Standards for Love According to Ibn Hazm Applied to Tristan and Iseult
... Love is perhaps trickier than some of the other emotions. How do we know if it is true love or if it is just lust or infatuation? Ibn Hazm wrote a work called The Dove’s Necklace. This treatise tells how we know two people are in love by giving descriptions of the signs of true love. ... These categories do not have to be met in that distinct order for it to be shown as true love. In The Romance of Tristan and Iseult the love of the two main characters, Tristan and Iseult, can be shown to fit all six of these categories. The first category that Hazm describes in reference to love is Gaze. In this Hazm says that “you will see the lover gazing at the beloved unblinkingly; his eyes follow the loved one’s every movement. ... Hazm also talks about the eye being the gateway of the soul, the keeper of secrets, and the holder of emotions. ... The brooding gaze is the first clue to true love. Tristan and Iseult’s love fits the Gaze category. At the very beginning of their love affair Tristan and Iseult quickly complete this faze of love. ... It shows that Tristan and Iseult have already trusted their souls to each other in their love by engaging in the brooding gaze. Hazm’s next requirement of love is Attention. ... Hazm says: “When the loved one speaks, the lover listens with rapt attention to his every word; he marvels at everything the beloved says.” Thus Attention is the second requirement of true love in Hazm’s ideal. The two lovers, Tristan and Iseult, show great attention to each other thus fulfilling the Attention category of Hazm’s love ideal. ... It is their attention to each other that drew attention to their love in the first place. The four felons in the story become aware of their love early in the story and it is because they see how much attention Tristan and the Queen paid to each other (Bedier, 43). When Tristan is away from Iseult his attention is drawn to her very easily; this is apparent when he is married to Iseult of the White Hands. He marries her to try and escape Iseult but it only hurts him more because his attention is constantly drawn to his love at the mere mention of his new wife’s name.