Interpretations and Meaning of Love
In this essay I will be writing about Love. I will be describing what
love is and I will also give the Greek interpretations of love. I will
state what the Bible says about love and what connections that has to
racism and prejudice. I will summarise and give my opinion on love.
Love is when you take away the feeling the passion and the romance for
a person and find out you still care for that person. The word love is
used to describe a variety of things but they all fall under 4 aspects
of love which the Greek’s introduced. These are:
Philia: A love for those close to family, our friends and us.
Agape: Unselfish love, loving people to whom we do not feel attracted;
people who do not respond to us and even the people we don’t like
(enemy)
Eros: Romantic love, love which is based on physical attraction.
Storage: Is the affection felt between members of a family, or
affection for pets, places, and so on.
There are various verses in the Bible, which explain the Christian
teaching about love; I am going to bring some of them to your
knowledge.
John [chapter 4,verse 20]:
‘…. If someone says, ‘I love god, while at the same time hating his
brother, he is a liar. If he does not love his brother whom he has
seen, he in incapable of loving god whom he has not seen.’
The Greek word which best describes this kind of love is Storage. Here
it is telling us that there is meant to be affection between you and
your brother. Christians believe that God is Love and therefore they
should show God's love to everyone. Jesus said that when people care
for each other, it is the same as caring...
... middle of paper ...
... a conclusion my opinions on love are that you do not need to
be religious to follow a particular set of rules laid out for us in
our religion as to how we should show love towards people. Us humans
have the power to treat people as we wish, then it is also in our hand
as to how to show love towards people. I say we should show love
towards everyone no matter who they are, as humans we have feelings
towards our loved ones, if we could feel that way when we interact
with other people than this world would be rid of all evil.
Bibliography:
1. http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebitesize/re/ date:
6/10/03
2. CGP, Gcse religious studies, the revision guide, first edition
3. Gcse bitesize revision, first published 2002, Author: Jon Mayled
and Libby Ahluwalia
4. Teacher handout notes
Despite these works being written over centuries apart, the authors correlation of the concepts of love were notable. Plato’s Symposium was composed of different views regarding their definitions of love, while Carver’s “What We Talk About When We Talk About Love” focuses on what a group of friends talk about on the topic of love. Both pieces contain groups of people discussing their ideologies and relatable experiences, which in the end emphasize the complexity and variety of this emotion. Even though these literary pieces were written over two thousand years apart, similarities could be found within them regarding the concepts of dying for love as well as acknowledging the different forms of love that exist.
The Book of the Duchess is said to be a tribute, a eulogy of sorts. But as with any other story, there is more than one level to The Book of the Duchess. One of the things Geoffrey Chaucer seemed to do in The Book of the Duchess was to define refined love.
The Definition of Love Love by definition is an emotion explored in philosophy, religion, and literature, often as either romantic love, the fraternal love of others, or the love of God based on the definition found in The Encarta Encyclopedia. As I explored the definitions through the Internet, books, and articles, I noticed the definitions changed quite a bit, but yet had the same basic understanding. The definition I found in The Encarta Encyclopedia is probably the most simple and most basic. It refers to love in the whole aspect, which is Godly, fraternal, and romantic. All of which can only be defined by one word and that is love.
What is this thing called love? This simple question begs for an answer. The symptoms of love are familiar enough. A drifting mooniness in one’s behavior and thought, the fact that it seems as though the whole universe has rolled itself up into the person of the beloved, something so wonderful that no one on earth has ever felt about a fellow creature before. Love is ecstasy and torment, freedom and slavery. Love makes the world go round.
Why does one love? One loves for the sake of happiness. This was the common mindset in the pre-modern worldview from the time of ancient Greece. The ideas present in Plato’s The Symposium have however been replaced with a more contemporary view, particularly in Western societies. Allan Bloom details this transition in his work Love and Friendship. Bloom argues that the idea of “eros” has lost its true meaning; it has been morphed into a selfish and self-less act of mere sex: “Eros, in its Freudian version, is really all just selfishness and provides no basis for intimate human connection” (Bloom 24). Sex is no longer a form of a strong, intimate connection, but rather our contemporaries have allowed sex to become “no different from a description of eating habits” (Bloom 20). Society today sees sex everywhere, it is forced upon us by the media, but there’s no beauty in it. Love relationships once were for the purpose of exchanging knowledge, today it is a label frequently and erroneously used.
Things that are not in our power, include the body, property, reputation, office and in a word everything which is not our doing. Not in our power are weak, servile subject to its hindrance, dependent on another.
