Love over Passion//Raygan Boster

 

"What higher in her societie thou findst

Attractive, human, rational, love still;

In loving thou dost well, in passion not

Wherein true Love consists not;"

    Love the things you find in her worth loving. Passion isn't love. It will only bring you trouble. Passion is not the same as love. You can have love with no passion and passion with no love. Passion with no love is a very dangerous thing, and we can see this in chapter eight. At the end of Adam and Raphael's conversation they get on the topic of Eve and how he feels about her. Adam gets stuck on the aspect of her beauty and charm. Raphael warns about the dangers of this and how it can take his eyes off God. Above all, he needs to obey God and his commands and not get caught in his "passion". I think it is interesting that Adam says that he struggles to say no and tell Eve what he thinks is right. I think this will come into play when Eve gets tempted by Satan. This is the sign that PASSION is overwhelming him. He becomes subservient to Eve because of her looks, giving up his role and his place given by God. Pure love is described as being wise and leading to heavenly love. Passion is blinding and takes over your life, leaving you with a lack of judgement and a wedge between you and your Creator. Raphael tries to warn him about this, but Adam insists he still has a hold on himself. Now, whether that is accurate or not, we will find out later. 

    However, in Adam's defense, neither him nor Eve have experienced any type of evil in their lives. They only know God, his angels, and his love. Therefore, he cannot truly understand what the danger of this is or even the concept of danger in itself. He is blinded by merely the lack of experience and natural ignorance. To some degree, I don't fully blame Adam for feeling confident that he won't be overtaken by his passion for Eve. 

I commented on Taylor Vice and Emma Dalgety's post. 

Comments

  1. Emma DSeptember 20, 2021 at 10:28 PM

    I think this is a great distinction between passion and true love, Raygan! It really is interesting that Adam doesn't fully understand the difference yet between the emotions and the actions of heavenly love. He may be overconfident because he simply doesn't understand the danger. This reminds me a lot of themes in the Canterbury Tales - the story of Chanticleer the chicken is hilarious, but he also says something similar to his wife, Pertelote, about how he doesn't fear any premonition of danger when he looks at her. Reason simply leaves his head. I wonder if this is a common theme around this time! - Emma D.

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