Identification of ‘Love’ and ‘Lust’ in Leili va Majnoon and Khosrow va Shirin Based on the Sternberg’s Theory

In today’s interdisciplinary studies, assessing the relationship between literature and other sciences is highly beneficial in literary criticism. The psychoanalytic criticism is one of the pioneers of this phenomenon. This approach in the contemporary era has entered a new phase with the formation of new psychoanalytic cores in terms of psychoanalytic theories of love initiated by Robert Sternberg, who defines his analysis system based on the type of action of individuals in romantic relationships. He has developed efficient model in identifying the form of love in each person in this context. The objective here is to adopt a descriptive-analytical method to assess the love poem Khosrow va Shirin and Leili va Majnoon by Nezami Ganjavi with a comparative approach from Sternberg’s view and explain why the titles Eshq Nameh (love) and Havas Nameh (lust) are applied to the narration of Leili va Majnoon and Khosrow va Shirin. The results indicate that from Sternberg's point of view, perfect and holy love is a threefold relationship of commitment at the highest level and intimacy and passion at the lowest levels. In a narrative based on the failure of love in the direction of "ideal and perfect love" and its victorious hero is involved in "sad and romantic love", the type of relationship is based on lust the Havas Nameh and if the type of mutual love is of the "ideal love" type orientation, due to the priority of the commitment component, love is formed in its true meaning, the Eshq Nameh. The results here indicate that the element of commitment in Ganjavi’s self-consciousness has an operational structure and function in love-based relationships in terms of Robert Sternberg’s theory and cognitive psychoanalysis in the contemporary period.

Psychoanalysis is generally applied in exploring and analyzing of the mind’s functionality and psychological problems among people. The founder of psychoanalysis, Sigmund Freud, had a significant role in promoting literary studies. Among the theories of psychoanalysis, the category of love is one of the issues that have attracted researchers in the field of anthropology, especially psychologists, as an explanatory and fundamental subject in human life. In 1986, Robert Sternberg presented his first theory about love in "A Triangular Theory of Love" theory, in 1994; he re-evaluated the love triangle theory and developed the "love story" or "love as a story" theory.
The central element in Nezami’s narratives is the issue of love and its governing relationships. Two of his works, Leili va Majnoon and Khosrow va Shirin, have aspects of relationships that, above all, can be proposed and assessed in a comparative reading as a proper subject for this type of psychoanalytical analysis. Love is the principal theme in Nezami narratives. In his two significant narratives, his focus is on the clear border between love and lust. The objective here is to assess these two areas concerning the cognitive psychoanalysis of the contemporary period by relying on the data of psychoanalytical knowledge.

Method and Materials:

This research compares the type of love in the two narratives Khosrow va Shirin and Leili va Majnoon through the descriptive-analytical method.

According to the textual implications, passion is evident in all the stories as the most prominent component in the course of the characters’ affection. This component is more apparent in Khosrow va Shirin, especially in the course of Khosrow's love, followed by more elements of intimacy and commitment. The results indicate that Khosrow's love for Shirin was initially the type of love that only consists of passion, and there is no mention of the other two components. By enriching intimacy, Khosrow is placed in romantic love. Khosrow's love for Shirin is foolish, where experiences absurd love when dealing with Maryam; accordingly, in Shirin's personality, more than any other component, is at the first level, followed by intimacy and passion. Because the passion in Shirin evolves quickly next to intimacy and commitment, it can be deduced that love in Shirin, according to Sternberg's views, is the ideal and perfect love, while, the most explicit component of Farhad is his commitment, which appears to be mixed with elements related to intimacy and passion, thus, Farhad's love can be classified as ideal love. The findings here reveal that the frequency of love in the Khosrow va Shirin narrative is romantic love, complete love, foolish love, and empty love, respectively.

The tragic side of the narratives appears when the characters in whom the three elements of love have reached perfection and have experienced ideal love, though love turns out to be a failed experience. At the same time, Khosrow's character, according to Sternberg’s analytical principles, is devoid of the element of commitment and, based on the narrative, is the winning hero of the story. Leili va Majnoon is identified based on commitment, which is a two-way and mutual issue. Although Leili agrees to a forced marriage with Ibn Salam, a traditional marriage, according to the propositions of the text discussed earlier, she committedly insists on the love of Majnoon. Other elements of love are manifested in her existence to the extent of perfection. Because love in Leili and Majnoon is at the ideal love level, the bound between love and lust in Nezami’s narratives is somewhat bolder.
Another determining factor is the element of commitment that is from the perspective of cognitive psychology; a relationship that lacks commitment is practically empty of its perfection and can be defined within the boundaries of lust. Nezami names a story of love as “lustful”. From a cognitive point of view, if the type of love between the two sides is of the ideal love, based on the existential centrality of commitment, love is in its complete form.