Theme of Love in Captain Corelli's Mandolin
From ‘How like a woman is a mandolin…’ (Page 303, chapter 42) to ‘…there is our timpani.’ How is the theme of love developed in this section and how does this link to the development of the theme in the novel as a whole?
The theme of love is indeed an enigma in this novel. As the novel flows on, love is developing, but not necessarily on the right path. Our belief of love becoming a fully grown blossomed flower in this novel, takes setbacks every time we see an aspect of love.
Many modern day lovers see love as being attracted to the complete person. A person, who loves someone, either loves them because of their personality, or their ability to make them feel happy. This is a complete contrast to the theme of love in this novel. In this novel, love is all about looks. Whenever we see a character in the novel preaching about their love to the reader, we see a highly detailed description of the looks of the person they ‘love’. We rarely see how the person makes them feel, we see how beautiful or sexually desirable the person is. This gives the sense of love being artificial and not pure. We see this in this section, when Corelli is describing his proclaimed love for Pelagia. “Her head turns, a smile, an arch and knowing smile, and she has gone”. This shows how much Corelli is in ‘love’ with Pelagia, because he describes the exact shape of her smile. However, love of the looks is a type of love, which is also romantic, as a lover knows exactly what his love looks like, and that is what makes love, knowing the person you love inside and out.
In this section, we see a mans love for a woman. Corelli proclaims his love for Pelagia in this short extract. Many would argue that de Bernieres has in this section portrayed Corelli as a typical man who has a twist. The twist being that Corelli is highly interested in music, which is not very masculine but he shows his manliness by stating his desire for Pelagia’s body. However, Italian men tend to be very interested in
The theme of love is indeed an enigma in this novel. As the novel flows on, love is developing, but not necessarily on the right path. Our belief of love becoming a fully grown blossomed flower in this novel, takes setbacks every time we see an aspect of love.
Many modern day lovers see love as being attracted to the complete person. A person, who loves someone, either loves them because of their personality, or their ability to make them feel happy. This is a complete contrast to the theme of love in this novel. In this novel, love is all about looks. Whenever we see a character in the novel preaching about their love to the reader, we see a highly detailed description of the looks of the person they ‘love’. We rarely see how the person makes them feel, we see how beautiful or sexually desirable the person is. This gives the sense of love being artificial and not pure. We see this in this section, when Corelli is describing his proclaimed love for Pelagia. “Her head turns, a smile, an arch and knowing smile, and she has gone”. This shows how much Corelli is in ‘love’ with Pelagia, because he describes the exact shape of her smile. However, love of the looks is a type of love, which is also romantic, as a lover knows exactly what his love looks like, and that is what makes love, knowing the person you love inside and out.
In this section, we see a mans love for a woman. Corelli proclaims his love for Pelagia in this short extract. Many would argue that de Bernieres has in this section portrayed Corelli as a typical man who has a twist. The twist being that Corelli is highly interested in music, which is not very masculine but he shows his manliness by stating his desire for Pelagia’s body. However, Italian men tend to be very interested in