Burning and “Love’s Alchemy,” unlike the view of love which has an imprint on every stanza or act. With that in mind, the function of love in a relationship depends on the societal or personal views of love even though love is universal. Normally in the culture of the 1400s, women were not given a choice as to who they were to marry and if they were to marry, much like Alizon’s situation. In the instance of The Lady’s Not for Burning, Nicholas’s obsession with his brother’s fiancee, Alizon, represents the societal view of love. Nicholas exhibits the societal view of love in his lines, “We fought for possession of Alizon Eliot. What could be more natural? What he loves, I love. And if existence will disturb a man with beauty, how can he
