Tristan-and-Iseult theme

[Joachim de Fiore]

indeed, according to some, the single melody,  banal and
exasperating, for all Romanticism since  the Middle Ages:
"the act of love and the act of death are one." 

V. 442

de Rougemont, Denis.  Love in the Western World.
   Trans. Montgomery Belgion.  Princeton, NJ:
   Princeton UP, 1956.

See Chapter 9, "The Love of Death" & the meaning of the
sword. 
This sword shows up in the chapter in which various young
people
don't quite get together. Mafia asks Benny if he is gay,
since he 
rebuffs her  advances after nearly giving her her much
needed adultery. 
Fina says she is cherry, and she tries to get  Benny's sword
in the bath, 
Paola wants it too, the camera at Teflon's and Benny's
waxing and waning
fits of horniness, Rache's string and later, his belief that
she might be too young, although he  doesn't turn her down
because she is married (Hod) --one of his excuses with
Mafia. The sword is chastity. There are two actually, but I
guess Benny 
doesn't know this.