Love at first sight

Love at first sight is an emotional condition whereby a person feels romantic attraction for a stranger on the first encounter with the stranger. The term may be used to refer to a mere sexual attraction or crush, but it usually refers to actually falling in love with someone literally the very first time one sees him or her, along with the deep desire to have an intimate relationship with that person. The stranger may or may not be aware that the other person has any such notion, and may not even be aware of the other person's presence (such as in a crowded place). Sometimes two people experience this phenomenon towards each other at the same time, usually when their eyes meet. See also love.

Greco-Roman conceptions

In the classical world, the phenomenon of "love at first sight" was understood within the context of a more general conception of passionate love, a kind of madness or, as the Greeks put it, theia mania ("madness from the gods").^[1] This love passion was described through an elaborate metaphoric and mythological psychological schema involving "love's arrows" or "love darts", the source of which was often given as the mythological Eros or Cupid,^[2], sometimes by other mythological deities (such as Rumor^[3]). At times, the source of the arrows was said to be the image of the beautiful love object itself. If these arrows were to arrive at the lover's eyes, they would then travel to and 'pierce' and 'wound' his or her heart and overwhelm him/her with desire and longing (love sickness). The image of the "arrow's wound" was sometimes used to create oxymorons and rhetorical antithesis concerning its pleasure and pain.

"Love at first sight" was explained as a sudden and immediate beguiling of the lover through the action of these processes. "Love at first sight" occurs in numerous Greek and Roman works. In Ovid's Metamorphoses, Narcissus becomes immediately spellbound and charmed by his own (unbeknownst to him) image. In Achilles Tatius's Leucippe and Clitophon, the lover Clitophon thus describes his own experience of the phenomenon: "As soon as I had seen her, I was lost. For Beauty's wound is sharper than any weapon's, and it runs through the eyes down to the soul. It is through the eye that love's wound passes, and I now became a prey to a host of emotions..."^[4] "Love at first sight" was not, however, the only mode of entering into passionate love in classical texts; at times the passion could occur after the initial meeting or could precede the first glimpse.

Another classical interpretation of the phenomenon of "love at first sight" could be found in Plato's Symposium in Aristophanes' description of the separation of primitive double-creatures into modern men and women and their subsequent search for their missing half: "... when [a lover] ... is fortunate enough to meet his other half, they are both so intoxicated with affection, with friendship, and with love, that they cannot bear to let each other out of sight for a single instant." ^[5]

Medieval and Renaissance conceptions

The classical conception of love's arrows were elaborated upon by the Provençal troubadour poets of southern France in the eleventh and twelfth centuries and became part of the European courtly love tradition. In particular, a glimpse of the woman's eyes was said to be the source of the love dart.^[6] In some medieval texts, the gaze of a beautiful woman is compared to the sight of a basilisk.

These images of the lover's eyes, the arrows and the ravages of "love at first sight" continued to be circulated and elaborated upon in the Renaissance and Baroque literature^[7] and pictorial imagery. Boccaccio for example, in his Il Filostrato mixes the tradition of love at first sight, the eye's darts and the metaphor of Cupid's arrow.^[8]: "Nor did he (Troilus) who was so wise shortly before... perceive that Love with his darts dwelt within the rays of those lovely eyes... nor notice the arrow that sped to his heart."^[9]

Love at first sight in fiction

Other works of fiction which use these tropes include:

The first sight of the beautiful princess Angelica (character) in Ariosto's Orlando furioso and the witch Armida in Tasso's Jerusalem Delivered enchant the knights that perceive them; Giovanni Boccaccio's Elegy of Lady Fiammetta describes the ravages of love at first sight on a woman.
Love at first sight occurs in Romeo and Juliet, by William Shakespeare .
In the French novel Les Misérables by Victor Hugo, the characters Marius Pontmercy and Cosette fall in love after glancing into each others' eyes.
In Stephenie Meyer's bestselling book series Twilight, two of her main characters, vampire Edward Cullen and human teenager Bella Swan fall in love after their first few meetings, although it was not discovered until a little while later. The same was true for the rest of Edward's coven (who is his family)
In the manga Kizuna, the main character Enjouji Kei falls in love with Samejima Ranmaru after first seeing him under a cherry blossom tree.

