There are four types of love in this world, philia, eros, agape, and storge. Philia is the love of friends. Eros is romantic love. Agape is unconditional love. And storge is the love of family. In the four stories “A Secret for Two”, “The Gift of the Magi”, “Thank You M’am”, and “Too Soon a Woman” they all portray a type of love. This essay will show you how each of the stories portray a type of love.
In the short story “A Secret for Two”, there is an old man named Pierre who delivered milk to the people of Montreal with his best friend Joseph, a horse. One day Joseph died and Pierre was heartbroken. Pierre started walking down the streets in depression; all of a sudden he got hit by a truck and died. Doctors found out that Pierre was blind for five years. This secret was kept between Pierre and Joseph. This story represents philia, a love of friends. They had spent a lot of time with each other and had kept secrets. At the end of the story Pierre’s boss says “None of us knew. Only one knew- a friend of his named Joseph…It was a secret, I think, just between those two.” Two friends were able to keep a secret for five years until someone discovered it. Friends keep secrets so the other friend will feel secure.
In the short story “The Gift of the Magi”, there is a lovely couple living around the early twentieth century. It is a day before Christmas and Della needs to buy a gift for Jim. But she is low on money. She decides to cut her hair off and sell it. With that money she buys a fob chain for Jims pocket watch. On Christmas Della show Jim her cut hair and he gets disappointed. Not because she looks different but because he bought her hair combs for her long beautiful hair. Little did Della know that Jim sold his pocket watch to...
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...ing to see if the mushroom was edible for the kids. At the end of the story the reader finds out that Mary would become their stepmother. This story portrays storge, the love of family. The oldest brother hates Mary for eating the mushroom in front of his starving sisters. He said “I endured the smell of the mushroom frying as long as I could. Then I said “Give me some”. Mary says “Tomorrow , maybe. But not tonight.” This showed that Mary was willing to give up her life for the kids just like a mother would. If she would have died the next day the kid would not eat the mushroom. But if she did survive the kids could eat it and not starve anymore. Only people from a family would do this for each other. The children’s father married Mary because she was like a mother to his children. That is why at the end of the story the boy said “My stepmother was a great person.”
Love is heavily intertwined with being human. Indeed, everyone doubtlessly experiences some form of love in their life, be it towards objects or people. This love is organized into three types; eros, philos, and agape. Eros, likely the most common kind of love in western culture, denotes sexual desire, or lust. Philos covers love among friends, or love for the purpose to gain something. Agape, the rarest of all, encapsulates selfless love, or the willingness to die for another. All forms are present within the three works, Voltaire’s Candide, Cervantes’ Don Quixote, and in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, albeit in differing levels.
Different forms of romantic love between a man and a woman can be seen throughout each of the three chosen texts, but through each negative aspect of these relationships they appear to affect them in an adverse way, whether this is through false love, forbidden love, or through unrequited love.
Before one dives into the depths of the respective philosophies, we should establish the definition and nature of each author 's form of love. First, we have Sappho, examined from “Excerpts from: If Not, Winter: Fragments of Sappho” and her concept of 'Eros ' otherwise known as the erotic. To expand
The Symposium, The Aeneid, and Confessions help demonstrate how the nature of love can be found in several places, whether it is in the mind, the body or the soul. These texts also provide with eye-opening views of love as they adjust our understanding of what love really is. By giving us reformed spectrum of love, one is able to engage in introspective thinking and determine if the things we love are truly worthy of our sentiment.
In this chapter 2 of Knox and Schacht the authors explain the way to conceptualize love as well as all the aspects that are incorporated into love. The ways in which people view romantic and realistic love and how here in America we look at romantic love in a sort of fairy tale way. The authors explain the different styles of love that people can be categorized under in different relationships. Knox and Schacht take a look at arranged marriages in other countries and how love is intended to come after you are married and not before Knox and Schacht 2016, pg. 37-45). If relationships are focused on sexual attraction it takes away from simply being friends with a person which can also lead us to not actually seeing a person for who they really
In classical Greek literature the subject of love is commonly a prominent theme. However, throughout these varied texts the subject of Love becomes a multi-faceted being. From this common occurrence in literature we can assume that this subject had a large impact on day-to-day life. One text that explores the many faces of love in everyday life is Plato’s Symposium. In this text we hear a number of views on the subject of love and what the true nature of love is. This essay will focus on a speech by Pausanius. Pausanius’s speech concentrates on the goddess Aphrodite. In particular he looks at her two forms, as a promoter of “Celestial Love” as well as “Common Love.” This idea of “Common Love” can be seen in a real life context in the tragedy “Hippolytus” by Euripides. This brings the philosophical views made by Pausanius into a real-life context.
