Essay: Tragedy in the Folktales of Laos

    In the Folktales of Laos, there were a lot of tragedies. For instance in the Lover's Leap, the story ended in the main characters' death. The Lover's Leap is a romantic tragedy. The story begins with a young man who falls in love with a maiden. The maiden loves him as well. Because the maiden's father would never allow this romantic relationship, they kept their love a secret. Believing that he has his daughter under control, the father throws a feast in celebration of this. While feasting, the daughter steps out and runs into the young man. The young man asks for her hand in marriage. She accepts. They decide to run away. Word got out that the two lovers were running away. This infuriated the father. He decided to go after them. With the father nearing them, the two lovers had a decision to make: go back or leap over to the other side of the cliff. They decided to take their chances and make the leap. Sadly, they missed the opposite cliff and fell to their death.
   This story was tragic because of the death of the two lovers. These two characters were innocent and deserved to be happy. They were young and never really got to experience life whereas the father who is old and has experienced life gets to live on. This seems kind of unfair to me.

(Lover's Leap)

    Another story that was tragic was the story of the One Woman. This story was tragic because in this story the bad-guy wins. This story is about a woman who uses her beauty and craftiness to manipulate her suitors to do her bidding. The men are so blinded by love they will do anything for her. This unfortunately leads to their downfall and the prevail of the woman. The story ended with the woman living richly in a beautiful home.
    The One Woman is a tragic story because it just seems unfair to me. These men were characterized as loyal and hard-working who were just blinded by love. In contrast the woman is described as deceitful, manipulative, and selfish. It is tragic that the good people lose and the bad people win.