Summary Of The Midnight Embrace English Literature Essay

In the story of The Midnight Embrace Lord Albert is a greedy, thoughtless, pig of a man if you can call him a man at all. He starts out the story with having who truly care for him and loves him not caring about his social and financial standings at all. Lord Albert made Josephine fall in love with his beautiful words, empty promises of the future, and nights full of passion. To then have it all ripped away with Albert’s lust and greed for the promise of worldly possessions of an inheritance of a beautiful maiden’s father. In today’s society and social world we try to have a reason and explanation for everything that happens. We use excuses saying God got you, or we call it Karma, just desserts, and many other nicknames but in the end what is the reason? For every time there is a season and for every action a reaction. Albert was getting rid of Josephine because he found something “better”. Guimilda wanted Josephine taken care of because she was afraid of her beauty would fade and Lord Albert would return his former mistress. Then with the obvious factor of Josephine being betrayed and used by a man she loved then Lord Albert becoming her murderer by the order of Guimilda swearing she would never be happy until she is gone just sets he stage for the end result of destruction.

At the very beginning our story tells us that Lord Albert is not the upright and moral guiding type of man. He is only with our fair Josephine because of her beautiful looks. Our men through out history have sometimes gotten he shaft by the rules and regulations set by society, however Lord Albert was greedy not in wealth alone but also with his women. He has the sweet, innocent Miss Josephine in total infatuation then he finds the, in his opinion more fair, Guimilda and tries to keep both under his wings so to speak, or a double dip if you will. You can not have your cake and eat it as well, life just does not work like that as much as so many of us would like for it to. So the double dipping of two women just is not happening as to what we find out when Guimilda hears the news of her soon to be or recently wedded husband she throws a temper tantrum. So Lord Albert is the typical bad guy character we see in story lines that we all hope gets what they deserve in the end and who we love to hate. Assuming from what we know in regards to Lord Albert, we can only assume that he was going to be done with our Mistress Josephine after that last midnight hour visit. So maybe with his new found investment in a wife, maybe he was going to straiten up and live his life. However, Guimilda being a typical woman, ever for today wanted proof that Lord Albert was never going to go back to his Mistress. Her choice of making that decision final was a little extreme but any woman of power would probably do the same in that time era. So in the end Lord Albert’s reasoning and motivation for his actions, to start with to make his wife happy and not tick off her Father, secondly in the text it says he was tired of Josephine.

Now onto our wife Guimilda, she plays the jealous woman role off to a hilt. Yet in reality she was the other woman in the picture, even if she did not see it fully due to the deceit in our Lord Albert. Even if Albert was married to her, yes she did have room to be mad to some degree but not to the extent that she was. The man she was married to had a mistress, past tense, but almost what man did not for that time? Guimilda took it to a whole other level with revenge that was not ever necessary. She told her new found husband well if you want me you have to kill her so you will not be tempted for the future. Who really pulls that kind of tricks to gain power and control of the situation? However, we do see this kind of situation on a minor level in today’s world, most women do not say ok go kill her so you can have me. Guimilda is a typical spoiled brat and wanting her way, a miniature temper tantrum while stomping her foot. But of course like most women we have the power of persuasion and the man will just about do anything he can for the woman he is with when he wants something from her.

Then lastly we have our pitied little country maiden Josephine. What woman has not thought of doing exactly what she did? The man she gave herself to in virtue and in heart used her and married another woman. Any woman who has ever been cheated on, myself being one of them, almost always wants revenge. I believe it is a part of the healing process really, but the question is how far women are willing to go. Josephine was murdered by the very man she loved, if I had a choice to come back and make the person who killed me life’s a living nightmare, I would in a heart beat, she did just that. On a festive night when the grand place had plenty of company where the storms picked up and she let everyone know what awful human beings they were and took her revenge, killed him with a kiss.

In conclusion, we all have something that drives us as human beings. People today try to have reasons for everything even if it is not really needed. Lord Albert’s motivation and attempt at reason was his own greed and wealth. The not so lady like Guimilda justified her actions by securing her husbands lack of future promiscuity with Josephine by merely ending her life. Then where I can not blame her, but Josephine’s driving force was merely righting a wrong. So in this story the characters reason was their downfall and caused every single one of their problems. Yes Lord Albert and Guimilda deserved what they got but was it Josephine’s place to make that decision. That’s for you to decide.