Love In Achebe's La Belle Dame Sans Merci

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Unlike the romantic love presented in “La Belle Dame sans Merci”, one could argue that Achebe portrays love in its purist sense through the relationship between a mother and a child in a refugee camp. At the beginning of the poem, the mother is described as “No Madonna and Child could touch / Her tenderness for a son” The noun phrase, “Madonna and Child” is an allusion to Virgin Mary and Jesus. Likened to Virgin Mary and Jesus, the pure and ultimate love a mother has for a child is illustrated. Achebe uses plosive in his expression of, “Her tenderness for a son”, in order to reinforce and enhance how much the mother loves the son. The amount of effort and care the mother puts into her son is to an extent where it is incomparable to the other types of love. The purity of the mother’s love for her son can also be seen when she bathes him, “And rubbed him down with bare palms.” The premodifier, “bare” implies that there may be a shortage of water in the refugee camp. Despite of the brutal conditions, the mother still tries her best to use the limited tools provided to clean her son, treating him with the best she could afford. Through the mother’s sincerity and care she put into her child, the purity of filial love is presented in ‘A Mother in a Refugee Camp’.

In contrast with the pure filial love presented in ‘A Mother in a Refugee Camp’, the Duke in ‘My Last Duchess’ by Robert Browning is depicted to have a lack of sincerity in his love for the Duchess. The Duke explains to

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