The Prodigal Son Rilke Analysis

No one can love him now because no one can endure the change that has occurred in him. His experiences with life have made him someone else, entirely different. He has become the lover while he was the beloved before. It is he who has taken his life in his own hands, and who is aware of his choices and his life. It is not possible to feel in the same way about him. He now understands that the love of his family was not something that they wished but it was simply there. There was no particular explanation for it. They just simply loved. However, now that he understands it and he has changed, they cannot love him. In the past, he was overpowered by their love and felt suffocated. He does not want the same thing. He does not want to be limited by the love of the other. He wants to be loved in a way in which he can feel his existence. He wants to be loved but wants to remain free too. And he comes to understand that there is only One who can love him like that. It is only God. It is God who does not …show more content…
Here He is the God, the One whose love does not limit, who does not suffocate, who lets the person be. In the case of the Prodigal Son, He is not yet willing to love him. It is because He wants him to experience life, to discover things, to learn to see, to learn the labour of love, to learn to be. He does not want to limit him. He does not want to overpower him, and suffocate him with His love. He wants him to see life to the full extent, and rediscover himself. He wants him to create himself through his conscious experiences. He wants him to come to an understanding with his existence. Until then, He is not willing to love him. Throughout the text, this is the idea that Rilke and Malte try to struggle with. There is no one whose love does not limit the one who wants to be loved in return. It is only in the power of God not to limit that person, and to love him in a way that lets him