Last week in Seminar we discussed Swann’s obsession with Odette. At the beginning of the novel he thinks her ugly. As he falls in love with her; he begins to construct or see her as beautiful. After she falls out of love with him, becomes more aware of her past, and recognizes that his love for her has turned into an obsession, he finally admits that this is hurting him. The last part of Swann’s way is Swann making a conscious effort to stop loving Odette. I applaud his efforts but they don’t seem to heal much of his inner turmoil.

One thing he attempts to do is to “reconstruct” her into his first glimpse of her. If he could just view her the way he had originally maybe he could break the enchantment. So he tries to dwell on her negative physical features. The problem with this is he knows that his love for her goes far deeper than physical attraction.

The conclusion I have come to is that whoever we love becomes our “type”. Love breaks our assumptions.