# V: Romance explained — Sartor Resartus

> Chapter companion for Sartor Resartus by Thomas Carlyle.

## What happens

Teufelsdröckh falls deeply in love with Blumine, experiencing a transcendent but ultimately doomed romance. Their relationship, marked by intense passion and spiritual connection, ends abruptly when Blumine decides to marry a richer man, plunging Teufelsdröckh into despair and setting the stage for his later spiritual crises.

## Themes in this chapter

### Love and Loss

The chapter centers on Teufelsdröckh's intense love for Blumine and the profound loss he suffers when she leaves him.

### Spiritual Crisis and Faith

The romantic experience is described in quasi-religious terms, and its dissolution triggers a crisis that prefigures Teufelsdröckh's later spiritual struggles.

### Critique of Society and Materialism

The Editor criticizes the societal pressures that lead Blumine to choose wealth over love, highlighting materialism's corrosive effect.

## Character check-ins

### Diogenes Teufelsdröckh

Falls in love with Blumine, experiences ecstasy and heartbreak, and is left devastated by her rejection.

### Blumine

The object of Teufelsdröckh's love; she ultimately ends their relationship to marry a richer man.

### The Editor

Narrates and comments on Teufelsdröckh's romantic episode, providing critical perspective.

## Key lines

> One morning, he found his Morning-Star all dimmed and dusky-red; the fair creature was silent, absent, she seemed to have been weeping. Alas, no longer a Morning-star, but a troublous skyey Portent, announcing that the Doomsday had dawned! She said, in a tremulous voice, They were to meet no more.

One morning, Teufelsdröckh saw that Blumine, his 'Morning-Star,' was sad and distant; she told him they would never see each other again.

_The moment Blumine ends their relationship, marking the climax of the romance._

> Thus was Teufelsdröckh made immortal by a kiss. And then? Why, then—'thick curtains of Night rushed over his soul, as rose the immeasurable Crash of Doom; and through the ruins as of a shivered Universe was he falling, falling, towards the Abyss.'

Their final kiss immortalized him, but immediately afterward he felt as if the universe shattered and he plunged into an abyss of despair.

_The kiss symbolizes both the peak of love and the onset of devastating loss._

> Love is not altogether a Delirium, yet has it many points in common therewith. I call it rather a discerning of the Infinite in the Finite, of the Idea made Real; which discerning again may be either true or false, either seraphic or demoniac, Inspiration or Insanity.

Love is like a delirium, but more accurately it is seeing the infinite within the finite, which can be either divine or maddening.

_Teufelsdröckh reflects on the dual nature of love as both transcendent and potentially destructive._

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/sartor_resartus_se/chapters/v-romance
- Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/sartor_resartus_se
- All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/sartor_resartus_se/chapters