Although Eichendorff’s story displays religious elements,...

Although Eichendorff’s story displays religious elements, the pious facets take on a different form than in Psyche. In â€Å"The Marble Statue†, Sunday remains a holy day where evil subsides. God and Satan manifest into the metaphysical through characters, settings, and motifs. Fortunato is a pure character directing Florio towards the path of the righteous man while Donati is a sinister man leading the boy into temptation. The seductress is the embodiment of evil while Bianca is the good. The aspect of religion is demonstrated in a more direct manner in Psyche. The artist abandons a life of art to become a brethren of the covenant where it is proclaimed the Goddess of Art is â€Å"a witch who carries towards vanity, towards earthly pleasure†. The†¦show more content†¦On the other hand, Florio’s lack of self-control leads him to the guilt of a sinful lust. With the thought of his seductress plaguing his mind, he is never satisfied with the real wo man in his life. Consumed by lust and desire, he constantly longs for more in his earthly life. The sins reveal the weakness of the protagonists and provokes their course to redemption. â€Å"The Marble Statue† and â€Å"The Psyche† are both narrated in 3rd person. However, the teller of Florio’s story is a homodiegetic narrator lending an outside perspective on the world being described, but does not play a part in it. The Psyche’s is a heterodiegetic narrator as the bright morning star living in the story, yet revealing the history of another. The morning star plays a role that can be seen as a biblical reference and even Jesus himself. Jesus identifies Himself as ‘the bright morning star’ in Revelation 22:16. The irony of the morning star as Jesus is the young artist abandoned his talent to directly seek and satisfy God in a holy life with the church. However, he did not need to seek Jesus for he was already watching over him the entire span of his life and even thereafter. An element present among both stories in the role of nature and the gates, gardens and fountains within them. Within mythology and symbolism, gardens are seen as a motif of an untouched, primal state where nothing is lacking including companionship, food, and drink. The garden