The Green Eyed Monster Analysis

The Green-eyed Monster

We may not be proud of our jealousies, but most of us have them. When we feel insecure, unloved, unsure of ourselves, we tend to become jealous of what we want to hold for ourselves. Like the little fellow who hangs on to his toy fire engine and won't let anyone else look at it, we cling possessively to our friends and loved ones. We're afraid to share, afraid of losing what we love, insecure about our ability to hold our rights, and as a result we're jealous and possessive.

Claire may gloat in her boy friend's jealousy and feel that it's a sign of Tom's ardent love. Actually, jealous love is a painful love that has very little future in it. As Claire and Tom become more mature, they will learn to trust each other, and

He is protective and considerate of her. She is thoughtful and kind to him. They discover a tender sympathy growing up between them that is sweet and meaningful. This, too, is a part of love—a very important part, both in dating and in life together through the years.

THE COURSE OF LOVE

It is generally recognized that the course of love rarely runs smoothly. But it took two university professors to plot the course that love takes in the lives of actual young people. Professors Kirkpatrick and Caplow found that the most usual course of love is one starting with mutual indifference and moving upward through attraction to love, and then either dropping again to indifference, with the broken love affair, or remaining in love at a high level of mutual involvement. One out of every five love affairs studied is irregular in its course, with unpredictable shifts from love to hate to indifference to liking in various combinations throughout the history of the relationship. Somewhat fewer young men and women experience an even more vacillating kind of love that is off-again-on-again, with ups and downs like a roller