Desire And Reason In Venus And Adonis

William Shakespeare is highly praised as"soul of the age"by his contemporary Ben Johnson in English Renaissance.His long narrative poem Venus and Adonis borrowed from Ovid's Metamorphoses exhibits Renaissance humanists' advocacy of desire to reason and ultimately attaining harmony of the two.With theories of the ancient Greek and Roman myths,western philosophy and Christian tradition,this thesis clarifies the evolvement of desire and reason motif through the poem,and manifests Shakespeare's contribution to this everlasting literature motif.By surveying studies concerned with the subjects of Venus's desire,Adonis's refusal,the comic-tragic transforming,double genders and gender reversal between Venus and Adonis,it could be assumed that the relation between Venus's desire and Adonis's reason and the desire-reason transforming are paid little attention,thus provides the significance of the present thesis.Chapter I reflects Venus's sexual indulgence during the poem's first half on the basis of the advocacy of desire by ancient Greek and Roman myths.Words involved with desire like"honey","carpe diem","fire","garden"are used to depict Venus's sexual desire for Adonis.Combined with similar descriptions of desire from the Renaissance lyrics like The Passionate Shepherd to His Love,To His Coy Mistress, The Faerie Queene,and Shakespeare's The Sonnets,we can assume that early Renaissance humanists are the advocates of desire.Chapter II explores the reasons of Adonis's refusal,tracing back from the understanding of western philosophy,theology and Christian tradition toward reason. The reasons are:Ptolemy's new model of the universe-each of man's seven age phases is corresponding to a planet and shares that planet's mythical traits;according to the ancient Adonis myth and adoration,Adonis's birth predestines the revenge complex. Rather,the Oedipus complex can also explain why Adonis should refuse the mother-like Venus;third,Venus is blamed for her confusing of the fundamental difference between human and animals and her infidelity with the god of war,which represents Adonis's instinctive reason;fourth,being endowed with specific meaning in Renaissance,hunting is the best way for Adonis to gain maturity.Chapter III sums up the evolvement of desire and reason motif from middle ages to Renaissance.Early humanists advocate the emancipation of desire,while later humanists promote reason when desire grows into indulgence.The spirits of Bacchus and Apollo are the incarnations of desire and reason respectively.The white and red flower metamorphosed by Adonis prophesies the ultimate harmony of desire and reason. Adonis's refusal,hunting,death and metamorphosis all bring on Venus's realization that only the harmony of desire and reason leads to permanent love.The conclusion points out that the desire and reason relation is the eternal literature motif.Venus experiences the processes from sexual indulgence to understanding of the harmony between desire and reason,with which Shakespeare makes it obvious that though the previous period of Renaissance promotes desire as a weapon to fight against abstinency,with the excessive expose of desire in the later period,reason shall be employed to restrict it and achieve social harmony.The discussion of the evolvement of the desire and reason motif conduces to further understanding of the contribution made by Shakespeare in the development of desire and reason relation.