Examination of Love in Literature, Circa 1400

Love is said to be the most profound experience of life. Love – unrequited, lost, passionate, eternal, faithful and unfaithful – has been a quintessential element through time. Between 1400 and 1750, Renaissance idealism took hold, allowing for vast progressive developments in literature and the fine arts (Seiferth). In 1424, near the very beginning of this grand movement, a Frenchman, Alain Chartier, narrating a story of unrequited love, composed La Belle Dame sans Merci . More than four hundred years later, in 1884, John Keats employed the same title for a similar work centering on lost love. Great writers and philosophers have always ruminated on the subjects of love, time and death; while we may never answer these questions with any absolute certainty, we will all undoubtedly speculate about these topics for centuries to come.