Mel And Terri Relationship

Through Raymond Carver's Novel, ‘What We Talk About When We Talk About Love,’ the narrator Nick first introduces his buddy Mel McGinnis. Ironically, Mel happens to be a cardiologist, we soon learn that although Mel works on hearts which always are related back to love, he knows little to nothing about love. Through Nick we are introduced to his wife Laura, whom have been together for a total of eighteen blissful months. Then there is Mel and his wife Terri who seem to be over the infatuation stage of their marriage and though they have been married for four years, they don’t seem to know a thing about true love due to their past experiences whether it have ben an unsatisfying marriage or an abusive ex-boyfriend. The two couples sit around a
Mel and Terri seem to be the only couple who have had previous relationships that affected their current relationships. Both Mel and Terri’s end were or still seem to be infatuated with their ex partners. The conversation between the two is dominated by Mel who speaks because ‘Mel McGinnis is a cardiologist, and sometimes that gives him the right,’ Mel focuses on his assertion that “real love was nothing less than spiritual love.” It seems that Terri focuses on challenging her husband to speak on the kind of love her ex, Ed gave to her after physically abusing her: ‘He beat me up one night. He dragged me around the living room by my ankles. He kept saying, I love you, I love you, you bitch’… Terri looked around the table ‘What do you do with a love like that?’ Mel completely rejects even the thought of relating love and violence together and belittles his wife: ‘My God, don’t be silly. That’s not love, and you know it… I don’t know what you’d call it, but I sure know you wouldn’t call it love.’ Terri goes on insisting that Ed loved her ‘in his own way.’ The hostility set by Mel and Terri gives the story a set scene of tension. As the story goes on Carver makes clear the scene changing, ‘The afternoon sun was like a presence in the room, the spacious light of ease and generosity’ … It is made clear by Mel and Terri that they do care for one another but the glow of new love has clearly given way to a bit of contempt. This is one kind of love demonstrated Raymond Carver's novel ‘What We Talk About When We Talk About Love’ which is revealed to be contradicting through Mel and Terri’s