Henry IV Part 1

Before I had thought about love in terms of a man and a woman, but in this case it is the father/son love that saves. I believe that because Henry IV cared about his son so much and pushed him to do the right things, Hal stepped up to the plate at the end of the play. Hal was so involved in Falstaff and the pub crawlers at the beginning of the play, but as it went on he began to see possibly through his father's love, how much responsibility he needed to have and how much he was going to have to change in order to be that person that his father could be proud of. His father encouraged him to do this and at the "talk" that they had about his behavior I believe Hal actually saw the caring and pulled away from his bad choices. An example of this urge of change is during their talk: "Not an eye/ But is aweary of thy common sight,/ Save mine, which hath desired to see thee more,/ Which now doth that I would not have it do,/ Make blind itself with foolish tendencies" (Act 3 Scene 2, ln. 90-94). After the king gives him this speech, he decides that he will fight Hotspur to the death to prove his honor and dedication to his country. This is one of the first times we see him doing something honorable and I think it was if not directly due to his father's love, it was definitely influenced by it.

Oedipus

This question is a little tricky because although I do believe that love can save a person I think it can also completely destroy a person too. Such as Oedipus. He loved his "mother" so much and she had saved him from death, but then he also loved his wife and actual mother which destroyed him.

Big Question

My big question is: Can love truly save a person?
I'm interested in this because of many reasons really. I've been in love before and I know that being in love saved me from many different things including myself. Being with another person that you love is a completely life changing event and I know for me it was a saving experience. I want to know whether this is always true. In medicine this year we had a speaker who spoke on holistic medicine or "alternate medicine" and this interested my big question even more. She talked about the importance of taking care of your body, mind, and spirit and told stories of people who had cancer and recovered through the power of finding someone they loved. I wonder if this can truly happen and would like to read literature that can prove this to me. I'm usually an optimist so I hope that I can answer this big question positively but there are already some works we've read that make me doubt that love could truly save.