Abelardo and Eloisa: a forbidden love
Friends, welcome to November. These days I reread one of the classics of English literature: William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. As you all know, Romeo and Juliet has not only become one of Shakespeare's best-known stories, but also one of the best-known romantic tragedies in world literature. Even talking about Romeo and Juliet is a leitmotif of forbidden and impossible love.
Those who do not all know, is that just like Romeo and Juliet, there are other literary characters who suffered the impossible love. This is the case, for example, of Mary and Ephraim in the novel Mary by George Isaacs; that of Lotte and Werther in The Misadventures of Young Werther' by Goethe; that of Heathcliff and Cathy in Wuthering Heights by Emily Brönte; or one of the best known: Rhett and Scarlett in Margaret Michel's famous novel, Gone with the Wind.
We know that in many cases, real life serves as inspiration for writers who, seeing and living their environment, can create the most beautiful or terrible pieces of literature. Hence, it is important to know that, just as in literature, some thinkers, writers, artists and even heroes lived in their own flesh an impossible love that many times, as in Romeo and Juliet, led them to death.
Based on this idea, I wanted to make several posts that talk about the most famous relationships of impossible love that some writers or universal thinkers suffered in real life. On this occasion I wanted to start with one of the saddest, most terrible, and most complicated relationships I have ever read and which are worth knowing. Rather than making a study or analysis (I'm not a psychoanalyst) of the relationship, what I'm going to try to do is tell you the story of these two lovers who saw their love impaired. Today I will tell you the story of Abelardo and Eloísa.
Before starting, I must say that there are many versions of this story, I focused on the one that repeats more and we know more. According to the story, Abelardo was born in 1079 in Palais, Upper Brittany, a village near Nantes. As a young man, Abelardo was assigned to the military career, which he later abandoned for study. He cultivated all the knowledge of his time, including music and singing. At the age of 20, Abelardo left for Paris, devoting himself to philosophy. He established a school on the hill of Santa Genoveva and attracted a large crowd of students from whom he deserved deep respect.
Due to Abelard's deep recognition and respect as a philosopher, Fulberto, canon of the Cathedral of Paris, requested the services of the famous master as guardian of his niece Eloise, a cultured and beautiful 17-year-old girl, who, having lost her parents, was entrusted to his custody. Eloise does not resist Abelard's intellectual fascination, so Eloise's initial intellectual admiration for her master becomes passion. And although Abelardo is not a novice in love relationships, he was 37 years old at the time, he cannot help but fall into the temptation that makes him forget any convention.
We know what happens every afternoon in Fulberto's house because Abelardo himself narrates it in "Historia Calamitatum" (known in Spanish as "Historia de sus desgracias" or "Historia de mis calamidades"), also known as Abaelardi ad Amicum Suum Consolatoria. The work, written in 1132 or shortly thereafter, is one of the first autobiographical works of medieval Western Europe, written in the form of a letter. Here is a quote from the text:
>The books remained open, but love rather than reading was the subject of our dialogues, we exchanged more kisses than wise ideas. My hands went more to her breasts than to books.
This illicit relationship was discovered by Fulberto when Eloisa became pregnant. Fulberto, upon learning of the affront, insisted that Abelardo make peace through marriage. Curiously, Abelard did not oppose it, but Eloisa did, because she did not want to stand in the way of the promising career of her love. In more than one letter he said that he would rather be his lover than be his wife and see his fame lost.
Finally Eloisa surrenders and marries, but in secret. It is said that Abelard and Eloise have a son named Astrolabes and leave him in the custody of a sister of the philosopher. When Abelardo returns to Paris, Fulberto waits for him to execute his great revenge. Bribing a servant, he enters Abelard's rooms, accompanied by his companions, and castrates him.
After this, although Abelard tried to make a normal life, his relationship with Eloise broke down, so Abelard humiliated decides not to see Eloise again and retires to a monastery. After this, Eloisa also does the same: she becomes a nun even though she never stops loving Abelard.
We must say that although Abelard and Eloise never saw each other again, they kept in touch by means of letters. In one of those many letters, Eloise confesses that Abelard's passion was only carnal:
The senses, and not the affection, have linked you to me. Yours was a physical attraction, not love, and when the desire was extinguished, with it also disappeared all manifestations of affection with which you tried to manifest your true intentions: even when I sleep, its fallacious images persecute me. Even during Holy Mass, when prayer should be purer, the dark ghosts of those joys take hold of my soul, and I can do nothing but abandon myself to them, and I cannot even pray. Instead of crying, repenting for what I have done, I sigh, lamenting for what I have lost. And in front of my eyes I always have not only you and what we have done, but also the precise places in which we have loved each other, the different moments we have spent together, and I seem to be there with you doing the same things, and not even when I sleep do I manage to calm down. Sometimes, from a movement of my body or from a word that I don't get to catch, everyone understands what I'm thinking about" (Letter IV).
At the end of his days, Abelard retired to the camp, where he founded a chapel, which he called "Paraclete", but his fame and his knowledge continued to attract many followers; finally, his enemies (just as numerous) headed by Saint Bernard, abbot of Clairvaux and founder of the Cister, managed to accuse him of heresy and remove him from public life. He died resigned and separated from his beloved Eloise.
As you may have read, dear readers, reality sometimes surpasses fiction. There are some loves that seem to be drawn from tragic literature and like all tragic stories, they do not have a happy ending. This story is one of the many examples that we are going to review here so that we can know that not only Romeo and Juliet had an impossible love; there were also Abelardo and Eloísa who could never be happy.
