It is this mistaken ideal, this oath, that underlies the whole tragedy of romantic love. Tristan swore to serve a single love. That single love is the divine love of which we have spoken: the love that draws us to the inner world. But when Tristan vows to serve only that divine love of anima, he vows also to give up human love and human relationship. There are two great loves, two worlds in which man must live, two Iseults whom he must serve. The great flaw in romantic love is that it seeks one love but forgets the other. This is the exact meaning of Tristan’s rejection of Iseult of the White
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