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| How I expected Satan to act |
So he enters Hell and sees the souls of the damned being tortured for all eternity and he sits down and plays some harp. The Devil is like "dang man that's some bomb-ass harp-playing, you can have anything you want." And he's like "I'll take my wife back then." And Satan's like "Oh I meant anything except that." And then all it takes to convince the King of the Damned to change his mind is Orfeo saying "dude that's bullshit you gave me your word" and Satan's like "you're right I promised on my scout's honor." I know we've talked a lot about honor in these stories being very important, but I thought maybe the one person who'd forsake honor would be the fallen angel himself, but even he seems to think a pinky-promise shouldn't be broken.
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| How Satan Actually Acted |
And then Orfeo goes home and plays Tom Sawyer for a minute, tricking some folks into being sad for a little just to see how they really felt about him. And then he and his wife live happily ever after. So I guess we can learn that you should never give up and that you should be loyal, which is all good and dandy, I just wish we'd seen more action from Satan. This story has very little suspense once Orfeo has zero trouble literally going into Hell and back, and hardly encounters any opposition except when he backtalks Satan into having his way.
I'll admit, I'm also a little disappointed that story wasn't as high-stakes as I had hoped, although I did like it. I didn't see the Fairy King as Satan, but I like your comparison. It seems strange that he would honor his word, but I appreciate that; I can see a devilish figure (regardless of whether he's actually Satan) trying to uphold his personal honor in some sort of twisted self-righteousness, almost as if he wants to prove he's just as majestic and honorable as God. I don't know. It's a pretty complicated point, but I think of an evil supernatural force as someone who thinks he or she is "good."
ReplyDeleteStill, you make a good point. And the ending annoyed me a little bit, too. Testing the steward's loyalty is important, but Orfeo's pretty cold about it.
You know, I'm with you for the Satan thing. Mostly because I think it adds a fun layer to this story but I do see it. I really enjoy the idea that he's an evil but ineffectual guy that has his minions kidnap fairly useless people. Like, that's great because it is purely hedonistic, which I'm assuming is a Satan trait. I can also see Satan as the type of guy that would do anything so he doesn't lose faith with his people. More than anything I wanted the fairy king to be more manipulative and mischievous.
ReplyDeleteI'm with you, and Iris. I think the story would have been MUCH more exciting if it really was Satan. Even though I didn't see him as Satan on my own, I too was surprised by the King's willingness to change his mind so easily. And I was fully disappointed in the easiness of the entire situation. I expected more of a tragedy (as Becca said in class). Similar to The Wife of Bath, I wasn't satisfied with the end. I hate to admit it, but I wanted the wife to die again. The original story was sad, but I liked that it didn't end the way a reader would expect.
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