Throughout all of history there has always been drama within stories. These stories hold virtue and truth, which make them classics and legends. Each story that has been told holds an aspect that can relate to any individual that reads its. Its main theme has always been to overcome the obstacles that come in our way, each time we see this we get a sense that we’ve been there, that we can learn from this book on how to succeed in such trials. The problem that comes into play is not an obstacle from an exterior block, but one from within.
Through many stories there are heroes and protagonists that must fight the villain or antagonists, through all this we learn the battles one must endure. Yet through this, to reach such end the protagonist must face themselves. This is the problem that is seen through all stories, it is one that rings true for many people, each person that reads fights with themselves through endurance of trying, or actually talking to themselves on how to better themselves. This is the problem, the characters have an issue mostly of trust, not only with themselves but also with others.
The oldest story that I have come across from one of the most ancient civlizations was about Inanna, in it she has a journey which she goes to the underworld and then overcomes it, and to be rebirthed, but then puts the spell of death on her partner Dumuzi. In this aspect Inanna sees him moved on from her death, she is in a mindset of grief, loss, and anger. This is all natural when surrounding death, she saw death in the eye and escaped it to live on earth once more. It is all a disturbing aspect as he has moved on, on a throne, and yet out of nowhere his partner who he thought was dead, put’s him to his death.
It is symbolism how when one moves on, there is always an aspect of grief, yet he wanted to be happy in life, and when she saw he was happy without her she was enraged, this is when the horror of this story happens. We see this in detail when Inanna comes back with a “curse” of putting someone to the underworld, “Inanna fastened on Dumuzi the eye of death. She spoke against him the word of wrath. She uttered against him the cry of guilt: “Take him! Take Dumuzi away! “(71) With this act we see all of the power Inanna has, and all the hatred she is willing to put onto someone else.
It is here we notice that she is not battling with herself, or with Dumuzi, she is in fact battling Death, this aspect I have now seen that it occurs because she has the option to get out of the Underworld, a feat that no one else can accomplish, and she puts it onto a man she once loved, who is now gone and living a life that is separate to one she thought of. It is from this we the reader realize that to go through death, be it having a near death experience, or being with someone who has been through these hardships, we realize how much of a challenge it is to adjust to normal life.
Inanna may never be the same again, she will always have this “eye of death” for it is her eye’s that have seen ‘hell and lived to tell the tale. She is a strong character but did some horrible things to survive, she had no remorse for the longest time, for | thought it was death still apart of her, she had to adapt to her surroundings for the time being and experience life. Dumuzi suffered a horrible fate and she had to put him through what she experienced, for him to understand how she felt when she arrived again to Earth.
Inanna’s trust for Dumuzi was tarnished, and we see how this can relate to the audience as everyone has had their honesty, and trust crushed at one time or another. Another story that holds true for this is Gilgamesh, in it we see Enkidu, a being that was created as a better half of Gilgamesh. He begins to change throughout even though his image was supposed to be pure, we see that Enkidu, a man of the forest, who belongs to those creatures becomes resented by those creatures.
When he mates with a woman he begins to change, and when he efriends Gilgamesh he begins to change as well, this is because through all adaption there is a lining that gets crossed, when someone’s mentality changes, their behavior changes. Through the journey back into the forest, Enkidu starts off not thinking that the idea of fighting Humbaba is a good idea, he still holds dear the forest that created him, as an original being of man, he has always felt this way. It isn’t until his facade changes when he utters words that one would never hear him say, it’s as if he changed entirely and became someone else.
He is in Gilgamesh’s ear while Humbaba is begging them not to kill him, in it Humbaba says, “Gilgamesh, have mercy. Let me live her in the Cedar Forest. If you spare my life, I will be your slave, I will give you as many cedars as you wish. You are king of Uruk by the grace of Shamash, honor him with a cedar temple and a glorious cedar palace for yourself. All this is yours, if only you spare. “(124) These are the words Humbaba squeals but to counter it Enkidu finally tells Gilgamesh, “Dear friend, don’t listen to anything that the monster says. Kill him before you become confused. (124)
This is a pivotal moment we see a man of nature, fight against nature, we see that he doubts his previous being. I believe it is the cause of from when Enkidu first mated with a woman, the animals left him, he feels that if Humbaba were to be left, the trust would be gone and he would turn against them. He begins to doubt and even his dreams are telling him that an unfortunate outcome would arise. H beginning to bring down his previous mentality and it is one that used to be an innate altruism, where nature was inside him and he would be truthful to all and disregard no one.
