One Time Is a Charm

Hanna Alexandersson

ENG. 106

Professor Montlack

Essay # 1

30 July 2015

One Time Is a Charm

        Many things in life are temporary, and we are taught to be fine with it. We are taught in early ages that everything has its time. We are also told that when one door closes another opens, that every end is a new beginning, and last but not least, we are taught that life goes on. Many, not all, of us think and function the same way when it comes to love. A heartbreak will not make the earth stop moving, even if it might feel like it. Moving on is not always easy. Unforeseen consequences can interrupt later on even if we manage to move on from a relationship. However, the first thing you need to do before you can move on is to get out. The current divorce rate in the United States is estimated to be 50%, according to Divorcestatistics.org. Moreover, if a person manages to move on and get re-married the risk for divorce will increase to 60-67%. If the person manages to move on and marries a third time, the risk for divorce is 70-73%. The more times a person gets married, the more likely it is for the person to get divorced. Moving on is not a bad thing, but it is more than likely that the person has some inner injuries created by an old love. Although love is known for its romantic and positive aspect, it also has a dark side, as seen in Raymond Carver’s short story “What We Talk About When We Talk About Love”, especially in the relationships between: Mel and Terri, Ed and Terri, and Mel and the Gin.

        First, although love is known for its romantic and positive aspects, it also has a dark side in Mel and Terri’s relationship. The relationship between Mel and Terri is proof of how love can be temporary, simply because both of them have been married before. The reader also gets to witness a dark side of love when verbal abuse takes place in the conversation between Mel and Terri; Mel says, “Just shut up for once in your life.” This is clearly a dark side of love, since one of the individual in the relationships talks down to another. Another dark side is that love can make a person blind. When we admire and love a person, we become blind and start accepting certain words; words that we never would accept hearing from anyone else. That happens because of love, the dark side of love. The dark side can sometimes make a person expect the worst out of everything. Probably because we have been hurt by love before. This occurs at the table when Terri said, “You’re still on your honeymoon, for God’s sake. You’re still gaga, for crying out loud. Just wait.” And even if there is no expectation of the relationship to fall apart, there is always a risk.

        Next, although love is known for its romantic and positive aspects, it also has a dark side in Terri and Eds’ relationship. The stories about their relationship and the stories about Ed clearly show the darkest side of love: the heartbreak. Love can be devastating when one person wants the relationship to continue, while the other partner wants out. The next part of the dark side of love is that a person, who has got his or her heart broken, can lose oneself. Not only can he or she lose him or herself, but the person can also become desperate and put others into danger. This happens with Ed, and is clearly presented when Terri said, “We were afraid. /---/ I even called the police at one point, but they were no help. They said they couldn’t do anything until Ed actually did something.” Which clearly shows how a person can become dangerous when trying to win an old love back. One more dark side of love is how an adult person can become dependent on another individual. Terri said, “[He] was willing to die for it. He did die for it.” Ed could not see himself living without Tessie any longer, which resulted in a dreadfully outcome. In other words, Ed clearly sacrificed his life for love, or should we say: the dark side of love?