The Eternal Polarity

Abstract

Any discussion of the role of love in Thomas Mann’s works must of necessity include a review of the role of love in world literature before Mann, or, inasmuch as literature is basically only a reflection of the fundamental problems of man and his efforts to solve them, a review of the role of love in the history of thought. Such an undertaking would be totally impossible within the scope of this effort if it were not for the fact that during the past twenty years three books were written which analyze and discuss the role of love from its earliest literary manifestations to the present. In doing so, however, the authors were not so much concerned with the literary product as with the philosophical current which produced it. I am referring to the books by Nygren, de Rougemont, and d’Arcy.¹³

Love is a desire of the whole being to be united to something or some being felt necessary to its completeness by the most perfect means that nature permits and reason dictates.

coleridge.