With these words I say goodbye, hoping you enjoyed reading and not before inviting you to vote for @adsactly-witness as a witness, and to join our server in discord. Until the next smile;)
BIBLIOGRAPHICAL REFERENCES
https://www.topia.com.ar/articulos/la-filosof%C3%AD-y-la-pasi%C3%B3n-abelardo-y-elo%C3%ADsa
https://www.portalsolidario.net/ocio/visu/biografia.php?rowid=242
https://historiaybiografias.com/abelardo_aloisa/
Written by @nancybriti
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I had no knowledge of this love story. I have always heard of Romeo and Juliet, but I had never heard the story of Abelard and Eloise. I imagine that examples of impossible loves must predominate throughout the story. Although I don't read much, I do see a lot of cinema, and in cinema there are also couples who never found their love, or if they found it, they lost it. I remember Titanit or Bajo una misma estrella where the protagonist dies. I don't like this kind of story because the main characters should always stay together. Thank you for this post
According to you, @nonechangeles. There are many examples in cinema, but in this series we will work on literature. I also agree that people who love each other should be together, but unfortunately this is not always the case. Thank you for commenting.
To be honest @nancybriti all my life until this moment i have always thought that it was romeo and juliet's love story that didnt have a happy ending.
But for this i have also come to know about the story of Abelardo and Eloísa. Even while she was pregnant she didn't want her pregnancy to come inbetween her and the career of her love even he agreed to make peace with her by way of marriage, his man's lover for her was carnal alone.
Although i know this isn't a full story as you tried to summarize it as easy as possible, i will try to see if i can get hold of the book from any book store over here and read on my own so as to enlighten those who still think like me on the basis that Romeo and Juliet was the only love story that started happily but ended in tragedy.
Very interesting your project of approaching dramatic or tragic love stories lived by real writers and thinkers, @nancybriti. The love drama lived by Abelardo and Eloísa is presented by you with a well-done writing, which offers us valid considerations. Even though it does not belong to historical romanticism, which, as we know, began at the end of the 18th century, becomes one of its precursors, and will be claimed by the Romantics, thus covering itself with that fictional halo that it preserves.
Now, allow me to add that these two real individuals, in addition to their daring and truncated or transcended love, have a particular meaning. For both are, for their time, people of a certain advanced character. Abelard as a thinker who dared to challenge certain principles of medieval scholasticism, and Eloise one of the first women who showed their interest in literary writing.
Thank you for your post, @nancybriti, and @adsactly for spreading it. Greetings.
It's really true that most writers are been inspired to write by what they see and experience around them.
Who wasn't been an example of forbidden love, well I've read various stories about two love birds who could settle and archive some aims due to one or two reasons and apart from reading, I have always been a victim.
This publication has made me think of the stories of forbidden love that I have read and two works of universal literature come to mind: Lolita by Nabokov, which tells of the impossible love between an old man and a teenager, and Lady Chatterley's Lover, which tells of the love between a high-class woman and a forest ranger. I know that in literature there are many more stories of unlove, unrequited love and forbidden love. Love is the force that moves the human being and should be reciprocal, reciprocated and for nothing forbidden. I loved this publication, @nancybriti. I look forward to the continuation.
I know about their story, it's so sad, but great at the same time
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At the point when Heloise acknowledges she is pregnant Abelardo chooses to take her with him in Britain, where will their tyke Astrolabe. Moved by affection, Abelardo weds sidekick, mindful that if this news was spilled he would put in danger its notoriety, however most importantly, would forfeit the work and investigations of a lifetime.
Love Has Been Mysterious; It Would Continue To Be ; Because Every One Involved In Love Has Voluntarily Submitted To The Subnormal!!
Yes, love is a very complex feeling. Thank you for commenting.
Great. I have heard about this romeo and Juliet of a thing since when I was a kid. And actually they have really been used in several ways either to act films or movies rather or to sing like music and it has always been accepted as one of the most two romantic love story ever. As human being can not be predictable, likewise Love also to me can not he predictable. Love is just something I just cannot explain.
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Romeo and Juliet's story is the best-known love story of all universal literature, but there are many other stories that did not have a happy ending. Thank you for always commenting.
Romeo and Juliet love story tale have been popular. I hope I can also find my own Juliet
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If we start from the idea that Romeo and Juliet is an impossible and tragic love story, then it wouldn't be good if you found your Juliet. Greetings
Love is immortal. Writing and folklore they described by numerous fervent interests among sets of darlings, But what we disclose to you today is an alternate story, specific. This is, actually, one of only a handful couple of romantic tales that have a recorded Foundation as a phase, come down to us because of a progression of letters that the two darlings traded when they were compelled to isolate their avenues.
The history between the two started in 1116, When Heloise's uncle chooses to give the city's most pined for ace with grandson, Abelardo. Before long the exercises are changed into genuine occasions, amid which time as opposed to managing society and knowledge darlings are given to one another, finding at last to cherish strongly, as you will review only a couple of years after Heloise in one of his letters..
Those delights which we both completely committed ourselves when we were sweethearts, they were so sweet to me that I can just lament this, or they may blur from my memory, not in any case a bit. [… ] These dreams I spare notwithstanding when I rest. Notwithstanding amid the seriousness of the mass, When the petition must be the most perfect, the profane pictures of those hopeless soul claimed my delight to the point that I think more exotic joys to supplication...
Whatis a Forbidden Love:-
Romantic love that is not allowed..for whatever reason- Social or religious restrictions, outdated ideas, someone is already in a committed relationship, the age difference is inappropriate, or some other reason the relationship would be frowned upon or 'forbidden'. According to which part of the world they are in.
Lamentably the reality before long wound up open information, and to anticipate assist outrage the scholar hides his significant other in a cloister. Eloisa's relatives don't see however this signal, and they trust that Abelard is endeavoring to for all time dispose of recently developed family all together not to lose its notoriety. Choose so to take an outrageous Act: medium-term emasculates by three shooters on poor Abelard.