Love is an emotion that varies from couple to couple, we can see this is both “The Storm” and in “What We Talk About When We Talk About Love. ” In these stories we have three different couples who are all very much in love. In “What We Talk About When We Talk About Love” we have Mel and Terri who have been married for four years and are already pretty comfortable in their relationship. Also there are Nick and Laura who have only been married for a year and a half.
In “The Storm” we have Alcee and Calixta who are lovers who each have their own spouses. After reading the stories we are left to reflect on not only their relationships but also on our own. Mel and Laura’s relationship is one that I would compare to your typical married couple. They are far enough into their marriage that they could make jokes at each other and really be comfortable enough around each other. They show their love in little jesters whether it be a hand touch or a rub on their face.
They even show love in the little jokes that they tell each other whether or not the other one knows. Even though they love each other we can still see that they get annoyed with each other and get aggravated at each other very easily. This is just simply because they have been together for so long and are so accustom and probably a little tired of each other. I think that this is a very common relationship for a married couple, you both love each other but at the same time you want to kill the other person as well.
Mel at one time says “if I didn’t have Terri and if I didn’t love her so much, and if Nick wasn’t my best friend, I’d carry you off, honey” in front of his wife showing that he can say something like that to another women and not having Terri get upset because she obviously knew he was joking and she was probably thinking the same thing about some other guy. Nick and Laura on the other hand are in a very young relationship. They are at the point of their marriage that Terri would describe as “still on the honeymoon. They are still all over each other and are constantly holding their hands and showing little jesters all the time. They are at the stage where there really don’t know what it’s like to be married for a while and what it’s like to be in a long relationship with each other. This is also a very common relationship but it is only a phase. Before long the honeymoon ends and they will start to realize each other’s flaws and differences. At this stage of the relationship it is too soon to tell whether or not they are going to make it.
It is only once they reach the point when do realize each other’s flaws and differences and are able to accept them is when they will grow to be a couple like Mel and Terri. Alcee and Calixta are the unorthodox couple that we are introduced to. They are not married to each other, but instead are lovers with their own spouses. They came together during a storm and had an affair. The relationship between the two was purely physical and driven by lust for just one night. The incredible thing about their affair was the impact it had with their own spouses. The relationships between their own spouses increased after the affair.
Alcee wrote a letter to his wife the night after the affair and once his wife responded to the letter she was ecstatic and wrote back a letter telling him how happy she was and how happy the kids are. Calixta’s husband and child came home late the night of the affair and when they were home the entire family had a good time and lived happily. This relationship between Alcee and Calixta is very unorthodox because their affairs strengthened their marriages. Most people who have affairs don’t have happy ending afterwards but somehow it works out for them. This is the least realistic relationship that we see.
Emotion has been a paradox to man since ancient times. Putting emotions into words and describing what is felt can be one of the most difficult things to do. Of all emotions love presents the most unique challenge because it is hard to define. Some may even argue that love have no definition. The benefit to this is that there are so many ways to show love because it is left up to each individual to decide how they love. So whether you’ve been a married couple for four years, a newlywed couple, or just two lovers thrown together for a night, the potential for love is present in your every day life.
