Unhealthy Attachment or True Love: Analysis of Wordsworth's To Joanna and Keat's Isabella Anonymous College

In a variety of the works we have read so far in class, there have been evidence of unhealthy attachment and obsession in characters, specifically with those who have lost a love one. This ultimately results in a loss of identity in the characters, leading to an overflow of emotions and some crazy actions. But, this is sometimes seen as romantic, as just acts of true love, when in reality, it is simply bat-shit crazy. But, this is all part of romantic matter, the extremities of love. But, to what end will these characters go to live out their passions?

After we lose someone important in our lives we are often left with a feeling like there is something missing within us, a whole in our identities. The people in our lives have a direct affect on who we are, and when we lose someone, we hold onto every last memory of them, striving to find some attachment. In Romantic literature, this loss results in an attachment to physical things, not a memory. Self fulfillment for these characters is achieved outside of the self, outside of the body. For these mourning characters, pleasure comes from an out of body connection, which they treat as their love, to the point of obsession.

This obsession for attachment is seen in Wordsworth’s...