Essay Week 2: Fools in Love

Tricksters and Fools

Though Cupid and Psyche is remembered mostly for their love story, there is plenty of trickery going on. Mostly, it falls into two reasons for the tricks, jealousy and protection. First off, Cupid tricks his mother Venus and Psyche (and I guess everyone else) by concealing his identity and letting everyone think that Psyche has fallen into a bad marriage with a very mysterious man. Clearly, this intention was out of protection for Psyche, and he wanted to protect her because he loved her. The love between our two protagonists is the reason behind Psyche's later endurance of Venus's impossible tasks in order to be married to Cupid. However, all the remaining counts of trickery in this story are motivated by deep jealousy with a small hint of revenge.

The first set of bad-intentioned tricksters is Psyche's two older sisters. Though they are initially mourning for the loss of their sister, once they learn she has been taken to a nice palace and has a rich husband, their extreme sadness quickly turns to extreme hate. They let themselves become jealous of a marriage they knew nothing about and took for granted their own blessings. The trick they play is on Psyche, making her the fool. They convince her over several visits that she should not trust her husband and needs to kill him. Generally, taking the advice of your sisters does not make you a fool, but in this case, their horrible jealousy should have been clear as day. Then, in a very foolish act, Psyche actually starts the action of murdering Cupid in his sleep. Fortunately, she sees his face first and stops herself. Had Cupid not included his wife in his trickery, she would not have become the fool of her sisters in the first place. Of course, Psyche accidentally wakes him up, injuring him, and he flees in fear that for some reason Psyche is going to tell Venus and Venus will destroy her. This whole set of trickery actually goes exactly as planned by the sisters, and now it is their little sister's turn to try.

After Psyche figures out what her sisters have done to her and that they cost her her husband, she comes up with a plan for their death. Now knowing the extent of their jealousy, she gives them a chance at her life but when they foolishly jump to get to Cupid, they actually leap to their deaths. Their deaths showed their true disregard for their sister and both are now immortally labeled as fools.

Clearly there was lots of trickery in this tale, but all of it is there to warn the listener of making the same mistake as the fools. The most important detail is that (besides when Cupid fools the whole world) all the fools were only fooled because they let their emotions get the best of them and they never talked to anyone beside the trickster while making very important decisions.

Painting of Cupid and Psyche by Anthony van Dyck. Cupid and Psyche

Read the full story at Cupid.