Adultery In Fiction

An analysis of Lysias' first oration in light of the typical adultery tale. This study explores some as yet unappreciated ironic touches in Euphiletus' account and examines some of the deeper structures that inform his seemingly transparent narrative. The article then considers the historicity of the speech: while certainty is impossible, there are indications that Lysias 1 could represent a rhetorical exercise, designed both to display the logographer's skill and to entertain.

In an attempt to shed light on the exchange between Amphitruo and Alcumena at Plautus, Amphitruo 831-36, this paper examines a widespread comic tradition involving the faithless wife's exploitation of an equivocal oath to conceal her guilt. Ironically, Alcumena's earnest protestations of fidelity conform precisely to the tradition, recalling the brazen half-truths of the typical comic adulteress while simultaneously enhancing the impression of the human agents in this work as unwitting players in a divinely staged farce.

Considers possible connections between the adultery narrative in Lysias' first oration (early 4th C. BC) and two episodes of Chariton's romantic novel, Chaireas and Callirhoe (1st/2nd C. AD). The various similarities detected by earlier studies are found to be grounded in traditional elements of the comic adultery tale, as well as in received attitudes toward women, marriage, and the family. More striking is Chariton's metatextual recollection of staged adultery narratives in Roman mime.

At all the stages of European history, adultery has been considered a serious offence that jeopardizes the basic cell of society – family. As society has evolved, significance and the role of the family within it changed, as well as the attitudes towards marriage and adultery. This article aims to demonstrate, by analysis of Horace’s and Juvenal’s satires, how the emancipation of Roman women altered the vision of the adultery in Roman
satire and how these changes have reflected on the language of this genre.
Key words: adultery, satire, emancipation of women, Horace, Juvenal

The “erotic” Greek novels place at the centre of the plot an orthodox, heterosexual, monogamous, and lifelong love affair between a young man and a maiden. By contrast, the so-called “open” or “fringe” novels (a group of diverse works which share some basic common traits, such as a linear biographical narrative, non-organic structure, a trickster protagonist, the mixture of many storytelling genres, and a fluid textual transmission) treat eros in a starkly different manner: love stories are pushed to the margins of the narrative, in peripheral episodes or inserted tales; and instead of the idealized, model love of the erotic novels, there is a variety of deviant passions, forbidden liaisons, or sexual aberrations. The creators of the “open” texts consciously adopted the exact opposite practice than the erotic novels, in order to clearly demarcate their genre as a different mode of fictional storytelling. The pathology of love thus became a marker of generic identity.

Four examples are adduced from the corpus of the “open” novels to illustrate this proposition. In the Alexander Romance the main narrative is completely devoid of eroticism, even in episodes which would have been suitable for such treatment. The only love affair is the adulterous liaison between Nectanebo and Queen Olympias, an unlawful and immoral relationship which leads to the birth of Alexander. This is placed in the preliminaries of the story, provides the starting point for the plot, but has no further reverberations after the initial chapters. Similarly, the Life of the Philosopher Secundus begins with a scene of near-incest, which motivates the rest of the narrative. The Historia Apollonii regis Tyri reworks some of the standard themes of the canonical erotic romances (the idealized monogamous love, the lovers’ separation and reunion, the maiden who struggles to preserve her virginity) but arranges them in unusual new combinations and distorts their form. This idiosyncratic fragmentation of the traditional love plot is prefaced by a horrendous episode of father-daughter incest, which sets the action in motion but is forgotten afterwards. Finally, the Life of Aesop includes a series of tales about various aspects of perverse eroticism (exhibitionism, nymphomania, adultery, necrophilia, bestiality, rape, incest) — a veritable anthology of deviant sex dispersed through the narrative. These episodes are either inserted paradigmatic stories or secondary incidents without a central role in the plot. In these respects, the Life completely overturns the standard pattern of the erotic novels.

The attractions Roopa experienced and the fantasies she entertained as a teen shaped a male imagery that ensconced her subconscious. Insensibly, confident carriage came to be associated with the image of maleness in her mind-set. Her acute consciousness of masculinity only increased her vulnerability to it, making her womanliness crave for the maleness for its gratification.

However, as her father was constrained to help her in becoming a doctor, she opts to marry, hoping that Sathyam might serve her cause though the persona she envisioned as masculine, she found lacking in him. But as he fails to go with her idea, she becomes apathetic towards him, and insensibly sinks into her friend Sandhya’s embrace, for lesbian solace.

Soon, in a dramatic sequence of events, Tara, a suave call girl, tries to rope Roopa into her calling; Roopa herself loses her heart to Sandhya's beau Raja Rao, and Prasad, her husband’s friend falls for her. And as Prasad begins to induce Sathyam to be seduced by whores to worm his way into her affections, Roopa finds herself in a dilemma. However, as fate puts Raja Rao into Roopa’s arms in such a way as to lend novelty to fiction, this ‘novel’ nuances man-woman chemistry on one hand, and portrays woman-woman empathy on the other.

Who said the novel is dead; 'Benign Flame' raises the bar as vouched by -

The plot is quite effective and it’s a refreshing surprise to discover that the story will not trace a fall into disaster for Roopa, given that many writers might have habitually followed that course with a wife who strays into extramarital affairs - Spencer Critchley, Literary Critic, U.S.A.

The author has convinced the readers that love is something far beyond the marriage tie and the fulfillment love can be attained without marriage bondage. The author has achieved a minor revolution without any paraphernalia of revolution in the fourth part of the novel – The Quest, India.

The author makes free use of – not interior monologue as such, but – interior dialogue of the character with the self, almost resembling the dramatic monologue of Browning. Roopa, Sandhya, Raja Rao and Prasad to a considerable extent and Tara and Sathyam to a limited degree indulge in rationalization, trying to analyse their drives and impulses – The Journal of Indian Writing in English.

