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Romanticism and classicism in english literature
The romantic writings of Edgar Allan Poe
The romantic writings of Edgar Allan Poe
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As Edgar Allan Poe once stated, “All suffering originates from craving, from attachment, from desire (Masters).” Today, we romanticize love. We create movies, books, novels, music, and everything in between off the concept that love is romantic. Although in ancient times, this was not the case. Love was seen in a completely different spectrum than marriage. Marriage and love are inseparable in the modern world. The real question is has love always been around or was in an invention of the modern world? Centuries have passed and the answer to this question is still a mystery.
The Greeks had a philosophy on love. Greeks divide love into three terms eros, philia, and agape. Eros being the term for erotic and passionate love and desire. Eros is the physical attraction to a person, idea, or thing. That indicates that you cannot properly have that attraction without finding it attractive in some form or other. Today, we often refer to this as lust. Lust is not love. Therefore, if you only have lust towards something, someone, or an idea, it is not true love. It then becomes desire. Although lust and love are often confused, they are two different ideals.
“Physical desire is held in common with the animal kingdom (“Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy”).” Which if we were to lower ourselves to animals, it would mean that we are not as an advancement of a race. That is exactly the reason that love outweighs desire. Anyone and anything can experience desire but only the human heart can experience love. Many people still interchange love and lust. Many believe that it is the same thing. Lust is only a physical attraction and once that physical appeal is gone there is no more desire. With love, you have that attraction towards the pers...
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...tly nonexistent. In many cultures, arranged marriage was the only way to get married. This is true for some cultures today. The modern idea of love allows for free will in the marriage and dating concepts. It is accustomed to know the person you will marry and choose him or her accordingly. Love has always been present but it has progressed through the centuries and now we see love as a principle to happiness, to marriage, and to happily ever after.
Works Cited
"Aphrodite." Aphrodite. N.p., n.d. Web. 5 May 2014. .
"Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy." Philosophy of Love []. N.p., n.d. Web. 5 May 2014. .
Masters, American (PBSAmerMasters). "“All suffering originates from craving, from attachment, from desire.” — Edgar Allan Poe #AmericanMasters". 05 Apr 2014, 23:25 UTC. Tweet.
Love has been instilled as the "sexual desire...or blood ties of kinship...special bond and commitment" by society and mainstream culture and the new knowledge simply interrupt a well established and accepted idea. The reality of the biological aspects gives a demeanor of an attachment of two minds or two bodies parse rather than embodiment of love between two individuals. The experimental reasoning has not only stripped the attraction but sentimental aspect of love . It is often said that when people fall in love their hearts just know and they have a special feeling and that is what most people try to find, the emotion of love. The biology of love seems to detach the emotion from the individual by making love a matter of the brain rather than the heart. Furthermore, the notion behind "love at first sight" looses all meaning; as Fredrickson quotes from a collaborator, there must be "a true meeting of the minds- a single act, performed by two brains" , in essence the brains have to be coupling in order for the connection to truly forge and thus making "love at first sight" a thing of the past. The new insight forces an individual to
“EΡΩΣ” by Robert Bridges has a contradictory concept of what humans view as love, thus the negative and positive comparisons are between Eros different angles in love and lust. For instance, Eros is described as both having “exuberant flesh so fair” yet “Ere from his chaste marmoreal,” thus stating he has both a sexual, savage appearance, yet a pure and smooth one also. The speaker also states, “Surely thy body is thy mind, for thy face is nought to find…” where Eros is being described as a pretty boy who beyond his looks has no brain. Both these descriptions, of a sexual appearance and having no brains, depict that ...
When Eros comes to mind, one imagines a couple falling in love and growing old together; one could even imagine a man looking at a woman with lust. While Eros is a love between a man and a woman, it involves much more than lust and the event of falling "in love". Gatsby, a character in "The Great Gatsby", forms a love that is equal to Eros. He does this through desiring only one woman and by unfortunately making Eros a god in his life.
Love and affection is an indispensable part of human life. In different culture love may appear differently. In the poem “My god my lotus” lovers responded to each other differently than in the poem “Fishhawk”. Likewise, the presentation of female sexuality, gender disparity and presentation of love were shown inversely in these two poems. Some may argue that love in the past was not as same as love in present. However, we can still find some lovers who are staying with their partners just to maintain the relationship. We may also find some lovers having relationship only because of self-interest. However, a love relationship should always be out of self-interest and must be based on mutual interest. A love usually obtains its perfectness when it develops from both partners equally and with same affection.
