The Four Loves and Amelie - Elizabeth Roy

The Four Loves and Amelie
Non-assigned reading blog
Elizabeth Roy
4/23

In C.S. Lewis’ The Four Loves, the final love he discusses is Charity. Charity is tied to agape, which we discussed when we viewed the movie Babette’s Feast. One way to think about Charity, according to Lewis, is as “gift-love,” which gives of itself selflessly to others. The French film Amelie shows an interesting example of a girl’s first experience with gift-love. Amelie is a young woman who has never really been shown any love in her life, as both of her parents were rather cold and distant, and she was a lonely child who was not able to go to school because of a supposed heart condition. However, Amelie decides to become a “regular do-gooder,” as the film’s narrator says. She begins to intervene in other peoples lives with the intention of making things better. Amelie gets nothing out of these interventions besides a sense of satisfaction – and perhaps a little mischievous humor. Although some people may not think Amelie’s actions represent charity, I believe that they do. They are a little high-handed and presumptuous, because Amelie never asks the people for permission to interfere and occasionally even utilizes deception to make people happier. However, for Amelie, it is not a reciprocal love. The world has given her next to nothing – her mother is now dead, and her father does not care about her. She has no friends, other than her pet cat. So for Amelie, helping others really is a gift to them, because she expects – and receives – nothing in return. Lewis also notes how the other forms of love, such as friendship and eros, come out of Charity. The film also supports this idea, because once Amelie experiences gift-love, she begins to receive other forms of love as well, finding friends and even a lover.