What is love? That is a question that has plagued mankind for centuries and has yet to be truly defined. Although we do not know how to define love, that has not stop us from attempting to. Throughout literature, love and romance have been popular themes. Remember the classics like Cinderella or Sleeping Beauty? These and countless other stories have shown us the nature of love. But it seems to me that love has always been depicted as somewhat of a fairytale, with prince charming sweeping the princess on to his white horse and riding off into the sunset where the two will live happily ever after.

I know every little girl dreams of prince charming. But is that all it is? Dreams? We would like to think that this dream is reality, but we know that is not the case. Love is so much more. It's not a fairytale world of happily ever afters, love takes hard work,

patience, and understanding and it's not all daffodils and roses, it can be painful and sad. It's something you have to work at, and not everyone has the strength it takes to make it work. That is the reality of love. In Martin Eden, a novel written by the late Jack London, love is a major theme amongst two main characters, Martin (the story's protagonist), and Ruth. Theirs is not a fairytale love, although the character Martin may think it so at first, it is in fact a love story of reality, of the true society that we live in, where the prince and princess may not be together in the end. It is the truth, though it may be hard to face.

"You have not kissed me once. You are as unresponsive as a stone. And think what I have dared to do." She looked about her with a shiver, though half the look was curiosity. "Just think of where I am."... "Why didn't you dare before?" He asked harshly. .... "I am personally of the same value that I was when nobody wanted me. And what is puzzling me is why they want me now. Surely they don't want me for myself, for myself is the same old self they did not want. Then they must want me for something else, for something that is outside of me, for something that is not.... It is for the recognition I have received....And is it for that, for the recognition and the money, that you want me now?...... "It is to late," he said. He remembered Lizzie's words. "I am a sick man-oh, not my body. It is my soul, my brain. I seem to have lost all values. I care for nothing. If you had been this way a few months ago, it would have been different. It is too late, now." (Pgs 460{paragraphs 1-2} & 464{paragraph 4})

And thus, the fairy tale has ended. Martin now sees the darker side of love, the side that is confusing and painful. His image of love was wrapped up in Ruth, and now that image has been destroyed, and he will never love the same again, for he did not now the realities that love can be and he was devastated. Nothing else mattered, he had no desire, no fire, not even for his writing, and it was all because of her. She had been his driving force in all that he did. He could not continue now. Love had destroyed him.

Her name was Ruth, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Morse, and the most enchanting thing Martin had seen in all his 20 years of life. You see that it is here that Martin has his "fairytale" image of her, an impression that will be hard for him to let go. He knew then that he must be with her, do whatever it took to win her. So that was what he set about doing. He made every effort to win her affection; he studied grammar, read thousands of books, even learned chemistry and math. All of this he did for her, to be worthy of her and it was her who inspired him as he worked, it was her who kept him going till all hours of the night. And all his hard work seemed to pay off when Ruth claims her love for him. It was a great day in his life. The scene where Ruth and Martin pronounce their love is the highest moment at which Martin fairytale love soars.

Martin Eden was a sailor who strived for a better life, the life of the upper middle class society. His first image of this society was upon his visit to the Morse house, and it was here that Martin met the greatest creature that he had ever seen.

Martin was famous. With the success of his book, many of his previous articles that had been rejected were published also, along with two more books. He had done it, he had reached his success, he had money and was well know, just what Ruth had wanted, and as luck would have it, he achieved this just after he had lost her. But Martin did not care that he was famous, he cared for nothing, and Ruth had been the cause of that. He had thought her love was real, and when it failed, he could no longer love or live. This is shown with Martin's interaction with the young, beau

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Approximate Word count = 2572
Approximate Pages = 10 (250 words per page double spaced)