Week 4 Storytelling: The General's Wife

"What a day," I said wearily to my page.

"What happened to you today? You look defeated," he asked, worried.

"I saw the most beautiful woman in the world today," I explained, "she was so stunning that I fainted. When I came to, I found out that she was Passion, whose hand in marriage I rejected a few months back. I can't stop thinking about her. I can't believe I let her go."

Let me backtrack and explain myself. My name is King Glorious (interesting name, I know--I used to get teased about it all the time, and I can only hope to live up to it) and I preside over the lovely Golden City. A few months ago, one of my best merchants approached me and told me that his daughter was old enough to get married and he begged me to marry her. I sent my loyal Brahmans to the merchant's home to see if she would be a good fit for me. When they came back, they listed all of her bad habits and flaws, so I decided that she wasn't right for me. I suggested that the merchant give his daughter to my best warrior, the general of my troops.

Well, hindsight is 20/20, and I realized today that I should have gone to meet her myself (dating nowadays is so complicated). The city held its annual spring festival today, and as I proceeded through the parade, I looked up and suddenly saw the most elegant, stunning woman I'd ever laid eyes on. Instantly, my heart started to race and I was overcome by love. Overwhelmed, I blacked out and fell off the elephant I was sitting on--luckily, I had my trusty servants to catch me.

The elephant I rode on in the parade. Source: Wikipedia.

When I woke up, I asked my servants, "Who was that who caused such a reaction in me?" They told me that the beauty was Passion, and I immediately started. This was the woman who had so many faults? I definitely didn't see them. I called in my Brahmans and demanded an explanation. They told me that they saw her beauty and became afraid for my kingdom--they thought that if I married her, I would think of nothing else and let the city go to shambles. I appreciated their concern for the greater good, but I was also disappointed. I had to dismiss them.

For the next few days, I was a mess. I couldn't stop thinking about Passion and her beauty and virtuousness. I confided in my loyal page, and he suggested countless times that I simply take Passion away from her husband. I adamantly refused--this just wasn't the right thing to do. Eventually, the word somehow got out that I was pining for this woman. My general himself approached me, full of remorse. He even offered to give me his wife. At this, I got angry and told him that there would be no virtue in that action, only sin.

Oh well. I guess I'll just have to wait to find the right woman.

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Author's note: For this storytelling exercise, I chose to retell the story of The General's Wife from the Twenty-Two Goblins unit. Instead of using a third-person omniscient storytelling style, I chose to  recount the tale from the first-person view of King Glorious. This reading unit was a frametale consisting of 22 riddles that a goblin tells to a king. In this particular riddle, the ending is more morbid than I made it to be--Glorious dies from his lovesickness, and then the general dies because of his mourning for the king. When the goblin finishes telling this story, he asks the king who the more virtuous person was and why. The wise ruler says that King Glorious was more admirable because he didn't take advantage of his power and displayed his strength in character by refusing to transgress against his people.

Bibliography:
Story: The General's Wife
Unit: Twenty-Two Goblins
Source: Un-Textbook.
Original: Twenty-Two Goblins (Sanskrit: Vetālapañcaviṃśati), translated by Arthur Ryder. Source: Project Gutenberg. 2000.