Misconceptions of Love
...n his own way maybe, but he loved me. There was love there, Mel. Don’t say there wasn’t.” (Carver 356.) I agree with Terri’s argument, the abusiveness was out of love. Ed was probably hurt inside because his love for Terri was strong and he probably thought that she did not feel the same way for him. He was also probably under the assumption that Terri was going to leave him for Mel which results to his psychotic behavior. He probably acted that way because he couldn’t accept the fact that Terri wanted to move on and leave him behind which led him to hurting her and himself. “When I left, he drank rat poison,’ ‘It gets worse,’ Terri said. “He shot himself in the mouth. But he bungled that too. Poor Ed,” she said.” (Carver 357.) There are extreme things that people would do for love such as committing suicide. Constantly, there are couples who are certain that they are in love with each other but for some reason the relationship does not work out the way they wanted it to. The reason for this is because it is not true love, it is the misconceptions of love. During high school, I had a close friend by the named of Keegan whose relationship was torn by misconceptions of love. Keegan was with his beautiful girlfriend Jasmine for 5 years. Everyone saw them as the perfect couple because they were so happy together and they thought that they loved each other. One day, Keegan came over to my house to talk to talk to me about his relationship. He told me that his relationship with Jasmine got boring and he felt like he was losing feelings for her. He also said that he was seeing some other girl by the name of Monica. I told Keegan to be honest with Jasmine and explain to her what was going on. The next day, he went over to Jasmine’s house to confess about seeing Monica. Jasmine was upset and attacked Keegan by pushing him into the hard wall and scratching his body with her long and sharp nails. Although Jasmine loved Keegan, she could not handle the truth that Keegan wanted to move on and see other people. She was hurt inside and felt betrayed which led her to hurting Keegan. Keegan was forced to run out of the house and leave, because Jasmine would not stop hurting him. Later that night, Keegan tried calling Jasmine’s cell phone but could not get a hold of her. He then went to her house and knocked on her door but no one answered because she was home alone while her parents were away on vacation. He then opened the unlocked door and walked upstairs with fear in his eyes. He walks into her room and finds her crying on the floor with her phone in one hand and a knife in the other hand. Like Ed, Jasmine could not stand the fact that Keegan was leaving her for another girl which caused her to be violent. Like Terri and Ed during the early stages of their relationship, Jasmine and Keegan both believed that they were in love but found out that it was just misconceptions about love. Later on in the story, Mel explains his past relationship with his ex wife and how he thought it was love but turned out to be misconceptions of love. He states, “There was a time when I thought I loved my first wife more than life itself. But now I hate her guts. I do.” (Carver 359.) He is basically saying what the author is trying to prove. The first stages of love are just misconceptions, after that it will turn into real love. Mel married his ex wife thinking that they were in love but found out that it was not working out which led them to breaking up. This was a result of misconceptions of love. There is a part in the story that shows that love could go on after you lose the one you love. “..but if something...