Love and Death: An Analysis of a Tragic Romance
**Love and Death**
**Internal Structure**
We can divide the romance into three moments. First, the initial situation and the arrival of Death, including the first dialogue between Love and Death. This is where Love is advised that one hour of life will be subtracted. The second moment is the fight for life, the time that Love tries to avoid Death or just wants to live life in the best way. Finally, the third moment is the second appearance of Death, the end of Love’s time.
**The Beginning**
The romance begins with verses that repeat sounds, that is, alliteration. It repeats the sounds “n” and “s”. This part can be interpreted in two ways. First, Love was dreaming, woke up, and met Death. That is, what happened was real. And further, we can also think that Love was dreaming and the whole story happens in the dream, then it’s all a dream. The boundaries between reality and dreams are not clear.
**Setting**
There is an inaccurate temporary location: last night. We know that Love is in a room, perhaps with doors and windows closed.
**The Encounter**
The first thing that happens to Love upon seeing Death is thinking that it is their beloved. We know that Love confused Death with their beloved because of how Death is presented. Love confused Death with their beloved because of Death’s physical characteristics: whiteness. But it is not the only characteristic that is given to Death; Death is also strict.
**Death’s Characteristics**
Death is not just white, but very cold, colder than snow. The comparative link is “more”. The author uses a tautology, that is, using an adjective that is implicit in the noun, such as the coldness of snow. To be confused with the beloved, who is white, we can deduct that Death is also white. This association may be understood as pallor, a lack of life. Warmth is associated with life, while cold is associated with Death.
Human qualities are applied to Death, and it is not the usual image. Death is white, quiet, and not as it is always imagined: black, poor, etc.
Further, Death must have the ability to open doors and windows. Death is a supernatural being. Even before this, Death is referred to as Death.
**Love and Life**
When Death calls Love “my love” and “my life”, it shows the association between love and life. But, on the contrary, Death appears as an envoy of God coming to meet the fate of Love with the divine mandate. Death, then, is rigorous because the destination itself is rigorous. As Death gives Love one more hour of life, it is Love’s fate to live another hour. The life and death of Love are predestined. The romance always has the religious conception of the idea of predestination.
**Desperation**
Later, an anaphora is made: “Open the door.” It stresses the idea of despair, the lover’s hurry. Love calls their beloved “white” and shows the reason for the confusion. Love and the beloved are in secret and cannot open the door because of their parents. Love really believes that because it stresses that “life would be” with their beloved.
**The Window**
Love tells the beloved to enter through the window where they usually sew. Then we know more about the house. Anyway, Love is not confident that the beloved will not open the door. Love also gives up some of their own body to save their life.
**The Silk Cord**
The cord that Love strips symbolizes the bond between them. Silk shows a fragile union. Another interpretation could be that the cord would join Love to life. But that silk cord is very fragile, which represents the fragility of Love’s life.
**The Fates**
Another interesting idea is to see the idea of knitting as related to fate, a symbol. Because in ancient Greece, people believed in three Fates, or Moerae, whose office was weaving lives. Each person’s life was a thread. One spun, another wove, and the last, at the time of death, cut the thread.
**The End**
The end is truncated; the goal is left unsaid. While all indications are that Love is going to die, nothing is specifically indicated.
**Major Themes**
The major themes of the romance are love, death, the struggle between life and death, etc. The title indicates the two eponymous characters and is also emblematic because it contains story elements and issues such as death, love, etc.