Tuesday, November 13, 2012
Of Love and Other Demons: Discussion Continued...
In our discussions on Romeo and Juliet and Of Love and Other Demons, we have looked at the circumstances that led to the characters' sacrifices. In both stories, we have discussed whether the power of love was a positive influence or a negative influence, and whether the love between the characters is what lead to their suicide. What are your opinions on this? Do you believe that love is a force that leads only to chaos and insanity, or is it a necessary emotion to our human lives?
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This is a very broad question to answer because of the fact that any circumstance of love can occur, but it will do my best. I believe love is a necessary emotion in humans whether you love an object, idea, action or person and it can drive you to insanity or not. It is just very dependent.
ReplyDeleteIn both these books love clearly make the characters act irrationally. However, I do not believe that this is presented as a bad thing in either case. Romeo and Juliet die for each other but throughout the whole book we are routing for their love despite the chaos it causes. Also in Of Love and Other Demons, the love itself does not cause the characters to go insane. In fact, it actually helped Sierva Maria. What ultimately caused their deaths was the fact that their love was confined. For Sierva Maria she was literally confined. In the case of Delaura I think that love helped him too. He had only been living half his life before falling in love. His confinement was more mental. He had never experienced the emotions he was feeling and it was against everything he had been taught so he tried to suppress his feelings. This caused him to start acting crazy. All in all, I am not saying that love is perfect, but I do think it is necessary human emotion that can be good but is very dangerous.
ReplyDeleteI believe that love is a positive thing in both situations and that love is a necessary emotion. The love between the two main characters in Romeo and Juliet may not have caused their lives to end well, but like Caroline said, while reading the book you hope their love lasts and they can overcome what their parents believe. In Of Love and Other Demons, we discussed that love was potentially a good emotion as well, especially for Sierva Maria. She, in the beginning of the story, was not taken care of by her parents and did not really enjoy her life. However, when she started to talk and fall in love with Delaura, she gained so much happiness and wanted to be with him forever. Love also benefitted Delaura because he had a reason to come out of the library and explore life a little more. Before falling in love, he hardly ever left the library, and now he had the opportunity to go visit Sierva Maria and meet people. Also, the Marquis transformed when he decided to love his daughter. He became more considerate and wanted her back in his life. He had regretted bringing her to the convent in the first place. Overall, I also believe that love has its mistakes and its "bumps in the road", but as a whole, I believe love is necessary and good for those who experience it.
ReplyDeleteI would argue that love is not to blame for Romeo and Juliet's deaths because they were not really in love. They met only a few days (hours?) before they decided to get married, and it seemed that they had a shallow attraction, not deeply-felt love. Therefore, we cannot say love was responsible for their deaths. In Of Love and Other Demons, love was a beautiful thing because it gave the Marquis something to live for, even if it was just for a brief period of time. Love brought Sierva Maria and Delaura the only joy they had ever felt. The book presented the characters who had no love in their lives as miserable and pitiful. In my opinion, love is a necessary part of life. Life is meant to be messy chaotic, and a little insane, but that is what makes it beautiful. So yes, love sometimes makes people irrational, but love can do great things as well.
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