Parasitism as Sadism: Analysis of Symbiotic Relationship in Paulo Coelho’s The Witch of Portobello

Relationship in general is an undefined phenomena which acts as an „only connect‟ between two or more living species physically and psychologically creating a mutual bond in them. When human beings relationship is viewed on the basis of the relationship of several other living species in an ecosystem their behavioral characteristics can be compared with human beings relationship with one another. Symbiotic relationship helps in studying the intimation or the relation between two different biological species. In Paulo Coelho‟s, “The Witch of Portobello”the protagonist Athena shares a symbiotic relationship with other people utilizing them for her own sake and leaving them in distress. Finally she got herself utilized by some dominant supernatural power and was brutally murdered at last. This paper attempts to trace the relationship of the protagonist with other people by analyzing the eco-critical perspective in the psychological relationship.