Essay on Embers

Words: 1359
Pages: 6

Embers: An Analysis of Friendship

There are over six billion people on Earth today. Each of those people has countless relationships, which extend further into an immense network of relations among thousands of individuals. These relations can be romantic, professional, unconditional, mutual, or the strongest of all, friendship. Friendship is a term used to denote co-operative and supportive behavior between two or more beings. In this sense, the term connotes a relationship which involves mutual knowledge, esteem, and affection and respect along with a degree of rendering service to friends in times of need or crisis. Friends will welcome each other's company and exhibit loyalty towards each other, often to the point of altruism.
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It is here that Henrik makes it clear he strongly believes his bond with Konrad is nothing more than a duty he must oblige. He feels that Friendship isn’t a bond, but a task to look after someone else.

When Konrad returns to Henrik after forty one years of silence, Henrik confronts him over dinner about the status of their friendship, Konrad’s actions before he left and the consequences of them; Konrad had attempted to kill Henrik the last time they had been in the presence of each other. He had also become romantically involved with Henrik’s wife Kriztina. Years ago, Konrad introduced Kriztina to Henrik when they were still in the Military Academy. Henrik married her, and Konrad was left single. Konrad could have gotten enraged with jealousy, and wanted what Henrik had once more – a wife. Henrik acknowledges this accusation: “You have a reason to hate me and want to kill me. I cannot grasp what that reason is. There is one simple, natural explanation, namely that you have been smitten with a sudden, wild passion for Kriztina, and this, too, could be a form of madness” (Embers 157). Henrik makes this statement after he makes the allegation of Konrad’s attempted murder upon him. It further supports the reasoning that their relationship is bounded by forms of jealousy and envy.

Even after Henrik realizes that Konrad was not as good of a friend as he should have been, he still acts