Love at first sight in songs

The song "Are You Lonesome Tonight?" contains the statement: "I loved you at first glance."
The song "With a Little Help From My Friends" has the lyric: "Would you believe in a love at first sight? Yes, I'm certain it happens all the time."
The popular song "Love at First Sight" by Kylie Minogue describes this phenomenon.
The aria "Di rigori armato il seno", in the opera Der Rosenkavalier by Richard Strauss, is sung by a lovestruck tenor. (Italian lyrics with interlinear English translation)

Love at first sight in movies and television

In the well known cartoon The Simpsons, Homer Simpson falls in love with Marge Simpson at his first sighting of her.
Renton Thurston from Eureka Seven falls in love with Eureka on first sight.
In Imagine Me & You, the two main characters Rachel and Luce fall in love at their first meeting (which is Rachel's wedding day).
In The Notebook (film), Noah falls in love with Allie at a carnival upon seeing her for the first time.
In Big Fish, Edward Bloom falls in love with Sandra Templeton the first time he sees her, although she doesn't reciprocate his love until he's hunted her down three years later.

References and notes

^ Tallis, Frank (2005). "Crazy for You". The Psychologist. 18 (2). {{cite journal}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help); Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
^ See, for example, the Amores and the Heroides of Ovid which frequently refer to the overwhelming passion caused by Cupid's darts.
^ See Ovid's letter from Paris, below.
^ In B. P. Reardon, ed. Collected Ancient Greek Novels, translation of Leucippe and Clitophon by John J, Winkler, Berkeley: U of California Press, 1989, p. 179. ISBN 0-520-04306-5
^ Edith Hamilton and Huntington Cairns, eds. The Collected Dialogues of Plato. Bollinger Series LXXI. Princeton: Princeton UP, 1961. p. 545.
^ See the introduction by Nathaniel Edward Griffin to The Filostrato of Giovanni Boccaccio (New York: Bilbo and Tannen, no date. ISBN 0-8196-0817-X): "This doctrine of the immediate visual perception of one's lady as a prerequisite to the birth of love originated among the beaux esprits de Provence. [...] According to this description, love originates upon the eyes of the lady when encountered by those of her future lover. The love thus generated is conveyed on bright beams of light from her eyes to his, through which it passes to take up its abode in his heart." (p.76, note 2)
^ For a full discussion of the scene of "love at first sight" in fiction, see Jean Rousset, "Leurs yeux se rencontrèrent" : la scène de première vue dans le roman, Paris: José Corti, 1981.
^ Giovanni Boccaccio, The Filostrato (see supra): "In the desription of the enamorment of Troilus is a singular blending of the Provençal conception of the eyes as the birthplace of love with the classical idea of the God of Love with his bows and quiver..." (p.77, note 2)
^ Ibid., canto 1, strophe 29; translation by Nathaniel Edward Griffin and Arthur Beckwith Myrick, p. 147.

[1] Tallis, Frank (2005). "Crazy for You". The Psychologist. 18 (2). {{cite journal}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help); Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)

[2] See, for example, the Amores and the Heroides of Ovid which frequently refer to the overwhelming passion caused by Cupid's darts.

[3] See Ovid's letter from Paris, below.

[4] In B. P. Reardon, ed. Collected Ancient Greek Novels, translation of Leucippe and Clitophon by John J, Winkler, Berkeley: U of California Press, 1989, p. 179. ISBN 0-520-04306-5

[5] Edith Hamilton and Huntington Cairns, eds. The Collected Dialogues of Plato. Bollinger Series LXXI. Princeton: Princeton UP, 1961. p. 545.

[6] See the introduction by Nathaniel Edward Griffin to The Filostrato of Giovanni Boccaccio (New York: Bilbo and Tannen, no date. ISBN 0-8196-0817-X): "This doctrine of the immediate visual perception of one's lady as a prerequisite to the birth of love originated among the beaux esprits de Provence. [...] According to this description, love originates upon the eyes of the lady when encountered by those of her future lover. The love thus generated is conveyed on bright beams of light from her eyes to his, through which it passes to take up its abode in his heart." (p.76, note 2)

[7] For a full discussion of the scene of "love at first sight" in fiction, see Jean Rousset, "Leurs yeux se rencontrèrent" : la scène de première vue dans le roman, Paris: José Corti, 1981.

[8] Giovanni Boccaccio, The Filostrato (see supra): "In the desription of the enamorment of Troilus is a singular blending of the Provençal conception of the eyes as the birthplace of love with the classical idea of the God of Love with his bows and quiver..." (p.77, note 2)

[9] Ibid., canto 1, strophe 29; translation by Nathaniel Edward Griffin and Arthur Beckwith Myrick, p. 147.

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