Introduction
The term redemption refers to restoration of a subject to its former state. Occurrences do come up that subject people to off balances from their normal lives’ situations.
Redemption is then said to have been achieved when a restoration is attained by such individuals. When bad things happen such as conflicts that lead to wars in which lives are lost, or just little social conflict between individuals, there is an established psychological instability that may result in hatred among other negativities.
The effects of these feelings lead to affected individuals seeking to move away from the thoughts and effects of the conflicts. Such detachment from the instability forms a basis for redemption.
The act of deliverance forms a negativity that an individual has previously been suffering from. Though people try to attain redemption by fighting off the events that caused the instability in a bid to forget, it is being claimed that ‘seeking to forget makes exile all the large; the secret to redemption lies in remembrance’.
This paper seeks to discuss the relationship between remembrance and redemption. The paper will conduct a review of some stories to ascertain the relationship as depicted by the authors in the considered articles.
Othello
The topic of redemption can be significantly noted from the Shakespeare’s story of Othello. In the story, Othello was a highly regarded person in the security forces of the Venice territory. He had a close friend called Iago but chose to promote one Cassio when an opportunity arose.
This move annoyed Iago who out of jealousy set out to make evil plans against Othello. Iago took his first strike on Othello by using a third party, Roderigo, to help him in slandering Othello to a senator whose daughter Othello had eloped with. Following this move, the senator sued Othello on the ground that he used magic over his daughter.
The case was presented before the Duke who upon listening to the story of Othello and his love for the girl, ruled for the acquaintance of Othello. Iago was not satisfied with his failed mission to harm Othello and hiding under the cover of friendship, got on to his next plan to destroy Othello’s relationship with his wife.
He made Cassio drunk and then organized for an argument that led into a fight. Following a fall out between Othello and Cassio due to the fight, Iago advised Cassio to reconcile with Othello through the help of Othello’s wife. This was however a plot to destabilize Othello’s marriage. Iago then fabricated a story to portray Cassio and Othello’s wife as lovers thus driving Othello to jealousy.
Iago then convinced him to kill his wife. Meanwhile, Cassio was promoted to being a governor making Iago jealous over him. Iago then tried to organize for Cassio’s death but failed. Othello however killed his wife only to later learn that the love affair story had not been true but a fabrication by Iago. He then tried to kill Iago before killing himself. Iago also killed his wife who had revealed the truth to Othello and was finally arrested as Cassio became governor.
The story, Othello, that is based on anger and jealousy of Iago illustrated the need for redemption of a person who is possessed by an evil mind due to feelings of betrayal. The promotion that Othello had advanced to Casssio instead of Iago caused a wound that did not to heal in Iago. Consequently, the lack of redemption from this bitterness led to schemes that led to a number of lives and sufferings.
Iago’s bitterness caused Othello to, for example, be subjected to a judicial process before further causing the death of Othello and his wife. It is the same bitterness that also resulted to the events that caused the death of Iago’s wife. The story thus establishes the necessity of redemption from an emotional set up.
Mansfield Park
In the movie ‘Mansfield park’, a young girl named Fanny whose parents had a poor background went to stay with her wealthy aunt. Her other aunt by the name Norris showed no kindness to her just like the other members of her hosting aunt’s family except the younger son of the family whose name was Edmund.
This condition in which Fanny was subjected to made her to be a self concealed and shy girl. Fanny fell in love with Edmund but was not able to express her feelings to him. Meanwhile, another woman called Mary who was interested in Edmund made advances and got closer to him.
At the same time, Henry fell in love with Fanny and made advances for a relationship, a move that Fanny declined to accept. The fact that Fanny declined the marriage proposal from a rich man angered her uncle who decided to send her back to her parents to live in her family’s poverty.
A series of events that saw Henry run off with a married woman and his two sisters also elope with other men led to Fanny being invited to again stay in her aunt’s house. Edmund realized that the relationship that he had been having with Mary would not work and they broke up. Henry eventually patted ways with Maria while Julia who had eloped with Yates was together with Yates and was accepted back into their family.
Edmund and Fanny ultimately got married and the family that seemed to be troubled recovered its happiness. Contrary to the Shakespeare’s story in which a conflict was never resolved and the result was a series of deaths and arrest, the story of the Mansfield Park reveals a level of reconciliation that restored peace in a once destabilized family.
It is however noticeable that reconciliation, with is a redemption from the consequences of conflict, was not totally achieved in the Mansfield pack since some people, “Henry, Maria and Mary” were not accepted back into the family. This indicates that though there was redemption, it was limited.
It is also noticeable that the cases in which reconciliation was realized, the case of Fanny to the family, Edmund to Fanny, Yates to the family as well as Julia to the family were characterized by an unintentional conflict. It can thus be argued that though conflicts occurred between each of the pair, the conflict did not cause adverse effects leading to easier redemption from the conflicts.
A small place
The story, ‘A small place’ is a representation of a story of an island called Antigua. The main character in the story, Kincaid, offers her view of the island to the foreigners who came to the island as tourists.
Kincaid assumed the capacity of a tourist guide to reveal the perception that tourists have over the island as a beautiful place. She however asserted the opinion by tourist over the land was not actually its true nature. She to the contrary revealed poverty as a manifestation in the island together with vices such as corruption and crimes.
Kincaid also remembered in a narrator’s point of view the island during its colonial period, how the British took over the land and how the foreigners treated the natives. She however held reservation over her own people who became assimilated by the colonial power that oppressed them. She was also concerned at the state of her country. Though independent, the country was not able to develop due to the kind of leaders that were in power.
Lack of democracy that had vested power on specific individuals over a long period of time together with corruption and dictatorship were identified as some of the specific problems that faced the island. In the midst of all these, no developments were done in the land with even a library that had collapsed long time ago still being down for lack of funds.
Though she was resentful of the state of affairs in the island, Kincaid was convinced that Antigua was a beautiful land. There is a conflicting opinion between how the Kincaid viewed the island and the way the tourist viewed it. The two views are conflicting as Kincaid was of the opinion that the tourist did not truly know the island.
The representation of the island revealed a conflicting division between the rich and the poor which started in the colonial period. Though a conflict exists between these two groups and no redemption has been realized, a negative consequence has not yet been realized.
Conclusion
A study of the three stories reveals a variety of conflicts among individuals and groups of people. A conflict can be passive with no consequence as in the case of a small place, be peacefully resolved or erupt into a worse problem. Since a conflict suppressed in a passive state has a possibility of erupting, redemption remains the safe approach to resolving a conflict. There is however no clear indication as to whether forgetting or remembering is the key to redemption.