Preview

'Sex Without Love' By Sharon Olds

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
644 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
'Sex Without Love' By Sharon Olds
Love has many different meanings to different people and the way Sharon Odds and Andrew Marvell describe love is definitely diverse and singular, they both have different views of how love and sex should be expressed.
In “Sex without Love" by Sharon Olds the speaker presents a clear view of the use of irony. She also reveals disgust for casual sex. She captures the shameful act of immoral sex and animates it with her language structure. Her use of imagery creates a picture in the readers mind. The elements that are compared with the idea of sex without love are usually seen as beautiful circumstances, but due to word choice these elements quickly turn into a disturbing scene as the poem develops. Andrew Marvell in “To his coy Mistress” has a different idea of how love and sex should develop. The speaker seeks to convince his lady to surrender her virginity to him and expresses a cynical, selfish view of life that sees the only escape from the hopelessness of a lifeless eternity in the physical pleasures of sexual intimacy. …show more content…
Olds begins to answer her own question with a metaphor; "Beautiful as dancers, gliding over each other like ice skaters, over ice,"(2) the use of the ice skater feels simplistic but looking deeper, ice skaters are just performers performing an act that must be faked in order to show happiness and beauty. The dance is also performed on the ice implying that the act of sex without love is cold and
Continue Reading
View Writing Issues

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Powerful Essays

    Compare the Views of Relationships in ‘the Unequal Fetters’ with Those in ‘to His Coy Mistress’. What Is Suggested About the Different Ways in Which Men and Women View Love?
    • 2031 Words
    • 9 Pages

    Compare the Views of Relationships in ‘the Unequal Fetters’ with Those in ‘to His Coy Mistress’. What Is Suggested About the Different Ways in Which Men and Women View Love?

    ‘To His Coy Mistress’ was written by Andrew Marvell (1621-1678). The poem is a metaphysical poem, which was mostly used in the seventeenth century and was classed as a highly intellectual type of poetry and mainly expressed the complexities of love and life; just as this poem is. In brief the poem is about seizing every opportunity in life and not caring about the past or future. In other words ‘seize the day’. The poem also explores the nature of seduction.…

    • 2031 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Powerful Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Last Night By Sharon Olds
    • 219 Words
    • 1 Page

    Last Night By Sharon Olds

    more intimate sex from a previous lover. Throughout the poem, the speaker is unhappy and…

    • 219 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    How Does Huxley Use Satire In Brave New World
    • 745 Words
    • 3 Pages

    How Does Huxley Use Satire In Brave New World

    The ironic presentation of meaningless sexual relations in Brave New World highlighted the importance of how the biological and emotional aspects involved are is necessary. In the novel children are encouraged to play “rudimentary sexual games” (31) and are viewed as abnormal if they do not want to join in on the erotic play. This seems…

    • 745 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Focus Journal # 20, Sharon Olds, the Promise, 591
    • 286 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Focus Journal # 20, Sharon Olds, the Promise, 591

    II. Analyzing: In this poem Olds does a great job painting a visual picture in the readers mind. “We are also in our/bed, fitted naked closely/ along each other¸half passed out/ after love, drifting back and/ forth across the border of consciousness, our/ bodies buoyant, clasped.” These lines allow the reader to see how much the couple love each other, and the enjoyment they have together. The imagery in these lines is so amazingly written and described.…

    • 286 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Claudio And Benedick Love
    • 743 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Claudio And Benedick Love

    Love can be seen in many different ways for many different people. Though, the internet states it as an intense feeling of deep affection. That is plain, boring, and does not really branch off of what love is. Love is when butterflies erupt, or a face brightens at the mention of someone's name. Love is when two people have a mutual respect for each other and they want to give them everything they can possibly give.…

    • 743 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Love 2.0 By Barbara Fredrickson
    • 166 Words
    • 1 Page

    Love 2.0 By Barbara Fredrickson

    Leslie Bell’s “Hard to Get”, Barbara Fredrickson’s “Love 2.0”, and Daniel Gilbert’s “Immune to Reality” all focus on a central theme of the unconscious while touching on the subject uniquely. Bell touches on the subject of the unconscious through the idea of splitting, Fredrickson focuses on the unconscious in terms of the body’s perspective on love, and Gilbert expresses his views on the unconscious through his idea of “cooking the facts (Gilbert 131).” Each author expresses the importance of the unconscious thought and the influence it can have on our interactions and behaviors, and to what degree. Fredrickson believes making the unconscious conscious in more positively influential, whereas Bell and Gilbert believe making the unconscious…

    • 166 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Sharon Olds
    • 579 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Sharon Olds

    Love is sacred. The goosebumps painted on the skin are worthless without it. “Last Night”, written by Sharon Olds, is a perfect reflection of how being in love has a profound effect when in relation to intimacy. Olds compares her experience while being in love, to her experience when her feelings for her partner are neutral. Throughout this piece Olds conveys her message with the use of similes, repetition, imagery, and hyperbole.…

    • 579 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    The Bloody Chamber Analysis
    • 1437 Words
    • 6 Pages

