Idealistic Views of Love

Within the two short stories One Intoxicating Evening of Spring Breeze, and Love and Bread, the emotion of love is carefully scrutinized. However opposite these stories seem to be, they both have some things in common. In One Intoxicating Evening of Spring Breeze, love is taken to be not nearly as important as financial stability, and in Love and Bread, love is perceived as something that conquers all. In One Intoxicating Evening of Spring Breeze, the narrator is a desperately poor man living in shanghai, waiting to make money off of his translations. Lewis, Strindberg’s main character, is also a translator, who banks on selling his translations to pay for his debt. In both stories, the authors deal with both sides of the ever present idealisms in the world. The tone in both pieces is strikingly different. Ta-Fu’s story seems to be covered in a dark cloud of hopelessness, as Stindberg’s is shone upon by beams of hope. In both Love and Bread and One Intoxicating Evening of Spring Breeze, the authors touch upon the subjects of love and poverty, but both in a different light.

The concept of love in Love and Bread is incredibly skewed. Lewis believes that, though their income goes under, love will keep them afloat. This is definitely not the case, as the problem of his spending worsens until he’s reached financial ruin. This displays the idealistic way that Lewis envisioned life with his new wife. The narrator in Ta-Fu’s story displays opposite traits. His love for the woman who shares the apartment adjacent to his is strong enough to base marriage off of (at least he believes) but dismisses the thought when he takes into account his abject poverty. There’s no way that he could provide for a wife, where Lewis decides that love will keep him and his wife together and happy, even after the money is gone.

Both men earn a living as translators, which is not a very profitable occupation. However, both choose to have a different outlook on their chosen trade. Lewis chooses to be hopeful and think positively, knowing that he will be paid for his translations soon, and all will