Within reading Gambling, Arthur Symons Rodin, and Elenora Duse, one can easily see the themes of capturing the raw beauty of nature and exploring the darkness of life in order to achieve the raw beauty of nature. Elenora Duse is a prime example. She is an actor that has been “devoured by the life of the soul, by the life of the mind, by the life of the body” (Symons). Elenora completely devotes herself to the real rawness of beauty through sharing her soul within her art. She enriches her many art forms. When reading Rodin, this rawness of beauty is truly captured within sculpture; Symons tries to obtain the natural beauty of nature through turning “sculpture into life” rather than life into sculpture like many different artists of the time (Symons). Symons, depending on “the power, balance, and beauty of the relief,” he watched and sculpted “the living movement from every angle…he must translate form, movement, light and shadow, softness, force, everything which exists in nature,” into his sculptures (Symons). This further demonstrates each of the pieces’ dedication to capturing the rawness of nature and exploring it in many different lights. When examining Gambling, the darkness is seen throughout; “my heart was chilled with fear at envying wretches who, headlong, rush to be destroyed …seek anything” (Campbell). The character is fearful of envying something that does not acknowledge and represent the true beauty of the art forms that surround people in everyday life. What should be sought out is something that is natural and true to art and nature.
