Abelard And Heloises Relationship example essay topic

Saint Augustine believes that love is triggered by the desire to reach the beauty, truth, and good of God. Yet, it must be recognized that God is the Life of the life of my soul and that He created the form and spirit of the human body. Consequently, God assigned its own place and its own function (Augustine 213) for the body and the soul, and using the senses for enjoyment rather than for the objective of further glorifying God would be considered sinful since it is a distortion of love. It is necessary to direct the senses with the purpose of serving and loving God virtuously.

Hence, the body and soul must be controlled to experience love. Augustine shows the positive and negative aspects that various things can have on body and soul. Food is essential for nourishment and life, but when one eats too much the action becomes gluttonous. Augustine reveals this as he proclaims, Good Father you have taught me that all is good that God has made, nothing is to be rejected; only we must be thankful to him when we partake of it In the midst of these temptations I struggle daily against greed for food and drink (Augustine 236-237). When discussing smell, Augustine concludes that he is not tempted by smell and does not long for the scents when they are missing.

In other words, smell is unable to give rise to sinful pleasures capable of being produced by the other senses of the body; therefore, Augustine does not talk about this sense in depth. As Augustine discusses praise, this pleasure can grow to be negative in two ways: lack of praise causes people to become offensive and spiteful, while too much praise causes people to become conceited and arrogant. Augustine demonstrates this as he declares, I am sometimes sorry, too, to hear my own praises, either when others commend me for qualities which I am not glad to possess, or when they value in me, more highly than their due, qualities which may be good, but are of little importance (Augustine 246). Thus, receiving praise is considered sinful, while giving praise is considered glorious.

Also, people need to learn how to praise others before they can praise God since these actions show love for others before love for God. Catherine uses the same principles as the pleasures of the mind while examines pity in a discussion with God. He talks about pity by describing people who are sad and begin to weep from a pity springing from spiritual selfishness, because she has not yet completely put underfoot and drowned her self-will (Catherine 162-163). Self-pity must be overcome in order to feel love for others, and eventually for God. Catherine also looks at different sorts of temptations by saying, if the soul has the least bit of knowledge and heat and hatred of sin, she resists them, binding her will steadfast with the chains of hatred for sin and love for virtue (Catherine 168). Temptations, such as lust, would be considered sinful and keep a person from reaching divine love.

Both Augustine and Catherine of Siena share similar views on love, for they have concluded that the senses of the body and the emotions of the soul are a necessary springboard for love, yet they act as an obstruction as well. Despite their similar viewpoints, Augustine seems to profess his beliefs in terms of rules that should be followed, while Catherine shows the positive stages that people must go through in order to reach love. Through the pleasures of the body and the mind it is simpler to understand that the senses and emotions must be used for the sole intent of praising and glorifying God. Likewise, divine love is only attained by way of love for ones neighbors, and then, virtuous love for God.

Love is portrayed in many forms in The Letters of Abelard and Heloise. Like for example love of learning. The first thing Abelard does in his writing of Historia Calamitatum is portray himself as an individual just like Heloise. He denounced the popular and glorious life of a soldier and in order to study words and philosophy. I believe in writing this he shows his clever and different way of thinking by referring to dialectic. In the beginning Abelards and Heloises relationship was based heavily on passionate love.

So later after their entry into religion, Heloise accused Abelard of lust rather than love for her, which I believe, is not true. It was desire, not affection which bound you to me, the flame of lust rather than love. This is not merely my opinion, beloved, it is everyone's. Abelard was mostly attracted to her because of her knowledge and because of her gift of writing letters. Also he worried about her as much as he was concerned about himself and his career.

He agreed to marry Heloise even though it would put his career and reputation in danger. Also at one time he says all our laments were for one another's troubles and our distress for each other, not for ourselves. Courtly love is defined as humility, courtesy, adultery and religion of love. This is what I believe Abelards and Heloises relationship was based on in Abelards Historia Calamitatum and his letters to Heloise.

Abelard was a well-known figure of the twelfth century that taught dialectic philosophy. Abelard was in his late thirties when he first met Heloise in Paris. And it was her knowledge and gift for writing letters, which was so rare in women at the times that attracted Abelard to her. Heloise was the niece of one of the Cannons. She was about seventeen when she met Abelard; this was not considered a big deal for back then it was pretty common to have big age difference in marriages.

Heloise was considered atypical because women were rarely educated at all back then. She was strong willed and she had a pretty good sense of logic and this is what brought them together. Heloise struck a deal with Heloises uncle to educate her and gained full access to her pleasures. Their relationship encompassed the maximum in personal freedom.

Abelard and Heloises relationship was based on courtly love of their time and also I believe that their love was the creation of modern ideal of marriage which was founded on the voluntarily shared tenderness of a couple who shelter each other from the harshly competitive world, just like today's.