Surname 1 Name Name of Professor Date of Submission Name of Institution The role of Sex and Passion in "The Good Soldier." The text titled, "The Good Soldier" has several themes. One of the most prominent themes is the distinction between reality and appearance. All the characters in the text are not who they seem to be or who Dowell assumes them to be. Edward who is thought to be a trustworthy and honest soldier is not a good soldier in reality. Florence also is not a good wife as assumed to be. Leonora also like her counterparts is not an upright woman. This text traces the events preceding the realization that appearances may be different from reality. Sex and passion are the main factors that bring out the negative sides of the characters. Much of the text revolves around the way that various characters engaged in infidelity and how it later came to destroy their lives. Sex is a powerful force that can damage or build relationships. It is clear from the text that the characters were driven by an illicit passion which in the long run destroyed most of their lives. Adultery in the text titled, "A Good Soldier" is a force that destroys society. Adultery at its core is a violation of the contract that parties sign when they decide to enter into marriage. Even more severely, infidelity undermines the structure of marriage and even more so when married couples engage in adultery, it undermines the structure upon which family is formed and on which the unity of the country stands (Levenson 375). Infidelity can be an act of power, and it can also be an act of passion. There are two types of adulteries presented in the text. The first
Surname 2 type is conservative adultery that is practiced by Rodney Bayham while the second type is called passionate adultery exhibited by Edward Ashburnham (Ford 124). Passionate adultery is more dangerous than conservative adultery because in most of the cases it leads to impracticality and also instability. Sex and great attachment which are characteristics of passionate adultery are dangerous, and they often lead to the dissolution of many marriages. The narrator in the text assumes that faithfulness in marriage is a basic level of human morality. When it gets to a point where faithfulness gets questioned, then all morality is threatened. Due to the confusion surrounding the issue of sex in the text, Dowell wonders why there is so much darkness around sexual morality and also what has been put in place to guide individuals about the subtle morality of all other personal associations. It is clear from the text that many hearts in the book get broken as a result of infidelity. Although Ford Madox wrote this text in the year 1915, most of the happenings in the novel continue to happen to date. Families continue to get broken as partners decide to seek intimacy outside of marriage. Most of the times, intimacy levels go down due to financial constraints or at times because the couples are too busy to even
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