English 102-08
22 October 2012
Space for Love: Nature’s Domain While reading the assigned texts I’ve noticed that love needs special settings and spaces. Throughout time these spaces have adapted and changed to help suit generations. Literature has played a key role in the changing of these places. Although each writer’s interpretation of love-like settings may differ from one another, there are very basic similarities between them. Tradition has made it so that nature is almost always involved in these, “Spaces for Love.” Also, traditionally we would expect love between opposite sexes but there is tremendous amounts of literature written now that involve love between the same sexes. My goal in this essay is to show that through the
“Gardenias,” is a lot different from Song of Songs. For starters, while Song of Songs is a romance story, “Gardenias,” is more of a tragedy. Also, “Gardenias,” is an elegy of love lost between the same sexes. These differences make the story different but nature still plays parts in the space for love. There are still points where nature is referenced. “Watered the white blooms wafting may to mid-August now and then you’d bring one in floating in a bowl and leave it on my desk by such small tokens did the world grow green.” (Monette) Here you can see the connection made between how he feels and nature. When one thinks nature it is common that they think of trees, plants, and earthly things. Those things are green and the green of plants represents growth and health. He’s stating that the small things his love did for him made the world green in his eyes. It had to have been a very special love for the little things to mean so much to him. In Gardenias the love interest dies and afterwards the author tries to cope with his loss. “I was out in the garden to die of the pain but wait what is this Thomas Hardy a furled gardenia just coming out,” (Monette) In the story he explains how the garden is where they fell in love. Just like in Song of Songs the garden was a sacred place to them. It was where their love was able to grow. He returns to the garden after the death because it’s really the only thing that could provide any sort of comfort. So