Crimes and Misdemeanors
Cheryl Brown
Professor Nassif
Intro to Philosophy
17 Nov 2012
“Crimes and Misdemeanors” In the final scene when Louis Levy speaks of the capacity of love I feel he is saying that we as humans have this natural need for an emotional attachment in order to feel complete as a person. Everyone on this earth is looking for love and acceptance and this starts from birth. A baby requires love, attention, physical touch and maternal nurturing along with biological needs in order to survive. This is carried on throughout out a person’s life. If one can look back as far as possible into their childhood they will come to find that love from another being is essential to growth because this will be the basis of what kind of adult you will grow up to be, you seek acceptance from anyone, be it your mother, father, siblings or friends and even a pet, and to be important and needed and loved is vital for a person to have a sense of self-worth. If there is anything lacking in these personal requirements, then a person will most likely grow up insecure about oneself and question what their purpose in life is if they cannot have ever lasting love.
I think people are always looking for love in any way possible because we are always thinking whether or not we really know what it is like to truly love and be loved. So I think this is what the character of Louis Levy is talking about. People need to be loved in order to be able to function and have that drive to move forward, to have satisfaction and without love; one might always look for it in any simple way to feel complete whether it is for right or wrong reasons. This can be seen as optimistic because ultimately love gives give each and every one of us a reason to continue living our lives and perhaps the reason for Louis Levy’s suicide is that although he spoke about the capacity of love and the time invested, he just felt it wasn’t worth living for or talking about, or maybe he never found the kind of love he spoke of in
Professor Nassif
Intro to Philosophy
17 Nov 2012
“Crimes and Misdemeanors” In the final scene when Louis Levy speaks of the capacity of love I feel he is saying that we as humans have this natural need for an emotional attachment in order to feel complete as a person. Everyone on this earth is looking for love and acceptance and this starts from birth. A baby requires love, attention, physical touch and maternal nurturing along with biological needs in order to survive. This is carried on throughout out a person’s life. If one can look back as far as possible into their childhood they will come to find that love from another being is essential to growth because this will be the basis of what kind of adult you will grow up to be, you seek acceptance from anyone, be it your mother, father, siblings or friends and even a pet, and to be important and needed and loved is vital for a person to have a sense of self-worth. If there is anything lacking in these personal requirements, then a person will most likely grow up insecure about oneself and question what their purpose in life is if they cannot have ever lasting love.
I think people are always looking for love in any way possible because we are always thinking whether or not we really know what it is like to truly love and be loved. So I think this is what the character of Louis Levy is talking about. People need to be loved in order to be able to function and have that drive to move forward, to have satisfaction and without love; one might always look for it in any simple way to feel complete whether it is for right or wrong reasons. This can be seen as optimistic because ultimately love gives give each and every one of us a reason to continue living our lives and perhaps the reason for Louis Levy’s suicide is that although he spoke about the capacity of love and the time invested, he just felt it wasn’t worth living for or talking about, or maybe he never found the kind of love he spoke of in
Cited: Crimes and Misdemeanors. Dir. Woody Allen. Perf. Martin Landau. MGM Distribution Company. 1989. Film. “Friederich Nietzsche Overview.”www.sparknotes.com.n.p.n.d.Web.16 Nov 2012. <http://www.sparknotes.com/philosophy/genealogyofmorals/section2.rhtml>. Voices of Wisdom 7e. Belmont: Cengage, 2010, 2007.pp. 64. Print