Male, Female Expressions of Heathen Love:Bronte's Heathcliff and Hawthorne's Hester

Abstract

Though the Eastern elements in The Corsair are not as immediate and prevalent as in The Giaour, they ,constitute an important part of the poem. They are mainly elaborated as interactions and conflicts among the poem's major characters, Conrad, Gulnare, and Seyd. In contrast to The Giaour 's one-dimensional relationship with Islam represented in the Giaour's tragic love-affair with Leila, Conrad's involvement with Islam and Muslims is not restricted to one person or one dimension. It cannot be reduced to the fact that Conrad goes to war against the Muslim Seyd. This can be seen as an East-West conflict touching upon Conrad's hidden attitude toward Islam. He secretly desires to become a Bektash (a dervish-warrior) 1. At the same time, he lives a hermit-like life that represents the complex and latent conflict between Conrad's Eastern ambitions and his Western upbringing. It is. Conrad's divided self, which best characterizes his paradoxical relationship with Islam and Muslims ..