Saturday, April 21, 2012

Romantic and Libertine

The article is an interpretation of the concept of a romantic or libertine. It examines the nature of romance and of libertine and puts forth the question to its audience whether a person should put his or her feelings first or their beloved’s feelings first. Regardless of the main idea, both the romantic and libertine are self-destructing to any believers of love.

The article begins by saying that the need for romance can sometimes be so overwhelming that it lead to the loss of lives and great civilisations. Therefore, it is necessary for any educated person to study the nature of love and romance although some may protest for the reason that love should be surreal and authentic without any conscious effort. Love is further described by giving examples from most dictionaries with definitions and symptoms like love is a feeling of affection or sexual passion for another person. The definitions failed to justify the meaning of love and also the symptoms of love.

The article further described love as something that goes hand in hand with resentment and hatred, hence, love can be known as an intense feeling of affection and resentment, with a strong longing to be with the beloved object. Romance is then described as “A existing sense of wonder and mystery, surrounding the mutual attraction in love affairs.” Romance has it’s rituals that is divided into three types, obligatory romance, optional romance, and courtly love. Romance can be summed up as the celebration of an individual. Those who practice the ritual to its finest forms are known as the romantic.

Romantics treat their object of desire with the upmost care and concern, treating their beloved object as something very hard to possess, thus something very precious. This however may hurt the romantics in the long run if their beloved object does not share their enthusiasm. The best example of a romantic is in the play Cyrano De Bergerac, a true-life story of a soldier and playwright who has an unrequited love towards a woman named, Roxanne Robin. Cyrano De Bergerac thinks he is not worthy to be loved by Roxanne because he has a big and ugly nose. In addition, Roxanne was in love with another soldier, Christian. Roxanne has asked Cyrano to be their mediator and this breaks his heart but he still agreed. Because Christian has trouble with expressing himself, Cyrano was the one who wrote all the love letters to Roxanne and the letters captured her heart. Roxanne and Christian got married but not long after that, he died in a battlefield. Heartbroken, Roxanne retreated to a nunnery where Cyrano visited her everyday to entertain her. At the end, Cyrano was mortally wounded and only then did Roxanne found out the truth but it was already too late. The play poses the question whether we should put our beloved object’s feelings first.

The article then discusses on the concept of a libertine. A libertine is one who has no concerns on the questions of a romantic. The best example of a libertine is Giacomo Casanova. He was an adventurer and associates himself with great thinkers and high statuses people. In his memoir, The Conquest of Casanova, he describes his conquests with various men and women along his travels and adventures. He also wrote down strategies and tactics to woo his targets. The article ends once more with the question whether one should put one’s own feelings first or their beloved object’s feelings.

1 comment:

  1. Since you love romance, you might like this Janet Evanovich quote Evanovich quote

    ReplyDelete