O. Henry’s short story “The Gift of the Magi,” is about a couple who most unwisely sacrificed for each other the greatest treasures of their house. The story takes place on Christmas Eve in a furnished apartment at eight dollars a week. I feel that the narrator mocks Jim and Della for being poor. “It did not beggar description, but it certainly had that word on the lookout for the mendicancy squad.” (O. Henry 165). Della and Jim’s income shrunk from thirty dollars a week to twenty dollars a week causing them a great deal of financial problems. They both are troubled that Christmas is tomorrow and they cannot afford to buy each other a nice gift. Jim’s gold watch and Della’s hair play an important role in the story.
“The Gift of the Magi” is a short story penned by O. Henry that is set between a young couple who want to give a very precious gift to each other for Christmas. The story ends up so that the gifts that they gave to each other had been fruitless as they both had given up the very thing the said gift was meant for. The theme for “The Gift of the Magi” is that people will give up their most valued material possessions for the ones they care deeply for. Della’s constant wanting to please her husband, Della’s willingness to give up her hair in return form money so she could buy a worthy present for Jim, and her anxiety about picking the best present for Jim even when she has an adequate amount of money to do so shows that some people will give up what they value most for who they value most.
The “Gift of the Magi”, by O. Henry, is a short story that unfolds in an unanticipated and remarkable way that gently tugs the reader in which makes them want to continue reading. The story is about two characters named Della and Jim. For Christmas, Della cuts her hair to sell for money to buy Jim a chain for his watch while Jim sells his watch to buy Della some fancy combs. They both couldn’t use each other's gifts properly by reason of them sacrificing what they loved likewise finding delight in giving - what is foolish in the head, may be wise for the heart.
(E) In “The Gift of The Magi”, Both James and Della´s sacrifices are their greatest gifts to each other. The most valuable treasures this young couple has are selflessness and dedication for each other. This symbolism of their most prized possessions is principal when saying that their relationship works due to of their magnanimous ways because in today’s society, people are insincere and avaricious. (C) Often hiding behind and insincere relationship, people mask their faults which shows their greed. They do not want to give up things they love in order to strengthen their relationship which is why relationships often fail. (A) O.Henry wanted to show how a true relationship should work, and that in order to demonstrate the magnitude of true love, both sides of the relationship should be willing to make sacrifices. (P) Think back to the needle in a haystack; it is true that sincere love is not an easy task, but it is not inconceivable. This one in a million chance to find the one you love can effortlessly be solved if young people listen to the wise teachings of O.Henry and learn that selflessness is the most important part of any relationship. By taking heed of this reasonable advice, the odds of finding that one needle among the infinite sea of hay will be in the favor of true
In the short story “The Gift of the Magi” by O. Henry tells a story of the life of a poor couple and their struggle during the Christmas holiday. It is about two characters named Jim and Della who sacrifice their most important items to get each other Christmas gifts. Della sells her own beautiful brown long hair. Jim sells his fine watch that had been passed down throughout his family.
Initially published in The New York Sunday World on December 10th, 1905 titled “Gifts of the Magi”, the story starts out will Della wanting to buy a gift for her husband Jim for Christmas but she only has $1.87. Once reality hits her about the current situation that she is in, she starts crying. Only when the narrator tells the history of the couple’s trials and tribulations does one truly understand that even though they are rich in love, they were actually poor. Not letting that stop her she sets out on a mission to find the perfect gift for her husband sacrificing her most valuable possession; her hair. Jim is on the very same mission also, sacrificing his watch to prove how much he loves her. The author of this short story, O. Henry (William Sydney Porter), was known for clever endings, great characterization, facetiousness, and ingenious choice if words.
Many people have different perspectives when it comes to the topic of love. The word love has been tossed around by everybody and not very many people really understand the true meaning of love. There are some exceptions, but I think this is especially true for teenagers and young adults. I might be one of those people who do not fully understand the topic of love, but I hope to better understand the topic of love and its true meaning is this course.
There are many positive things and negative things about the movie and the story. In the movie
What is love? Love is a very special and meaningful word to each human being. Each human being has his/her own thoughts about love to guide himself/herself to land safely and smoothly into the kingdom of Love. Without this preconceived idea of love, people would be acting like a blind person searching for the light with thousand of obstacles in front of him.