In my opinion, Courtly Love is an over-dramatized sense of loving a person. To present day society, this concept may seem imaginative or something that is hidden deep in our thoughts, never to be shared publicly as these writers did. Literature handles Courtly Love with a high level of extravagance which is evident in Petrarch’s work. In Poem 3, he is captivated by this woman’s “lovely eyes” and he was not “on guard against love’s blows.” This love that he felt left his heart feeling “nourished” and he alluded to Cupid shooting him with love’s arrow. It is all seems imaginative and unrealistic but this is the type of love that we dream of having with hopes that the feelings are reciprocated. To us, these may seem like the lyrics to a love song we may hear on the radio today. Many of these Courtly Love concepts transpired glamorized interpretations of love in today’s society. It sets expectations for what love is supposed to be like and when these expectations are not met, the situation takes a turn.
2 thoughts on “Petrarch and Courtly Love in Today’s Society”
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I think falling in love is easy. Two creatures fall in love at first sight as quick as the sparkling of fireworks. It might not be a dramatic scene with icebergs and birds and music in the background, but the force of attraction is strong enough to create tethering bonds. However, it behooves me to say that staying in love takes a little more effort, like tending to a garden. A woman has a sharp instinct to sense her lover’s waning commitment to the relationship and eventually her lover’s infidelity, even in a long distance relationship. I miss my ex-girlfriend.
I agree with you that Petrarch’s poems seem like lyrics from a love song. I also agree that we don’t really see courtly love the same way in 2016 as back in the day. I think courtly love in literature was more expressive back then. Petrarch writes about his beloved Laura in his poems, and he describes everything about her, from her hair to her voice, and that is often the way poets would write about women in courtly love.