Reading Diary A: Cupid and Psyche

This reading unit (Cupid and Psyche) is really cool so far. I love that this is considered to be the first fairytale. The similarities to Beauty and the Beast are so easily apparent. I particularly like that episode of the story Psyche's Husband Warns Her of Danger as well as Psyche's Husband Revealed.

Psyche and Cupid depicted in Psyche et l'Amour
endormi by Peter Paul Rubens (1636)

After the Psyche sees that her husband is Cupid and not some monstrous snake, her shame is so evident. She is almost frantic. She tries to hide her knife in the top of her dress but it flies out of her hand in her rush. The description of her actions after her reveal give the image of someone so frazzled and surprised into shame and remorse. I like this depiction because I think it is revealing of Pysche's character. She is a woman caught in a very strange situation. She is alone and lonely, and in love with a man she has never seen before. This would be a stressful situation, one in which it would be easy for people to instill fear and doubt within her, and her sisters do just that.

I think the depth of her shame and her remorse of bringing the knife to bed upon seeing her husband is evidence of how vulnerable she was to her sisters' claims, as well as how relieved she must feel to know her husband had been telling her the truth, and trying to protect her against her sisters' lies.

I found it really interesting that she pricked herself with one of Cupid's arrows as well. It was an added element to the story that I did not forsee. Psyche already seemed to be falling in love with Cupid in the dark nights when he came to her. That while she was trying to reconcile her husband's identity with the plot her sisters' had created for her, she pricked her finger and fell more deeply in love with Cupid adds some tragedy to the story.

Cupid had warned her that if she tried to see his face there would be dramatic and serious consequences. Her breaking those rules and then fall uncontrollably further in love with him almost seems a cruel trick, particularly when it is easy to predict what will likely happen next, Cupid's departure.