Yin and Yang in Literary Relationships Yin

Yin and Yang in Literary Relationships

Yin and Yang in eastern philosophy constitute two parts of a whole. The one cannot exist without the other. They also represent perfect balance; if one dominates, the balance is disturbed and there is conflict. This idea can be applied to several literary relationships, including Adam and Eve from Milton's Paradise Lost and Gilgamesh and Enkidu from the epic Gilgamesh.

Adam and Eve

The Biblical Adam and Eve begin their lives in perfect wholeness and bliss. God makes them equal, they share everything and they lack nothing. Their love binds them in complete unity and balance. They are also bound together by their obedience and love for God.

The imbalance comes with the arrival of the snake. The snake tempts Eve away from what she knows is right. When she tempts Adam, there is an imbalance between the two of them and Adam attempts to restore this imbalance by accepting the temptation. This is however a mistake and he causes them to forever break the perfect yin/yang relationship between them, in unity and harmony with God.

In Paradise Lost the Fall is felt by everything. Adam and Eve have not only deprived themselves of harmony, but also the rest of the earth.

Gilgamesh and Enkidu

Gilgamesh and Enkidu on the other hand are the symbol of the perfectly balanced relationship in a world which is broken. Their love heals what Adam and Eve's submission to temptation has destroyed.

The love that Gilgamesh and Enkidu experience is sacred, sanctifying everything it touches. They are balanced through the fact that they know each other, like each other, and find in each other themselves.

The Ninth Day and the Miller

The Sixth Story of the Ninth Day" by Boccaccio and "The Miller's Tale" by Chaucer both fall into the category of the "faiblaux," meant for the entertainment of the rough and middle classes. These tails were also used by the elite to look down upon the classes for whom they were meant. These stories mostly had absurd sexual content, which could be wildly entertaining and humorous. Both tales are also told through the mouths of characters in the collections of tales written by the two authors.

The Sixth Story of the Ninth Day

This story concerns the inn-keeper's daughter, Niccolosa, who fell in love with and was loved in return by Pinuccio, described as a very gallant gentleman. According to the narrator there were not many of those where the girl lived. So she was delighted that he fell in love with her. However, both being human, they were overcome with sexual desire for each other.

Thus Pinuccio makes a plan to get into Niccolosa's bed. This plan results in him sleeping with Niccolosa, and his friend sleeping with the inn-keeper's wife, by mistake of course.

Everything however works out in the end, and the tale ends delightfully with the mother covering for the daughter, as they both had a night of pleasure they did not wish to reveal to the inn-keeper.

The Miller's Tale

The tale following the Knight's Tale in Chaucer's work has the same unreservedly bawdy content. It is an antidote to the oppressive epic honor in the previous tale, told by the stodgy Knight. The characters in the Miller's tale are also of a low class, as the inn-keeper's family, and Nicolas, like Pinuccio, is refined and educated. In the end everyone is justly rewarded, whereas in Boccaccio's tale one gets the sense that the characters get away with indiscretion.

Dreams as Vehicles of Truth

In literature dreams are an element that is often used to reveal the truth, or a connection to the spirit world, to the dreamer.

Paradise Lost

In Book IV of Paradise Lost Eve is visited by Satan in a dream. This is his initial attempt at tempting her. She is here put into contact with the spirit world by her dream, but not with truth. Truth comes in the form of Gabriel, who banishes Satan from Eve's dream. It is however too late and the seed has been planted in Eve's mind. In Book V Eve tells Adam of her dream, and he dislikes it. Raphael is then sent by God to warn Adam of Satan's plans. In this way a dream is used to initiate the temptation.