In modern culture love is understood by the most people to be an intense feeling of affection, desire, or goodwill. However, while love is a largely universal experience, love is understood very differently on an individual level and is influenced by culture, personal experience, and historical influence. One of the pillars of Western civilization is the Greco-Roman tradition, which provides the basis for the bulk of humanity’s understanding of love in all aspects, and influences the understanding of love in the Judeo-Christian tradition as well. However, the Greeks gave us not only an understanding of the basic concept of love, but as Jericho states, “the Greeks gave us six distinctions, or forms of love and relating to others” (38). The form
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Under the Judeo-Christian tradition, agapē is viewed as the type of love modeled after God’s love for humanity, which is unconditional and therefore present regardless of the value of the recipient. The complex nature of God’s love for humanity is evident in acts of violence God perpetrates against humanity, and is consequently reflected in humanity’s destructive expression of this type of godly love. John Darnielle explores the concept of agapē in the Christian tradition through a series of Biblical allusions. He first explores this by opening the song, with a line alluding to a significant Biblical death, singing, “King Saul fell on his sword when it all went wrong” (The Mountain Goats). Saul faced imminent defeat at the Battle of Mt. Gilboa, where his final words to his servant were, “Draw your sword, and thrust me through with it, lest these uncircumcised come and thrust me through, and mistreat me” (The Bible 1 Samuel 31:4). Saul had been gravely wounded by archers and was familiar with the forms of torture his enemies inflicted on prisoners, and therefore his suicide can be understood as an act of love for not only himself, but also love for his religious ideals, which condemned defilement of the body. This first line establishes the idea that the concept of love Darnielle is exploring as a different kind …show more content…
In this verse, The Mountain Goats further explore the concept of agapē in the form of a love of ideals through a literary allusion to the novel’s protagonist, Raskolnikov. Dostoyevsky showcased agapē through the beliefs of the protagonist, Raskolnikov, who, “argues that there are both ‘ordinary’ and ‘extraordinary’ people and that the extraordinary ones have the "right" to kill—but only if the murder is necessary in order to help make progress in the world” (Shmoop Editorial Team). Raskolnikov’s love of this his ideals lead him to commit murder throughout the course of the work under the belief that he is justified in doing so as an extraordinary man. Darnielle explores this in the lines, “Raskolnikov felt sick, but he couldn’t say why/When he saw his face reflected in his victim’s twinkling eye” (The Mountain Goats). Raskolnikov vacillated because he valued human life, but he valued his ideals more. This conveys the complex nature of agapē, in the way that love is multifaceted and often conflicting, but that which one assigns the most worth to is ultimately going to be the strongest motive. The following lines, “Some things you’ll do for money and some you’ll do for fun/ But the things you do for love are going to come back to you one by one” echo the final line of the preceding verse which state, “Some
Under the Judeo-Christian tradition, agapē is viewed as the type of love modeled after God’s love for humanity, which is unconditional and therefore present regardless of the value of the recipient. The complex nature of God’s love for humanity is evident in acts of violence God perpetrates against humanity, and is consequently reflected in humanity’s destructive expression of this type of godly love. John Darnielle explores the concept of agapē in the Christian tradition through a series of Biblical allusions. He first explores this by opening the song, with a line alluding to a significant Biblical death, singing, “King Saul fell on his sword when it all went wrong” (The Mountain Goats). Saul faced imminent defeat at the Battle of Mt. Gilboa, where his final words to his servant were, “Draw your sword, and thrust me through with it, lest these uncircumcised come and thrust me through, and mistreat me” (The Bible 1 Samuel 31:4). Saul had been gravely wounded by archers and was familiar with the forms of torture his enemies inflicted on prisoners, and therefore his suicide can be understood as an act of love for not only himself, but also love for his religious ideals, which condemned defilement of the body. This first line establishes the idea that the concept of love Darnielle is exploring as a different kind …show more content…
In this verse, The Mountain Goats further explore the concept of agapē in the form of a love of ideals through a literary allusion to the novel’s protagonist, Raskolnikov. Dostoyevsky showcased agapē through the beliefs of the protagonist, Raskolnikov, who, “argues that there are both ‘ordinary’ and ‘extraordinary’ people and that the extraordinary ones have the "right" to kill—but only if the murder is necessary in order to help make progress in the world” (Shmoop Editorial Team). Raskolnikov’s love of this his ideals lead him to commit murder throughout the course of the work under the belief that he is justified in doing so as an extraordinary man. Darnielle explores this in the lines, “Raskolnikov felt sick, but he couldn’t say why/When he saw his face reflected in his victim’s twinkling eye” (The Mountain Goats). Raskolnikov vacillated because he valued human life, but he valued his ideals more. This conveys the complex nature of agapē, in the way that love is multifaceted and often conflicting, but that which one assigns the most worth to is ultimately going to be the strongest motive. The following lines, “Some things you’ll do for money and some you’ll do for fun/ But the things you do for love are going to come back to you one by one” echo the final line of the preceding verse which state, “Some