| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Father Goriot by Honore de Balzac: have some pistol practice, and kill that Maxime of hers!"
"And money?" cried an inward monitor. "How about money, where is
that to come from?" And all at once the wealth displayed in the
Countess de Restaud's drawing-room rose before his eyes. That was
the luxury which Goriot's daughter had loved too well, the
gilding, the ostentatious splendor, the unintelligent luxury of
the parvenu, the riotous extravagance of a courtesan. Then the
attractive vision suddenly went under an eclipse as he remembered
the stately grandeur of the Hotel de Beauseant. As his fancy
wandered among these lofty regions in the great world of Paris,
innumerable dark thoughts gathered in his heart; his ideas
Father Goriot |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from McTeague by Frank Norris: I won't pay a nickel of it," she exclaimed.
"Huh? What, what?" stammered the dentist, taken all aback by
her outburst.
"I say that you will find that money, that thirty-five
dollars, yourself."
"Why--why----"
"It's your stupidity got us into this fix, and you'll be the
one that'll suffer by it."
"I can't do it, I WON'T do it. We'll--we'll share and
share alike. Why, you said--you told me you'd take the
house if the water was free."
McTeague |
