In this essay I am going to compare and contrast the concepts of hostility, love and the source of power (God in the Song of Roland and magic in the Tempest) in the books of "Song of Roland" and "Tempest".
"Song of Roland" is a book of war between two religions: Christianity and Islam. The hostility comes from different religions. Christians are Franks and Saracens are Muslim. Christians see Muslims as evil and enemy because of their religions. It is shown in the poem as Saracens a mirror image of the Christians, socially and religiously, The Moslems become the evil mirror image of the Christians, in every aspect of their beliefs and their social organization. This is a struggle between good and evil, with the Saracens evil, while maintaining the Saracen's status as a formidable and respectable enemy. And both groups of men take their identity and their honor from the land.
The shipwreck in Act I, Scene 1, in a 1797 engravi...
Prospero and Miranda from a painting by William Ma...
roland-garros-2011-yvoneThey are enemies because they have different religions. Evil here is foreign, strange, and dark-skinned; themes of the poem are this equation of evil with foreignness. Evil and foreign are the same thing; this conception of evil is consistent with the aims of the poem, which include inciting Christians to go fight a war against the forces of Islam.
As the religion is the main reason for the war between Franks and Saracens, they believe that God interferes all the events and at choice times, but certain choices are left up to men. God is conceived of by both sides as an intervener. Christians thought that there is God after everything, however they are wondering why God did nothing to help Roland. God intervenes to save warriors at some points, only to let them die later. The most notable...