Perspectives of Love in Literature

Paper Summary:

In Anton Chekhov's short story, "The Lady with the Pet Dog," Dmitri Gurov, the main character, makes the transformation from a jaded, superficial womanizer to a caring lover, slowly with purpose. On the other hand, Mel McGinnis, the character who utters much of the dialogue in Raymond Carver's "What We Talk About When We Talk About Love," idealizes and longs for the type of mature love ultimately manifested in Gurov, but never actually arrives there within the course of the story. Instead, we merely see Mel talking about the need for "real" love and the desire for such love within the transience of contemporary relationships. This paper shows that Gurov's path of transformation begins in the world of serial relationships that the couples in Carver's story are so immersed in and follows a slow and variable progression to what Mel would refer to as "spiritual" or "real" love. The paper concludes that, although no form of love is absolutely perfect, the capacity of love that Gurov finally achieves can be akin to Mel's ideal view of love.

From the Paper:

"Perhaps the kind of love Gurov and Anna ultimately possess is embodied in the relationship of the elderly couple in their mid-seventies who have been in an auto accident. This couple represents our traditional conception of love-lifetime monogamy-a love that lasts "until death do us part." The kind of dependence between the old couple is reflective of Anna and Gurov's ultimate love for each other; the kind of mutual, unconditional love "very close, dear people, like husband and wife, like tender friends" possessed for each other. This kind of love involves dependence, vulnerability and need, all very undesirable qualities in our contemporary world of "you do your thing and I'll do mine." As a product of contemporary society, Mel greatly desires to comprehend such an elevated form of love."

More papers on Perspectives of Love in Literature:

• Analytical Essay # 68396 : "Humor in "Gulliver's Travels"
• Essay # 34136 : "Love: Erasmus, de Navarre, Petrarch and Shakespeare."
• Research Paper # 92807 : "Agape In The Ethics Of Martin Luther King, Jr."

APA Citation:

MLA Citation: