The idea of erasing from our mind painful memories has been a constant companion in love stories, whether they be poems, novels, stories and movies. During the anguish of heartbreak, when two lovers cannot be together, our romantic side has always asked to forget rather than to forgive. Alexander Pope's poem "Eloisa to Abelard" is one such poem where Eloisa, having realized that Abelard will never love her the way she wants after her family has forbidden their love, seeks to forget:
No, fly me, fly me, far as pole from pole;
Rise Alps between us! and whole oceans roll!
Ah, come not, write not, think not once of me,
Nor share one pang of all I felt for thee.
Thy oaths I quit, thy memory resign;
Forget, renounce me, hate whate'er was mine.
Fair eyes, and tempting looks (which yet I view!)
Long lov'd, ador'd ideas, all adieu!
Oh Grace serene! oh virtue heav'nly fair!
Divine oblivion of low-thoughted care!
Fresh blooming hope, gay daughter of the sky!
And faith, our early immortality!
Enter, each mild, each amicable guest;
Receive, and wrap me in eternal rest!
And it is from this epistle that the movie "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind" gets its name:
How happy is the blameless vestal's lot!
The world forgetting, by the world forgot.
Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind!
Each pray'r accepted, and each wish resign'd;
Labour and rest, that equal periods keep;
"Obedient slumbers that can wake and weep;"
Desires compos'd, affections ever ev'n,
Tears that delight, and sighs that waft to Heav'n.
The idea of creating a way to purposely erase a memory is by far a very romantic and idealistic view of love. When we love deeply, we want to erase; perhaps we think that is the only way to move on. However, no such method exists and if it did, it would erase the one thing worth a heartbreak. If we can just forget a great love, we can also forget how we grew, what we learned and what we hope to change in the future, for with every heartbreak comes a story and with that story comes change.
http://www.monadnock.net/poems/eloisa.html
