The Enlightenment. I have learned that reason is the main key word of the Enlightenment. In "The Midnight Embrace" rational characters are pitted against irrational ones. A few ways they are pitted against each other is because of love, selfish-ness, and their status.
In "The Midnight Embrace," love is shown as the main reason they are pitted against each other in my opinion. Josephine loved Albert, the Lord of the castle of Werdendorff with all of her heart and soul. She was innocent and beautiful in her own little way. Every woman longs to be loved in her life. Faith, hope, and love are the good things he gave us but the greatest of all is love. In the story it said that Josephine had favored Albert for about six months before he finally ended up showing up at her door. This story speaks to the problems of the heart overriding our own judgments of our mind. Josephine really made decisions with her heart, instead of using her head every once in a while. I actually think she was a little naive and ignorant. She acted like he was the only man on the world that she could be with and that is probably what made me the most angry because there were better people out there for her then Albert, I'm sure of that. This happens so much to women and men today. Everyone ends up with a broken heart atleast a few times, and sometimes it ends up worse than others. I don't believe Guimilda loved Albert at all, I think she was just lonely and wanted attention. Also, I don't believe Albert loved either Guimilda or Josephine. He was just a man thinking with his head and other parts of his body instead of actually caring.
All the main characters in "The Midnight Embrace" were all a little selfish at times in their own ways. First, Josephine was having a relationship with a married man. Being with him made her happy and it made her seem a little selfish to me because all she cared about was being happy. Adultery is the worst thing that can happen in a marriage. She didn't seem to care who got hurt as long as it wasn't her getting hurt. Also, Guimilda was remarkably selfish too. She had a very bad temper and she felt as though she would never enjoy happiness with Albert if Josephine was alive. She wanted Josephine gone out of their lives so she could be happy. I think she was insane and psychotic. She should have really been blaming Albert more than Josephine because he was the cause of everything going on. Also, Albert was the most selfish character in "The Midnight Embrace." He had emotional problems and couldn't pick just one female to be with. He was torn between these two women, just like many people are today. He was going to conquer his prey without the regard for morality. Morality is one of the most important things with having a relationship with God. If you don't have morals then you really aren't much of a good person, or following Jesus the way you should be. He wooed Josephine into thinking that if it wasn't for his father, that they would have already been married. All of these characters selfish-ness ended up with someone being murdered and another being haunted by a ghost. I think that has a lot to do with karma and Albert got what he deserved.
Another way the characters are pitted against each other was by their status. We all would like to be with someone rich instead of someone poor, but that is not what relationships are supposed to be like. Josephine lived in a cottage and was like any other normal person. She lived alone because her parents had died. She was very innocent and learned many values from her mother. Lord Albert had superior rank and fortune and that is how he could get just about anything he wanted. He thought if he could get a poor, innocent girl that she would go along with being cheated on. Lord Albert is a lot like celebrities in today's world. They think because of fame and fortune that they can get away with anything they want no matter what. Albert thought Guimilda could be good for him because she was in a rich family. Also, Guimilda was the daughter of a baron, who had many possessions, and she was the sole heiress of the inheritance. Albert knew he would end up being so much more rich and famous if he was married to Guimilda. Many marriages end up happening because others want to have more money than they already do. In stories like this I have noticed that it always ends up with a murder or someone being hurt very badly. That is just what happened in this story and too many characters got hurt. In the end, they all endured some kind of pain whether alive or not.
Through reason man would be able to uncover the laws set down by God but I don't think there was much reason in this story. Everything that happened in "The Midnight Embrace" went against God in almost every way. Murder and adultery were both committed in this story. Reason is what the Enlightenment was all about. I just don't see how any of these characters made reason a part of their lives and listened to God.
In "The Midnight Embrace" Albert, Josephine, and Guimilda were all pitted against each other, some being irrational and the other being rational. If their heart was with God then they probably wouldn't have done the things they did. Reason was the key word for the Enlightenment so they should have acted more on reason and morals than anything else. In the end, Josephine ended up being murdered because of Guimilda wanting her dead. Josephine ended up haunting Albert and he ended up seeing her as a ghostly figure.
