiveness. Women of this time would've understood that women need to be reserved. Like I said in class...there is strength in silence
I absolutely love your blog. You touched based on all the points that I was thinking as I was reading this story. It really is nice to see how much of a strong women Emare portrays, since we don't usually get that in our stories. I was pretty pissed about the incident with her father thing, but I mean, its really up to her. Throughout the story she didn't present herself as a revenge type of person. It's in her nature to forgive. I was kinda hoping the ending ended as you predicted. I wanted to see Karma, because what the father did to her was pretty harsh...
ReplyDelete