Reference no: EM13658415

Now at that moment each of them had been balanced to cut her orange. So huge was their confusion now that they could no longer differentiate fruit from fingers; and all of them cut their hands. It was then that they understand that XXX was nothing less than a perfect jewel of beauty. "This is no mere mortal!" they cried. "He is not moulded, like Adam, from earth and water: he is a holy angel, come down from the heavens."

"This," cried YYY, "is the unique being thanks to whom I have become the target for your censure. This is the tender body which has cost me your condemnation; and yet, despite all my sweet entreaties to be united with him body and soul, he has never fulfilled my life-long hope and yielded to my desires. "But now, if he still persists in spurning my advances, I shall have him imprisoned; and he can spend his life in a cell, in torment and humiliation. Prison will soften his obstinate character, and bring some good-natured warmth into his heart. That is the only way to tame a wild bird: coop it up in a cage."

Find the work from which the quote comes, and the work's author, and estimated date it was written. If appropriate, find the speaker/character. Describe the significance of the quote (ie. its message, symbols and/or role in the overall narrative plot) and how it relates to the literary work (or that genre of literary works) as a whole.