True love or love in general is essential for human life. Since birth, babies are loved and nurtured by their mothers and fathers; completely vulnerable to the world, yet protected by the very people who created them. A parent's bond and love with their child is nothing that can be described unless you have a child of your own. I will only know the true magnitude of this kind of compassion and devotion to someone when I have a child of my own. Romance has always been apart of human culture; From Ancient Roman plays to Shakespeare to today with Nicholas Sparks’ the Notebook and other popular books he has wrote; But today with so much media with books and music and movies many people find themselves unsure of what true love actually is, and what it means to devote yourself to someone for a long term relationship instead of “dating” someone for 3 weeks and breaking up because the other person spilt chilli all over your favorite christmas sweater.
Love has been the cause of some of the greatest feats, discoveries, and battles in the history of man. It has driven men to insanity and despair, while it has lead others to happiness and bliss. This idea that love has a strong influence on man’s decisions can be seen in the poem, “Love is not all” by Edna St. Vincent Millay. The most prominent theme presented in “Love is not all” is that although love is not a necessity of life, it somehow manages to provoke such great desire and happiness that it becomes important.
According to Csábi (2004), conceptual metaphors are different from linguistic metaphorical expressions, which are linguistic expressions that come from the terminology of the more concrete source concept, e.g., JOURNEY, which is used to understand another, usually more abstract concept, e.g., LOVE. Thus, expressions related to love that come from the domain of journey are linguistic metaphorical expressions, while the corresponding conceptual metaphor is LOVE IS A JOURNEY. Conceptual metaphors are used mostly unconsciously, automatically, without considerable effort. They are central to our understanding of experience.
"I wanna love you and treat you right; I wanna love you every day and every night: We'll be together with a roof right over our heads; We'll share the shelter of my single bed; We'll share the same room, yeah! - for Jah provide the bread. Is this love - is this love - is this love - Is this love that I'm feelin'?"--- Bob Marley. Bob Marley wrote and sang about love just like hundreds of people before him. His idea of true love was sharing with someone in order to meet the basic needs and spiritual way of life. The security of a relationship is one important part of a complex number of needs that have to be met for truelove to exist. The Merrian Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, defines “truelove” as “one truly beloved or loving”(1343). The meaning of truelove is not as simple as the dictionary would lead people to think. For the person who has not yet become educated in true love will find themselves on a wonderful quest. The most powerful declaration one can make to another person is a pledge of love. Most individuals will desire the intimate affection that a special someone can provide. Is there such a thing as truelove? Difficult as the answer is to find, many people have ideas about truelove. By comparing ideas of love between women and men, looking at religious love, investigating chemical love, and love in marriage will show what the meaning of true love is today.
What exactly is love? Is there an absolute meaning to the word - love? Or is it purely subjective? The concept of true love is what we search for all our lives. Yet love is one of the most misunderstood concepts of all. What people really want more than anything else is to be loved unconditionally; to be accepted for who we are, and still be loved. Sometimes we will do some crazy things, "in the name of love."
Some people believe that there is no such thing as “true love” they believe that love is nothing but an illusion designed by social expectations. These people believe that love ultimately turns into pain and despair. This idea in some ways is true. Love is not eternal it will come to an end one way or another, but the aspect that separates true love from illusion, is the way love ends. “True Love” is much too powerful to be destroyed by Human imperfection; it may only be destroyed by a force equal to the power of love. Diotima believed that “Love is wanting to posses the good forever” In other words love is the desire to be immortal and the only way that we are able to obtain immortality is through reproduction, and since the act of reproduction is a form of sexual love, then sexual love is in fact a vital part of “True love”. Sexual love is not eternal. This lust for pleasure will soon fade, but the part of love that is immortal, is a plutonic love. You can relate this theory to the birth of love that Diotima talks about. She says that love was born by a mortal mother and immortal father. The mother represents the sexual love, the lust for pleasure. The father represents the plutonic love that is immortal. Plutonic love is defined as a true friendship, the purest of all relationships. A true plutonic love will never die; it transcends time, space, and even death.
Love can make you do anything and sacrifice for what will be better in the end. Love is intense and passionate. Everything seems brighter, happier, more wonderful, and just all around better when you’re in love. If you find love, cherish it and don’t let it go. Love frees us all from all the weight and pain of
Many people have different perspectives when it comes to the topic of love. The word love has been tossed around by everybody and not very many people really understand the true meaning of love. There are some exceptions, but I think this is especially true for teenagers and young adults. I might be one of those people who do not fully understand the topic of love, but I hope to better understand the topic of love and its true meaning is this course.
Love is the ultimate prize in life, the gift that I am most thankful for. The description of love is found in every smile, every pounding heart, and the sweet taste