Love In F. Scott Fitzgerald's Their Eyes Were Watching God

Many literary works have love as a theme. By reading different novels, one receives a glimpse of all the different kinds of love and their purposes. In Their Eyes Were Watching God, love is represented as the sea. By reading this novel, the reader comes to the conclusion that our capability to love deviates with every person we come across. Love is in some ways an art, and it transforms as people transform. Janie Crawford, perhaps one of the greatest love philosophers and protagonist, says, “Love ain’t somethin’ lak uh grindstone dat’s de same thing everywhere and do de same thing tuh everything it touch. Love is lak de sea. It’s uh movin’ thing, but still and all, it takes its shape from de shore it meets, and it’s different with every shore”

Love is not as merciful to others, though. The Great Gatsby teaches that money cannot buy love. Jay Gatsby is trapped in this utterly obsessive kind of love that make makes him unable to basically do anything except think about Daisy nonstop. No money or material possessions will entice her, but that sure does not stop Gatsby from trying to win her over. The narrator, Nick Carraway reveals to the reader that Gatsby “hadn’t once ceased looking at Daisy, and I think he revalued everything in his house according to the measure of response it drew from her well-loved eyes. Sometimes, too, he stared around at his possessions in a dazed way, as though in her actual and astounding presence none of it was any longer real” (Fitzgerald 5.112). It is sad that no matter how hard Gatsby tries to win back Daisy, she will not commit to anything. It is for the best, though. They would eventually become miserable if because the only reason they married was because of his money and gifts to her. Daisy’s character teaches readers that they do not have to succumb to people’s ideals of

She is the object of an obsession and infatuation, not of love. Another novel that shares a similar lesson of love is Great Expectations. This novel teaches the reader to be cautious of what they might think is love and not to pursue anyone who is pursuing them out of lust or obsession. Pip says to Estella, “you know I love you. You know that I have loved you long and dearly” (Dickens 44.37). For some reason, it is difficult to think that the “love” here means anything but “obsessed” or “infatuated.” Pip by no means actually loves Estella, rather he lusts her. Pip reveals that “The unqualified truth is, that when I loved Estella with the love of a man, I loved her simply because I found her irresistible […] Once for all; I loved her nonetheless because I knew it, and it had no more influence in restraining me, than if I had devoutly believed her to be human perfection” (Dickens 29.2). He recognizes her faults, but she is still difficult to resist. The lesson in these novels is clear. Love is original for everything that can be loved. No pattern follows it. Be aware of the fact that someone might think they love you, but in reality they just love the idea of