NogaNote

Aspects of Love I:

It's Valentine's week, again, a time I like to ruminate on the nature of love, all types of love (Eros, Philia, Agape). But the most irresistible, of course, is that love we attribute to Eros, amores perros as the Spanish tells us, or l'amour fou, its French counterpart. That complex of attraction, pain and desire that we so willingly inflict upon ourselves.


Jose Ortega y Gasset, “Meditations on Don Quixote” on the strong emotions that shape us:

On Loving:

“Love.. binds us to things, even if only temporarily. If we ask ourselves what
new character an object acquires when it is approached with love, what we feel
when we love a woman, when we love science, when we love our country, the first
thing we shall find is this: what we say we love appears to us as something
indispensable. The beloved object is, for the moment, indispensable. That is to
say, we cannot live without it; we cannot accept an existence in which we should
be bereft of the beloved object, for we consider it part of ourselves. There is,
therefore, in love an extension of the individuality, which absorbs other things
into it, which united them to us. … Love is a divine architect who, according to
Plato.. came down to the world ‘so that everything in the universe might be
linked together”.

Here are two of the greatest love scenes recorded in English Literature, from my two absolutely favourite novels:

Pride and Prejudice:

Darcy's most vehement declaration of love followed by Lizzy's mighty slap...

"In vain have I struggled…"

And a different couple altogether, Jane Eyre and Mr. Rochester

"It's my spirit that addresses your spirit..."


This is an older version with a much too pretty Sussanah York as Jane. I thought the music was the best feature of this version.