In Song: Love Armed the reason behind the actions of the antagonist may run deeper than a fickle capacity for love. Could the face of the heartbreaker be the façade of a psychopath? Psychopathy is a personality disorder that can affect relationships and interactions between individuals. Psychopaths are often painted as the evil character killing off innocent victims, but in actuality, the disorder is relatively common and affected individuals often don’t show any sign of the condition. Likewise, those who interact with affected individuals are injured. However, these individuals are injured emotionally rather than physically and the effect is temporary.
The poem Song: Love Armed is written by Aphira Behn, about a playboy who steals the hearts…show more content… According to Cary Smith, “Because psychopaths lack compassion, they are free to do whatever they want with whomever they want” This quote, simply put, means that psychopaths do not feel the remorse and regret of hurting someone in order to obtain what they want. For example, if a person were to want a higher position in a workplace, they will strive to work harder, longer hours with more efficiency. However, a psychopath will do that and more, even hurting other employees’ reputations in order to increase their chances of getting the position. They will leave the hurt employee in a lower place and will neglect to look back, apologize, or try to make amends. They do not feel much empathy and therefore feel no need to make up for what they’ve done. The character in the story exemplifies this trait by sleeping with women and then leaving them hurt and crying. Behn describes “for whom fresh pains he did create and strange tyrannic power he showed.” Instead of taking responsibility for his actions and apologizing for hurting them, he leaves without so much a word, and never spares a thought for the women he’s hurt. Another important line to note would be the final line in the poem “whilst thine the victor is, and free” (Behn, 323)this exaggerates his lack of…show more content… This is because a psychopath will frequently manipulate their partners without remorse and because of their inflated ego, never realize the issue lies within themselves. According to Smith, “ a psychopath is often involved in numerous, temporary live-in relationships, along with exhibiting philanderous sexual conduct.” This quote explains the behavior of psychopaths in romantic relationships. Because psychopaths are often unable to form strong bonds due to their personality disorder, interpersonal relationships are often short-term and unmeaningful. Like the relationships that a psychopath might form, the character in the poem mentioned above does not create strong bonds and does not seem to express and interest in one. Rather, he jumps from woman to woman and doesn’t bother to give any an explanation for his behavior. Behn includes, “whilst bleeding hearts around him flowed” and “Which round about in sport he hurled.” The first quote explains his inability to hold a continuous relationship with one person, because the quote includes the plural form of “heart”, and “around him” this indicated that he has hurt many people he was in a relationship with, and continues to do so. The second quote indicates he considers the relationships to be play or something to do out of sport. This shows how none of the multiple relationships were meaningful or
