It is true that this was a partriarchal tragedy in one sense, but it most definitely and unreservedly was also a love story of immense proportions. However, Mary Ellen O’Brien responded: I think she does a terrible disservice to the couple in projecting post-modern sensibilities onto their relationship–and in so doing, perverting their love with contemporary issues.
I think their letters should be read to supplement studies in the history of patriarchy, given a feminist reading as well, and included in studies of the history of religion, rather than being headlined as a romance where the substance of this woman and the utter self absorption of the scholar are overlooked in favor of a sigh. It is a tragic relationship, but it is not a love story. Her successes as an abbess were conducted under duress, not in willing servitude. She spent her years chiding him in her letters for his faults. A close reading of these letters and the political and religious climate in which they lived, tells us that, although they had been in a relationship that even produced a child, their story is more about patriarchal prerogatives of the time and the victimization and marginalization of women, rather than two lovers torn apart. However, Patricia Hamill wrote: I wanted to write to you regarding your comment that this is ‘one of the greatest love stories of all time.’ I think this is a misleading statement and grievous misrepresentation of their history….Two people in a relationship, tragic or triumphant, does not make a love story.
Was romantic love invented in the Middle Ages? If so, then the true story of Pierre Abelard and Heloise is a template.
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