Close Friendship And C. S. Lewis The Four Loves

1284 Words6 Pages
There is a blurred line between a close friendship and a romantic relationship, most likely because many close friendships can develop into romantic relationships and the deep feelings experienced in both relationships can be extremely similar. Often times erotic love is confused for friendship, further muddling the already vague line between a close friendship and a romantic relationship. Both kinds of relationships require emotional intimacy and a strong bond between the people in the relationship. As consequence, one can argue here that the one element separating close friendships and romantic relationships, both homosexual and heterosexual, is sex, which is reserved almost exclusively for romantic partnerships. While sex can play an important…show more content…
There are many kinds of friendships, which according to Montaigne, “are forged and fostered by pleasure or profit by public or private necessity [...] they bring in some purpose (Montaigne, 207). Most of these friendships are nothing but mere acquaintances. Although he later claims that the four species of love: the natural, the social, the hospitable and the erotic do not play a role in friendship (Montaigne, 207) the purpose of the “perfect friendship” (Montaigne, 209), Montaigne speaks of later in his essay, is to engage the mind, body and spirit. The intense close friendship--and thus romantic relationship--is a matter of the mind, and when both minds mutually decide to become exclusive the relationship becomes romantic and one of affection and Eros. C.S Lewis would argue against Montaigne’s claim that the four species of love do not play a role in friendship. In his novel, he argues that friendships, unlike romantic relationships, are based on similarity. According to…show more content…
Rosenberg defines female friendships as “generic and unself-conscious pattern of single-sex or homosocial networks” (9, Rosenberg). A supportive network served to support and bring women together in a socially restricted world; soon these bonds developed into “a world of emotional richness and complexity devotion” (9, Rosenberg). There were several factors in the nineteenth century for women to form these close friendships including, home, church, and the “institution of visiting that endless trooping of women to each others homes for social purposes” (Rosenberg, 10). Olive and Verena form a close friendship because the growing women’s right movement brought them together. Despite their intimate relationship, it still lacks the mutual exclusivity that would label it a romantic
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