The Power And Influence Of Human Emotion

Human emotion is a powerful force that unavoidably influences our decisions, reactions, and actions in situations. Although one of the defining characteristics of human beings is the ability to reason, often times emotion overcomes reason and humans act rashly and impulsively. The ability to temper ourselves and harness the power of emotion is a learned skill, an ability that is often taken for granted. I learned the difficulty involved in explaining and teaching this task when I went to St. Mary’s School this week as a volunteer tutor. The children quickly finished their homework, eager to go up to the computer lab and play games until their parents came to pick them up. However, when they learned that the computer lab was closed this week, many of the younger children broke into temper tantrums. Volunteers were instructed to read the childrens’ library books with them, and the story I read this week was very much related to this over arching theme. Additionally, Poe’s “The Cask of Amontillado”, Robert Browning’s “My Last Duchess” featured similar themes that involved characters experiencing the emotional extremes of betrayal and revenge and how emotion influences their reactions. Barbara Hamby’s “Ode To American English” and Tony Hoagland’s “America” also display the powerful influence of emotion, although the characters in these pieces share different attitudes.
Edgar Allen Poe’s short story, “The Cask Of Amontillado” is a short story that involves a lot of emotion that is displayed through the action of the protagonist, Montresor. Montresor is deeply hurt and insulted by his friend Fortunato, and is ultimately seeking revenge. Although Fortunato is a friend, Montresor is vengeful and takes advantage of his drunken friend celebrating the Carnival holiday. His vengeful emotion gets the best of him when Montresor appeals to Fortunato’s love for wine and lures him deep into the catacombs to taste his Spanish sherry, or Amontillado. When they reach the vaults within the catacombs, Fortunato begins coughing. Even though Montresor offers to take Fortunato back, Fortunato is drunk and insistent about tasting the Amontillado. As a result, Fortunato seals the deal of his own death. When the two reach the vault, Fortunato stumbles in, and in an act of desperate revenge Montresor chains his foot. Despite his weeping pleas, Montresor continues to plaster the bricks back in place and traps Fortunato behind them. Thus, human emotion overcomes Montresor and he acts out of vengeance and retribution.
A similar display of emotion is apparent in Robert Browning’s poem, “My Last Duchess”. In this poem the speaker is the Duke, who is reminiscing about his last wife. A friend is at his castle convincing him to remarry another eligible woman to be his Duchess. As the two walk through the castle, the Duke stops to admire the paintings of his past wife on the walls. However, his admiration turns into scorn and contempt for the Duchess, whom he believes was too flirtatious. As a result of his intense criticisms of his past wife, the reader is lead to believe that he could possibly be the one who killed her. As a result, the tone of this poem is very grim and unhappy. With these motives, it becomes simple to understand how the Duke could have been responsible for the Duchess’ death, killing her because of the betrayal he felt. In this situation, the reader sees how emotion is spilling everywhere in this poem. While the Duke misses her and displays his affection for her, he criticizes her flirtatious nature and feels betrayed by her.
The two pieces relating and in some ways critiquing America, Barbara Hamby’s “Ode To American English” and Tony Hoagland’s “America” also show how influential human emotion can be. In Hamby’s piece, she is sitting on a “sidewalk throne sipping champagne” outside of a Parisian Café. I felt that this piece was an endearing critique of American culture and vernacular language. While the speaker makes a comparison between American and British English, she longs to hear the distinct and familiar sounds of American English. Hamby playfully mocks American culture by mentioning “Ebonics, Spanish, you know” although she displays a genuine love for the elements of American culture that influence out speech and make it unique. Hoagland’s piece, “America”, has a similar theme. However, Hoagland’s poem is a more critical and serious analysis of American culture. Additionally, Hoagland’s poem is more emotionally charged because in addition to his cynical tone, he is criticizing the greedy and materialistic aspects of American culture.
These works relate in many ways to my experiences as a volunteer tutor at St. Mary’s School. This week, I read a library story with the kids about a crow and a rabbit. Although the theme was definitely simplified, the story was a fable with a moral that emphasized the importance of tempering emotions and seeing the good in every situation. When we discussed the book, many of the kids recognized the moral and learned that it is important to be rational and express emotion appropriately. The overarching theme of these pieces relates to the influence of human emotion over our decisions and reactions. Additionally, each of the pieces presented a different display of emotion as well perspective about the ways in which emotion influenced the actions of the characters in the context of their distinct situations.