Aphrodite

Presenter and Advisor Information

MaryBeth Thommes, Illinois Wesleyan University

Major

Hispanic Studies

Submission Type

Oral Presentation

Area of Study or Work

English-Writing

Faculty Advisor

Michael Theune

Expected Graduation Date

2025

Location

CNS E101

Start Date

4-12-2025 8:30 AM

End Date

4-12-2025 9:30 AM

Abstract

Aphrodite is a novella that tells the centuries-long story of an immortal woman destined to guide soulmates to find each other and fall in love. She has a unique ability to see special cords that anchor soulmates to each other, each one ranging in shades of pale pink and deep red, depending on how close the soulmates are to falling in love. The story jumps to different couples that the protagonist, Aphrodite, has helped over the many years she has been around doing this, including a couple from Eighteenth Century Florence, Italy, another about a pair of star-crossed lovers in the antebellum Southern United States, and the next, roughly sixty years later taking place in the Philippines. The final two sets of soulmates include one who finds love in Chile in the 1900s, and the other Australia in our present day. Aphrodite is destined to help others find love for what seems like eternity, but never find it for herself, which is an internal struggle she navigates as she guides soulmates to their fated love for hundreds of years. In this way, Aphrodite is most obviously a story about love, but it is also about the absence of love, that primarily manifests because of the obstacles that so often get in the way when trying to find it.

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Apr 12th, 8:30 AM Apr 12th, 9:30 AM

Aphrodite

CNS E101

Aphrodite is a novella that tells the centuries-long story of an immortal woman destined to guide soulmates to find each other and fall in love. She has a unique ability to see special cords that anchor soulmates to each other, each one ranging in shades of pale pink and deep red, depending on how close the soulmates are to falling in love. The story jumps to different couples that the protagonist, Aphrodite, has helped over the many years she has been around doing this, including a couple from Eighteenth Century Florence, Italy, another about a pair of star-crossed lovers in the antebellum Southern United States, and the next, roughly sixty years later taking place in the Philippines. The final two sets of soulmates include one who finds love in Chile in the 1900s, and the other Australia in our present day. Aphrodite is destined to help others find love for what seems like eternity, but never find it for herself, which is an internal struggle she navigates as she guides soulmates to their fated love for hundreds of years. In this way, Aphrodite is most obviously a story about love, but it is also about the absence of love, that primarily manifests because of the obstacles that so often get in the way when trying to find it.