This belief is demonstrated in The Bhagavad-Gita when Krishna states, “knowledge is obscured / by the wise man’s eternal enemy, / which takes form as desire” (3.38). The use of the intensely negative phrase, “eternal enemy” suggests that knowledge and desire exist in extreme and constant opposition to each other. The belief in the pursuit of desire and the pursuit of knowledge as mutually exclusive is highlighted in Symposium through the relationship between the lover and the beloved. The lover-beloved relationship is expounded upon in the introduction to Symposium, with the statement, “Once won, the beloved was not expected to enjoy the sexual act; on the contrary, enjoyment was the sign of a depraved nature” (xv). In order to properly fulfill his role in the relationship, the lover is expected to abstain from sexual desire, which points to vilification of common love and the conflict between desire and knowledge. Moreover, the belief that enjoying the sexual act made the beloved of “a depraved nature” points to the extreme disapproval of the beloved’s possession of desire and highlights the necessity of the absence of desire on the beloved’s behalf. The idea of desire as detracting from the beloved’s pursuit of knowledge is evidenced when Alcibiades, speaking on his feelings for Socrates,
The ideas about love and finding love revolved around first introductions and good impressions. Respect was valued at that time. In modern times it seems like these basic ideas have changed, and the first
As any romantic will assert, love is by far the most powerful force known to human hearts and minds. This sentiment is espoused throughout history, almost to the point of cliché. Everyone has heard the optimistic statement, “love conquers all,” and The Beatles are certain, however idyllic it may be, that “all you need is love.” Humanity is convinced that love is unique within human emotion, unequalled in its power to both lift the spirit up in throws of ecstasy, and cast it down in utter despair.
The often confused words 'love' and 'lust' are becoming used interchangeably more and more every day. Indeed, many definitions are being loosened up and many words are used improperly. When people use the words 'love' and 'lust', they should be more careful which word it is that they mean to say.
I have always thought that there was only one type of love, which was that feeling of overwhelming liking to someone else. I am aware that Lust does exist and that it is separate from Love, being that the desire for someone's body rather their mind. In Plato's Symposium, Plato speaks of many different types of love, loves that can be taken as lust as well. He writes about seven different points of view on love coming from the speakers that attend the symposium in honor of Agathon. Although all these men bring up excellent points on their definitions on love, it is a woman that makes the best definition be known. I will concentrate on the difference between the theory of Common and Heavenly love brought up by Pausanias and the important role that Diotima plays in the symposium.
First, to get back on track, it is important to look at the three separate levels of love, and it would make sense to first look at eros. Eros is a romantic love, the kind of love one would have towards a beautiful object, or person. It is that sexual drive that is most apparent at the early stages of a relationship. This could be considered to be the first definition people would think of when questioned about the meaning of love. In fact in a more layman attempt at understanding eros one can think of the feeling one has during a crush, where a person’s affections are aimed at a single individual.
The Symposium, The Aeneid, and Confessions help demonstrate how the nature of love can be found in several places, whether it is in the mind, the body or the soul. These texts also provide with eye-opening views of love as they adjust our understanding of what love really is. By giving us reformed spectrum of love, one is able to engage in introspective thinking and determine if the things we love are truly worthy of our sentiment.
Love is formed from all over and everybody has their own interpretations of love. Love is defined in many different ways all in many different place from all around. A question that would be hard to define accurately is , what is the real meaning of love? Love in a summed up way can be described as Love is a variety of different feelings, states, and attitudes that ranges from interpersonal affection to pleasure. You can always love and it be a different way of loving. For example love like a friend, or love sexually. Just like in greek. They have multiple different ways of expressing and explaining love.
One major influential traditions of love in the Western world is Platonism. Platonism originated with Plato’s original writings on love. Plato influence of love expanded beyond the traditions he originally started through romanticism in the 19th century, courtly love in the middle ages, religious love, and many Freudian ideas and theories are rooted in Plato’s theory of love (Gould 160). The ideas and interests of love in Plato’s eyes are renewing its self in today’s society.
Older dictionaries and encyclopedias usually refer to the romantic aspect of love, as the love in which is experienced between man and woman. In today’s society it is said that romantic love can be found regardless of your gender and based on that definition I would have to agree, but personally disagree for the simple reason that we were physically made to adapt to the other gender sexually. Feeling romantic love for the same sex would defeat the purpose of our existence, which is procreation. Thus making love for the same sex unjust. Love has been expressed since the beginning of time since Adam and Eve.
Some people get the word love mixed up with lust. People do this because they tend to forget that when in love, sex is never a necessity but an accessory to the feeling. Lust and love have so many differences it is considered ridiculous. Some people say that they love someone just to get the physical action that is so commonly wanted but never really needed. Lust is something that is completely physical, while love is the complete opposite. Love is a feeling so euphoric that everything, but at the same time nothing m...