The Bittersweet Phenomenon

For class, we read “Eros The Bittersweet” by Anne Carson and followed with a discussion on its central ideas and how they relate to our everyday lives and the literature we have read. We opened our discussion with Sappho, who was the first female poet to call Eros bittersweet. Carson states there is this idea of the necessity of feeling both pleasure and pain in a relationship of love. The idea of bittersweet was first translated from sweetbitter, which might suggest a chronology of feeling pleasure followed by pain—sweetness then bitterness. Carson then proposes that the order put forth is irrelevant because a relationship of love is both sweet and bitter at the same time. The reason as to why there seems to always be bitterness even in the sweetest of relationships is because we are constantly in a state of lack; no matter how great what we have is, we still desire more. This has proved accurate in our everyday relationships. Many times that which we desire most is not the best fixation for our emotional well-being. For instance, an insensible young woman may be in a relationship with a young man who is loyal, respectful, and compassionate—qualities seldom found in a man!, but still finds her eye veering off toward the “bad boy” type. Besides the reason that we always desire for more, I believe most young women do this because they have an innate necessity for drama and feel too comfortable in a relationship with a young man who treats them well; they desire the chase and the pain. Carson also suggests that Eros is not a noun, but a verb. This serves to prove that love always has to be moving; it is an ever-changing and adapting phenomenon. Love may progress from good to bad—bitter to sweet and vice versa. This has been validated by the literature we have read and films we have seen. In “Maurice,” the love shared between Hall and Durham is plentiful and chaste, however, because of society’s construction of norms and laws, they are forced to be separate. In “The Girl Who Was Plugged In,” P.Burke held a strong love for Paul, but could not love him physically for she was living vicariously through Delphi. In the film version of “Minority Report,” Anderton desired his wife Laura who he could not have because everyday when she was with him, she saw her dead son’s reflection emanating from his face. I think “Eros The Bittersweet” was really interesting and relevant to our everyday lives and the literature we have read in class.