Love In The Alchemist

Love is such a controversial topic in which it takes on many forms depending on the individual. In “The Alchemist,” by Paulo Coelho, everlasting love becomes a major theme in the novel for driving the personal legend of Santiago and his soulmate, Fatima. Fatima and Santiago have two totally different personal legends, but both have the inspiration to follow it to enhance their love for each other. “The Alchemist,” uses love as an inspirational force for the characters and is relatable to the concept of love and possession, we have today.

In the novel, the protagonist Santiago falls for two women. These two women are Fatima and the merchant’s daughter. From reading, I was able to gain the idea that this novel was set back in an earlier time

period. The fact that it is a different time period and culture makes the idea of love perceived differently. Back then, people just got married off without truly knowing their “true love”. This kind of idea was expressed when Santiago had fallen for the merchant’s daughter. “And now it was only four days before he would be back in that same village. He was excited, and at the same time uneasy: maybe the girl had already forgotten him.”(Coelho 9) This was a clear example love that could fall out easily because Santiago fell for a girl he barely knew, until he met Fatima.
His circumstances with Fatima were similar to that of the merchant’s daughter. He did not know Fatima but his love for her was completely different than any other love he had. “When he looked into her dark eyes, and saw that her lips were poised between a laugh and silence, he
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learned the most important part of the language that all the world spoke-the language that everyone on earth was capable of understanding in their heart.

It was love.” (Coelho 95) This was an example of everlasting love because Santiago initially, did not want to pursue his personal legend in order to be with Fatima. However, the alchemist warned him that not following his personal legend would make their relationship worsen as the years go by. To prevent this, Santiago followed his personal legend and Fatima encouraged him to go because her personal legend was to wait for him to come back. Coelho proposed the idea of true everlasting love by throwing in a fake love that Santiago had with the merchant’s daughter in order to strengthen the comparison between her and

Fatima.
As mentioned before, Fatima’s personal legend was for Santiago to come out of the desert after he found his personal legend, which was golden treasure. I do not think that one should see this as unfair because Santiago seemed to have the better personal legend. Everyone has a different personal legend. It all depends on what makes them truly happy. It may seem as if golden treasure would make Santiago truly happy; at first it did. However, he was thinking of giving up many times. The reasoning behind his official commitment to his legend was his love for Fatima. Therefore, we can say that both have the same personal legends. Furthermore, the novel shows that personal legends never stop. After one has achieved their personal legend, a new one will appear because everyone should never stop achieving. Who knows, Fatima may receive what seems to be a more rewarding personal legend than Santiago, later on.
In our culture, our morals express that true love is not based on the possessions of the other partner.

It is looked down upon because we stress the importance of finding out perfect

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companion and if you love someone due to their riches or anything of that realm, it is not true love. Instead, they are in love with the materialistic items, not the person. However, there are

many in our culture, today, who get into a relationship or even marry for money. It goes against our morals of finding true love, but many mix the conception of love with riches due to a materialistic mindset. As expected, these relationships usually do not go well and can cause stress or depression for both parties.

In conclusion, in “The Alchemist,” Coelho uses love as the force behind his plot and characters’ motivation to find their personal legend. The idea of love in the story is relatable with the idea of love we have in our culture today. Santiago and Fatima show an everlasting love by following their personal legends not for the treasure that awaits, but for the sake of their

relationship.