The Ecstasy of Grief

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4 word format

document in english

literature

presentation

date published 19/10/2007

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level : Advanced

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Summary

History thrives on contradiction. There would be no words to fill textbooks if world events and facts did not clearly oppose that which was taught the year before. The reasons behind wars alter like the tides, and entire countries burn to the ground to be built up again under a new leader and a new goal. Nothing escapes this endless sea of change, this constant refocus of energy; not even love. For love, what was once a gift of sacrifice to the gods, the love of eternal gratitude toward an omnipotent power, became a love nothing short of disgraceful. The love of Eros, of agape, of wisdom and piety, minds and souls, evolved into the love of everything human in the eyes of romantics. It evolved into amore. And with this dawning of a new love, of a love for the skin of humans rather than the invisible bodies of gods, came a new set of rules, a new definition, a new goal. History has prodded the world toward this present era, and while the views of Romanticism are still accepted as the true doctrine of love, what may appear on the surface as a glorious concept is an ugly monster embedded in the flesh. Even amid Shakespeare and poetry, magic and potions, love has forged its own path, a path that leads straight into the fires of self-destruction. As the lesser noticed aspects of Romanticism illustrate, the best way to prove the existence of true love is to examine the pain it leaves behind. For to be in love is to suffer from the endless disease of validity, of the longing for the perfect evidence to be certain of the perfect love.

Table of Contents

It cannot be assumed from the ultimate sadness of Romanticism that the prior theories on love were euphoric.
The love accustomed to the contemporary world did not exist in the time of Christ; it could not exist.
Although marriage is not advocated by Romanticism, it is a concept which directly contrasts the desires of romantic love and those of its predecessor.
Marriage is generally accepted as the pinnacle point of love, the final dedication, where two lives are joined into one.
This adoption of everything as living proof is an extension of Stendhal's original theory of crystallization.
If amore were nothing more than suffering, it would never have become one of the most desirable accomplishments of human existence.
And through all of this, the one thing that mars the otherwise beautiful ideal of romantic love is that it is completely narcissistic.
Before Romanticism, it can almost be concluded that humans barely lived.