Khrysty
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- Oregon, IL
Basic synopsis, in case you haven't read it (if you have, skip to my question):
A young man named Winzy is in love with his neighbor, a girl he's grown up with: Bertha. She refuses to marry him because he's poor. He begins to work for Cornelius Agrippa who soon develops an elixir. He gives Winzy the task of watching the elixir and waking him when it turns rose-colored. As he's falling asleep, he mumbles something about it being a cure for love. Desperate to rid himself of his attachment to Bertha, he drinks half the elixir before Agrippa wakes up and startles him. He drops it and is blamed for ruining the man's life work. Winzy soon learns that this elixir actually only proved to make his love more intense, but for some reason he wins Bertha's heart and they marry. The trouble arises when she begins to age--and he does not. After burying his wife, and never aging a day over twenty, he begins to understand what's going on. As it turns out, the elixir was meant to give its drinker immortality. He doubts that this is the reality and assumes that his lifespan has just been increased..after all, he'd only consumed half of the elixir. But, he wonders, what is half of eternity? Perhaps he is immortal after all..
Anyway, I need a few theses to play off of. I've got a paper due tomorrow and I want to use this short story. The paper is about "romantic literature" that is, literature of the romantic era. That was our only guideline so this can go in any of a million and a half directions.
Any suggestions?
A young man named Winzy is in love with his neighbor, a girl he's grown up with: Bertha. She refuses to marry him because he's poor. He begins to work for Cornelius Agrippa who soon develops an elixir. He gives Winzy the task of watching the elixir and waking him when it turns rose-colored. As he's falling asleep, he mumbles something about it being a cure for love. Desperate to rid himself of his attachment to Bertha, he drinks half the elixir before Agrippa wakes up and startles him. He drops it and is blamed for ruining the man's life work. Winzy soon learns that this elixir actually only proved to make his love more intense, but for some reason he wins Bertha's heart and they marry. The trouble arises when she begins to age--and he does not. After burying his wife, and never aging a day over twenty, he begins to understand what's going on. As it turns out, the elixir was meant to give its drinker immortality. He doubts that this is the reality and assumes that his lifespan has just been increased..after all, he'd only consumed half of the elixir. But, he wonders, what is half of eternity? Perhaps he is immortal after all..
Anyway, I need a few theses to play off of. I've got a paper due tomorrow and I want to use this short story. The paper is about "romantic literature" that is, literature of the romantic era. That was our only guideline so this can go in any of a million and a half directions.
Any suggestions?