Now being with Gilgamesh he has lost that, he fell into a mindset that is tarnished, one that is not pure, he has dreams to where Gilgamesh has to pull him out of and bring him back to reality. Honestly is something that can show people who you really are, and to doubt their honesty and not give them a change is something that a paranoid person would do. As with Inanna she lost her mind, she fell into a maze that is hell, her mind an enigma, as well as with Enkidu’s when they were in the forest, passing in a forest, he began to doubt his strength, as did Gilgamesh.
We begin to see a pattern that lasts in all stories, there is a loss of honesty and trust, to see someone you thought you knew, behave differently and act differently towards others, they begin to lose their essence as Enkidu did with his ‘nature’ and as Inanna did with her ‘life’. In fairy tales we see this in every story that happens. There are clear cut morals that resound from the pages of these tales, one of which being ‘The Frog King, Or Iron Heinrich’ we see how a girl tries to sway a from out of a deal, “The princess thought, ‘What is this stupid frog saying?
Whatever he thinks, he’ll have to stay in the water where he belongs. Perhaps he can get my ball. ‘ But of course she didn’t say that. Instead she said, ‘Yes, yes, I’ll promise you all of that if you just bring me my ball. ” (4) We see in fairytales that the outcome is easier to see than the previous two stories, we see it when the elder, ‘the king’ tells the girl what must be done, “The King said, ‘Fl you make a promise, you have to keep it. GO and let him in. ” (5) This is where the action starts but it is from the wise king to where children get a sense of what their parents would tell them in person.
We get a sense of the opposite in the ‘The Cat and the Mouse Set UP House’ where the nature rings true, and to always doubt a circumstance that may arise. To where Inanna is about distrust, and Gilgamesh was about not trusting the word of others, the king with the openness of honest promises to others, we see in this story how a Cat and Mouse should never get along. We see in one aspect when they agree to get something together the Cat had and underlying reason, “Of course, the cat’s story was a pack of lies.
He had no cousin at all, and no one who knew him would dream of asking him to be a godfather. What he did was to go straight to the church, creep under the altar, open the pot of fat and lick the skin off the top. ” (10) We the reader senses that something is wrong when the cat originally wants to start something with the mouse, it is because nature as we saw in Gilgamesh, never changes, as Enkidu started off with the animals, it was his nature to be part of the humans, thus showing distrust towards the ‘forest.
It is here we notice that the term “cat & mouse” holds up because even though they seem nice at first the cat will always turn against the mouse, there are instances where this may not be true but most of the time this is the cause. We see this also in Rumpelstiltskin where promises are meant to be kept from the beginning, for any child reading we see how drastic the outcome could be if nothing is held upon their word, death could be a possibility. When the miller’s daughter goes through a hardship of spinning gold she encounters Rumpelstiltskin who can help her.
She promises everything that she has, but on the third time she promises something that hasn’t even happened yet. This is an important lesson of honesty, and trust because he comes back a year later to pick up him reward from her which is a baby. Before this she was left in turmoil to work because her father made her, and to be married off to a king that could have killed her. When she finishes making her promise for the third time we see the word ‘promise’ from the king’s standpoint, “He set to work, and by the morning all the straw had been spun into gold.
When the king saw it he kept his promise, and the miller’s lovely daughter became the queen. ” (223) It is here we see that she now has to have a child for the king and for Rumpelstiltskin. She is a place where her only chance of having the child back is to find it the hard way, playing with Rumpelstiltskin’s game and trying to find his name. This also shows the reader the hardest way in life, is making promise’s that one can’t keep, and if they do its usually the hardest way if made in a situation that in unbearable.