    The Bloody Chamber Analysis

    In novels it is common for the concept of love or sexuality to be present. This idea can present itself in many forms, and in both Jerzy Kosinski’s book Being There and Angela Carter’s book The Bloody Chamber this is illustrated. In both books the concept of love and sexuality can be seen in both dark and light contexts, with highly varying situations. In Being There and The Bloody Chamber the presence of genuine love, a lack of genuine love, and sexuality are all explored.…

    • 1437 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Prosodic Analysis
    • 876 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Prosodic Analysis

    Charles Martin’s poem, “Victoria’s Secret,” presents a witty dichotomy between bedroom values in Victorian times and in the present. Martin first paints for his readers a picture of women’s sexuality in the Victorian times: Women were to lie perfectly flat when their husbands were “getting it off on them” (line 2). They were even urged to imagine themselves doing something fun during the process, like buying a new hat. This humorous depiction of men’s callous disregard for women in Victorian sex is contrasted by Martin’s description of modern sex, of Victoria Secret models traipsing along in their lingerie, showing off their “fullbreasted,” “airbrushed” bodies, baring their sexuality for all to see. But through this juxtaposition of time eras and strong correlation between content and form, Martin unearths an insightful question: Are women sexually liberated? Martin masterfully employs the prosodic tools of meter, metrical substitutions, rhyme, and an implied metaphor to to guide his readers to reevaluate the veracity of our “sexual liberation.”…

    • 876 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Gender Roles In The Bloody Chamber
    • 481 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Gender Roles In The Bloody Chamber

    A topic often brought up in class discussion throughout the semester was sexuality and the many aspects involved; changing my personal perception of sexuality. In September I believed sexuality was just the act of sex and or being promiscuous, but it’s a much broader subject. The Bloody Chamber by Angela Carter is a re-mastered version of the fairy tale Blue Beard with a sexual spin. It perfectly depicts the ideal image of sexuality to one who is more innocent than someone more experienced then alters it and shows us its variations after they’ve gained experience. This essay will explore the deception, dominance and violence surrounding the sexual relationship between the heroine and Marquis. Angela explores the aspect…

    • 481 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Lust by Susan Minot
    • 689 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Lust by Susan Minot

    Lust is having a self-indulgent sexual desire. Susan Minot portrayed the mind of a promiscuous high school female perfectly. Lust is powerful and seductive, but it's inherently selfish and opposed to love. For many girls who are having sex with different boys they can identify with the desire to be needed. The characters in "Lust" are written in a way to highlight the dysfunction and disconnection of everyone involved. The narrator herself is nameless and faceless, making the reader believe that she has already somehow disappeared, just as the men in her life have made her disappear after having sex. Similarly, the men are listed in a brief and are identified only by their sexual acts or by other, easily objectified characteristics. What makes the story sad is the girl knows she is basically nothing. Many people who have casual sex start to feel this way, there is usually something missing in their lives. While reading the story I kept asking myself "where are her parents" after realizing that she is in boarding school things suddenly became clear.…

    • 689 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Compare and Contrast
    • 968 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Compare and Contrast

    “Sex without Love” begins asking the reader a question, “How do they do it, the ones who make love without love?/” (Love 1-2). She there sets out her main point in writing this poem; how can the make something as beautiful as love without loving each other. She compares making love to that of “beautiful dancers/” (Love2) who are “gliding over each other like ice skaters over the ice/”(Love 2-3). When we then talk about her other poem, “Last Night”, it also provides us with vivid images that show the disconnection between the participants. “Love? It was more like dragonflies/ in the sun, 100 degrees at noon…/” (Night 1-2). She here describes how she felt when she was having sex with that other person, she then goes on to describe how she was having sex. “No kiss,/ no tenderness-more like killing, death grip/ holding to life, genitals/ like violent hands clasped tight/ barely moving, more like being closed/ in a great jaw and eaten/” (Night 12-17). “Sex without Love” provides us with vivid images that show us how she feels when she is having sex with someone she loves while in “Last Night” she describes how she felt while having sex with someone she didn’t love; it was a more rough and emotionless sex.…

    • 968 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Literature Shows Us That Sexual Desire Must Be Restrained
    • 1348 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Literature Shows Us That Sexual Desire Must Be Restrained

    circumstance? ... For money?” Referring to sex particularly as a ‘cause of life’ highlights the intimacy and…

    • 1348 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Better Essays

    Definition Essay: What Is Love?
    • 1337 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Definition Essay: What Is Love?

    different meanings of love and possibly define the word “love”. I believe the word love is…

    • 1337 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Definition Essay On Love
    • 644 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Definition Essay On Love

    There are many emotions that are not easy to understand, one of the most complicate feeling that have somehow affect people life is love. It is the feeling that almost everyone have experienced. The meaning of love is not only varies between different cultures, which western people tend to focus more on passion than eastern people, but also between different people. Each person may have their own definition of love according to their experience or their own believe. However, according to the Cambridge dictionary, the meaning of love is to have a strong affection for someone, which can be combined with a strong romantic attraction. As seen in the definition, the word love can be use to describe other emotion rather than romantic feeling between…

    • 644 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More

Related Topics