Overall, Benign Flame is a unique attempt at exploring adult relationships and sexuality in the contemporary middle-class. All the characters come alive with their cravings and failings, their love and their lust. Benign Flame blurs the lines and emphasizes that life is not all black and white - it encompasses the full spectrum of living - Indian Book Chronicle.

This book -
Dedicated to Naagamani, my better half
who still leaves no stone unturned for my fulfillment -
comprises of
1. Ramaiah’s Family
2. Realities of Life
3. Hapless Hope
4. Turn at the Tether
5. Moorings of Marriage
6. World within the World 
7. Roopa’s En Passant 
8. Threshold of Temptation
9. Sathyam’s Surrender
10. Sandhya’s Sojourn
11. Match in the Making
12. Poignant Moment
13. Wedding Season
14.  Veil of Fate
15. Naughty Nuptials
16. Tidings of Love
17. Tentative Moves
18. Fetishes of Fantasy
19. Curtain of Courtesy
20. Blueprint in the Offing
21. Enduring Longing
22. Villainy of Life
23. Playboy at Play
24. Scheming the Theme
25. Device of Deceit
26. Software of Detour
27. Tara’s Theory
28. Night of the Mates
29. A Brimming Romance 
30. Euphoric Forays
31. Living the Dream
32. Chat at the Bar
33. Amour on Rein
34. Surge of a Merge 
35. Date with Destiny
36. Threesome Sail
37. End of an Innings
38. Subdued Beginning

The account of the Lydian king Gyges' ascent to the throne offered in Nicolaus of Damascus' Universal History (1st C. BC) has been traced directly to the work of the fifth-century Lydian historian Xanthus. This study examines Nicolaus' clever manipulation of narrative motifs derived from the Bellerophon myth and the first speech of the 5th/4th-century Attic orator Lysias. The use of the latter, in particular, suggests that the relationship to Xanthus' account is far from straightforward and tells against the view of Nicolaus as a mere redactor.

Los estudios recientes sobre género y fin de siglo se han centrado en la inseparabilidad entre la política cultural y la sexual en la Europa finisecular. 1Las preocupaciones en torno a cuestiones del género y la sexualidad, en las cuales se reflejaban las ansiedades colectivas de una sociedad en transición, estaban íntimamente ligadas al problema del control social.

The author aims to present the work of Evdokia Nagrodskaia, a Russian author now fallen into oblivion. To do this, he briefly discusses the literary context of the time and her biography, before analyzing in greater depth her book The Wrath of Dionysus, which was a bestseller in Russia in the early 20th century. He tries, through the analysis of this novel, to rediscover a novelist both despised by the Russian intelligentsia for writing popular literature, and strongly criticized by the former censors for treating themes related both to female adultery, homosexuality and lesbianism. By that he’s trying to show that Nagrodskaia is primarily a novelist avant-garde which deals with libertinism far more than pornography and that her freethinking is both sexual and political.

In the second half of the 1st cent. BC, the status of the woman, with its
symbol - the particular dress, was among main topics in the controversy
over sexual offences. Sexual intercourse was illicit only if committed with
respectable women; on the contrary, women that did not possess the dignity,
which could be diminished with fornication (prostitutes, actresses,
slaves, freedwomen), were therefore at the disposal to all. All these topics:
the status, the dress, and various categories of women appear in Horace’s
Satires as well as in Augustus’ laws. The legislator and the satirist are inspired
by the Roman moral tradition; therefore, the treatment of these topics
varies only where the legislator innovates, departing from the ancient
moral code. The keyword of the controversy is matrona. In the literature of
Augustus’ times, as well as in the lex Iulia, matrona often stands for women
engaged in adultery or stuprum; its frequent use in Satires, exclusively for
adulteresses, indicates that the public discourse influenced Horace’s writings
on the lexical level as well.
The right of the cuckolded husband to revenge was another controversial
topic. Adulterer could have been, as Horace testifies, killed, flogged,
beaten, castrated or raped. All these punishments, besides sexual violence,
are well attested in other literary and legal sources; therefore, there is a
great probability that they were indeed practiced. On the other hand, rape,
as punishment for adultery, appears only in satire and epigram, which
indicates that such punishments were probably a product of literary fiction.
A list of punishments similar to one offered by Horace appears in
the compendium of Valerius Maximus, indicating that the satirist and the
rhetorician might had been familiar with the same or similar compilation
or handbook. Many other calamities that threaten the adulterer in Satires
are borrowed from the mime; their main aim is to amuse the reader.
Husband could give up his right to revenge in return for the certain
amount of money. Equity was legal, and practiced from Plautus times
onwards; though, it often aroused public disdain. Literates portray husbands
that accepted compensation as pimps; the motive became popular
at the end of the era. This contempt was codified by Augustus’ legislation,
which provided that a husband, who was aware of wife’s infidelity, and
did not prosecute adulterers, should be charged as pimp. Such provision
additionally testifies popularity of the aforementioned topic in the public
discourse of that time.

Although Boccaccio and Cervantes are rightfully bound by their excellence in storytelling in the novella genre, adultery as a connection between their works has curiously not yet been sufficiently investigated. The words and actions of unfaithful wives Peronella, Monna Ghita, and Lidia on day 7 in Il Decameron, a day in which trickery of husbands (carried out either for love or self-preservation) is the theme, provide a template for Camila in El curioso impertinente. These married women assert themselves as protagonists in their respective stories, and all three successfully continue their extramarital affairs while simultaneously maintaining the public façade of marital honor.
Innovating on their adulterous schemes, Camila also establishes a happy ending between herself, husband, and lover, yet hers is ephemeral, due to circumstances beyond her control.