Literature dealing with "unrequited love is stronger than requited love"

[carl90]

Hi all,

I'm doing some research for a play that I'm writing. Now I'm looking for suggestions on poems, literature, films or just quotes on the theme "unrequited love is stronger than requited love", or just passages where this is somewhat used/mentioned/formulated. Any ideas?

Feel free to post quotes, poems or excerpts from books in this thread!

Thanks!

[the facade]

I suggest you read Stoppard's play "The Real Thing" - it deals almost exclusively with this theme through a playwright's perspective.

[Charles Darnay]

There are letters between W.B Yeats and Maude Gonne in which she expresses this idea: she claims that his unrequited love for her makes him a great poet, or something to that effect.

[Desolation]

To state the obvious...See - Goethe and Dante.

[carl90]

Thanks for answers so far.

I read a bit about "The Real Thing" and I will borrow it from the library.

About Goethe and Dante, any works in particular?

Further suggestions are of course also welcome.

[Desolation]

I'm not all that familiar with the works of Dante, unfortunately.

However, Goethe's novel The Sorrows of Young Werther is an essential text on unrequited love.

Goethe's personal story of unrequited love has also been made into a movie recently, titled "Young Goethe in Love." I haven't seen it, but it might be worth checking out.

[PoeticPassions]

Love in the Time of Cholera by Marquez is about unrequited love.

Also in Dickens's Great Expectations this runs through the entire novel, though Dickens was pressured to rewrite a happier ending.


Oh and Dostoevsky has a great short story (or maybe a novella) called White Nights

I would also argue that Anna Karenina has elements of unrequited love...

[PoeticPassions]

Also Proust wrote or talked a lot about unrequited love.

And some of Fitzgerald's works have it too...

[Pensive]

If I remember correctly Wuthering Heights can also qualify as a tale of unrequited love. At least the root of Heathcliff's motivation to take revenge can be attributed to something similar.

[carl90]

Thanks for further suggestions, however, I must emphasize that I'm not looking for the theme of unrequited love in general, but "unrequited love is stronger than requited love" in particular - this idea must be used/mentioned/emphasized for a work to be of interest to me.

Which of the already mentioned books/plays still qualify then?

[kelby_lake]

The Great Gatsby and Lolita come to mind. what do you mean by "stronger"? More potent? More desirable? Better?

[the facade]

Thanks for further suggestions, however, I must emphasize that I'm not looking for the theme of unrequited love in general, but "unrequited love is stronger than requited love" in particular - this idea must be used/mentioned/emphasized for a work to be of interest to me.

Which of the already mentioned books/plays still qualify then?

Like I said, Stoppard's play "The Real Thing" deals with this theme almost exclusively. Furthermore, it is a meta-fictional work and the theme is discussed through the perspective of a playwright.

[carl90]

kelby_lake: thanks for suggestions. "Stronger" could mean any of those.

the_facede: ok, thanks again, I'll make sure to read it!

[Arrowni]

Madame Bovary!

[kelby_lake]

kelby_lake: thanks for suggestions. "Stronger" could mean any of those.


What I'm trying to get at is whether you want books that celebrate unrequited love or books that say the destruction of unrequited love is not worth it.

[carl90]

What I'm trying to get at is whether you want books that celebrate unrequited love or books that say the destruction of unrequited love is not worth it.

Books of both kinds might and might not be of interest. If it's celebrated because the author thinks that suffering in itself is good for you, then it's not really what I'm looking for. If it's celebrated because the author feels unrequited love brings up stronger emotions than requited love, it would be of interest. And whether the book says the destruction of unrequited love is not worth it or not isn't the important thing - still, it's whether it says (or discusses the theme) that unrequited love is stronger than requited love that is.

[kelby_lake]

Oh, Far From The Madding Crowd and Tess of The D'Urbervilles.

[Scheherazade]

Oh, Far From The Madding Crowd and Tess of The D'Urbervilles.Come to think of it, I think most of Hardy's books has this element in them... Eg, Return of the Native.

How about The Collector? It is a twisted story and more recent.

[Thought_Fox]

Try reading Of Human Bondage by W. Somerset Maugham.

Phillip's love for Mildred is definitely unrequited, yet she still leads him on and treats him horribly. It can be quite frustrating at times...