I don't really have a sociologist or anthropologist in mind for this post, but I wanted to talk about the friendship between Hermione and Paulina. They are clearly very close friends, and I'm just going to go ahead and say that they are best friends. Paulina has the dedication of a best friend. She will go down into prison even though she's not allowed, and she confronts the insane king when she is clearly not welcome, just to help Hermione and her baby.
On the other hand the story starts out with two people that are clearly supposed to be best friends and have been for most, if not all, of their lives. Leontes completely dissolves his friendship with Polixenes in a matter of seconds because of what seems to me to be uncalled for jealousy.
Are these two friendships supposed to be foils of each other?
Why do we as human beings seek the companionship of friends? Ayn Rand, who was a strong advocate for "objectivism" thought that a person should not care for anyone except themselves and that having connections with people was a waste of time and would get in the way of helping one achieve what their personal goals were. I definitely don't agree with that stand point, but I do think that some friendships should not be made (like ones where the friend will want to kill you).
Life would be so lonely without friends. I feel sorry for Ayn Rand and her beliefs. I think Shakespeare would agree (though it is a hotly debated item, I am sure) that friendship is what we seek for in a spouse/companion. Shakespeare was a proponent of true friendship, and so I believe that yes it is a foil.
ReplyDelete