Reading Notes: Cupid and Psyche, Part A
This week I read the story of Cupid and Psyche! I was interested in reading Cupid and Psyche, because I wanted to learn about both characters' origins and background. I knew the basics - Cupid has an arrow that immediately causes someone to fall in love and that Psyche was an extremely beautiful girl . In today's reading notes, I will be focusing on the strategies of point of view and setting.
Starting with the section Her Dream, point of view becomes extremely important. A girl is kidnapped and an old woman attempts to ease her worries. To do so, the old woman tells her the story of Cupid and Psyche. In order to change the point of view, the author first familiarizes the audience with the actual characters of the story - the robbers, a girl, and an old woman. Then in the next chapters, the audience becomes the kidnapped girl, and the speaker becomes the old woman. The point of view changes from third person omniscient to third person limited point of view. The remaining sections of Part A remains in third person limited point of view. The author indicated the shift by the words "And she began." Only a few words were necessary to make the shift. Once the old woman begins the story, the actual characters' thoughts were not included.
Moving onto the next section Psyche's Beauty and the Anger of Venus, great detail is provided to showcase the setting. Since the setting went from the dirty, ominous hideout to a beautiful, magnificent city, the old women provided great detail. The old women describes the people, the city, the visors, the ocean waters, and their emotions. A change in speech is also present. The old women shifted from casual language to factual, animated language. This in turn aided in visualizing the setting of the story. The old women created a new environment for the girl and was able to take her away from her current reality. Even the readers do not remember that the story is being told by the old women. The setting is constantly changing throughout the readings of Part A. Therefore, each setting is always introduced all through the story to provide a constant visual for the readers.
These are two strategies I learned from this reading!
Bibliography:
The Golden Ass by Apuleius
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