comment on the significant of disire both in the intellectual and physical sense as the drivin force of the novel's events and the main reasons for the complexity of narrative

Self-will is not something that is celebrated in this novel, especially when it transgresses what is deemed appropriate boundaries. Both Lucius and Psyche allow their self-will to get in the way of their happiness. Psyche chooses not to heed Cupid's warnings even though she loves him and trusts him. When she allows her sisters into her life and then later looks into Proserpina's box, she catapults herself into estrangement, despair, and danger. When Lucius ignores Byrrhena's warnings and the morals of the tales of Aristomenes and Thelyphron, he moves closer to becoming an ass. Neither of these characters exhibits rational, measured thinking, nor do they choose to listen to the advice of others; for that, they are punished.