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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