The Repetitiveness of Rasselas
When one reads Rasselas, Prince of Abyssninia, they have to notices many similarities in the book, not only pertaining to the story, but also to the structure of the novel itself. The story of Rasselas, a young man searching for happiness, has the conclusion that there in no true happiness in the world. Not only has this story been told time and time again with different characters in a different setting, but always with the same conclusion, that there is no happiness; the story itself is repetitive in structure and in the findings of Rasselas. His journey takes him through different worlds and people, only to find something wrong with every culture and way of life. His final conclusion is that there is no truly Happy Valley, the very place he left.We not only see repetitiveness in the story, but in the very words of Rasselas himself. Rasselas states, "...I find one day and one hour exactly like another, except that the latter is still more tedious than the former. Let your experienc
The novel constantly repeats itself. Rasselas travels from place to place, talk to many great people. He thinks he sees happiness in every example that he runs across, only to find out there is something that keeps the examples from being truly happy. He examines the young men of spirit and gaiety, only to see that they are not happy. ""Happiness must be something solid and permanent, without fear and without uncertainty." Rasselas spends the length of the novel repeating his actions of thinking he has found happiness, and then finding out that he has not. The last chapter of the book also suggest that Rasselas' efforts were for not, as he is at "the conclusion, in which nothing is concluded." He has spent his time repeating his actions. He now wishes to return to the Happy Valley, the very place where he started. He will end his journey in the very place he started it from, the very place he wanted to get away from, returning to the fact that he will never find true happiness.
Some common words found in the essay are:
Happy Valley, Prince Abyssninia, Rasselas Rasselas, happy valley, , true happiness, truly happy, wise happy, repeating actions,
Approximate Word count = 671
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)
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