Love and Disillusionment

Where it surfaces

• IV: In the Doubtful Palace

  Miramon's speech on love as an instant's fusing of shadow and substance, and the disillusionment of marriage.

• V: The Eternal Ambuscade

  Manuel's love for Niafer is real, yet he sacrifices her, leading to grief and the beginning of disillusionment.

• The Feather of Love

  Manuel marries Alianora but feels misery, and Niafer's love persists as a blind longing, highlighting the bittersweet nature of love.

• X: Alianora

  Alianora's love for Manuel is strained by his obsession with Niafer and his art; Manuel finds love insufficient to satisfy his geas.

• Ice and Iron

  Manuel and Alianora's farewell reveals their love as shallow and self-serving, with Manuel declaring it 'lust, not love,' highlighting disillusionment.

• XIV: They Duel on Morven

  Manuel's love for Freydis leads to despair, as he realizes no earthly beauty can compare.

• XV: Bandages for the Victor

  Manuel's love for Freydis is both genuine and entangled with pretense; Freydis's choice to stay reveals the bittersweet nature of mortal love.

• Part III: The Book of Cast Accounts

  Manuel speaks of love as a divine force beyond human control, hinting at the disillusionment that comes with recognizing its immutable nature.

• XVI: Freydis

  Manuel's love for Freydis is tempered by his idealization of Niafer, and Freydis feels disillusioned by Manuel's lack of passionate devotion.

• XVIII: Manuel Chooses

  Manuel's tender yet secretive departure from Freydis, who gave up immortality for him, highlights the disillusionment underlying their love.

• XXI: Touching Repayment

  Manuel's love for Niafer is portrayed as powerful yet doomed, with Misery predicting that the resurrected love will ultimately lead to disillusionment.

• XXII: Return of Niafer

  Niafer's love for Manuel disrupts the pagan paradise, and Misery foretells the eventual disillusionment in their relationship.

• Manuel Gets His Desire

  Manuel and Niafer reunite, but both are changed—Niafer is disappointed by her new appearance and Manuel's middle-aged demeanor, yet they profess love despite the disillusionment.

• XXIV: Three Women

  Manuel's love for Niafer endures despite the mockery of others, while the queens' past affections are now tinged with disillusionment.

• XXVIII: How Melicent Was Welcomed

  Niafer's romanticism fades as she complains about Freydis and her own changed appearance; Manuel's quiet perplexity reflects the gap between ideal and reality.

• XXIX: Sesphra of the Dreams

  Manuel confesses that love leads to 'sick disgust and self-despising,' and he sees his wife and child as ordinary and burdensome under Sesphra's enchantment.

• XXX: Farewell to Freydis

  Freydis's love for Manuel has soured into disillusionment, as she calls him a 'gray traitor' and a 'cold and hard and colorless... pebble.'

• Now Manuel Prospers

  Manuel's yearning for past loves and his inability to fully know the woman he loved underscore the disillusionment that accompanies aging.

• XXXIV: Farewell to Alianora

  Alianora's romantic overtures are rejected by Manuel, and Niafer's jealousy gives way to a pragmatic view of her husband's foolishness.

• XXXVIII: Farewell to Suskind

  Suskind's love is portrayed as the ideal of youth that cannot exist in the human world; Manuel acknowledges his long desires for her but accepts the loss.