47 pages • 1 hour read
Peter Abelard, HeloiseThe Letters Of Abelard And Heloise
Nonfiction | Collection of Letters | Adult | Published in 1133A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 2-5: “The Personal Letters”Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 2 Summary: “Letter 2. Heloise to Abelard”
Having come by Abelard’s letter by chance and becoming greatly distressed by it, Heloise responds with her own letter, written sometime between 1133 and 1138 C.E. She begins by restating the contents of his letter and confesses that they, his community at the Paraclete, fear for his life. She urges him write to those who are “all that are left to you” (48).
Heloise refers to Abelard as an absent friend and tells him that he has hurt her and the Paraclete community through his neglect. While she praises him for establishing such a worthy community, she reminds him that he is responsible for nurturing and cultivating it. Heloise implies that he should pay more attention to the Paraclete than the monks at St Gildas, writing, “You devote your care to another’s vineyard; think what you owe to your own” (50).
Heloise writes that if Abelard will not consider his obligation to the Paraclete, he must consider their close tie of marriage and his obligation to “her who is yours alone” (50). Here, she delves into their personal history and the pain that his neglect has caused her. Heloise discusses “the precarious early days of our conversion long ago” and how she was surprised and dismayed at how he offered her no comfort, especially since she became a nun at his order (50).
In his letter, Abelard admits that Heloise was strongly opposed to their marriage. Heloise confirms this in her letter, writing that “God knows I never sought anything in you except yourself; I wanted simply you, nothing of yours” (51). She reaffirms that she would rather have been his friend and lover than wife, and that she did not want to damage his reputation or take him away from his studies. Heloise develops her thoughts on marriage more generally, writing that if one marries another for their wealth or possessions, they are putting themselves on sale and deserve nothing but wages.
Heloise ends her letter by ruminating on their love and her grief at having lost it. She writes that all those who were envious of her for having him are “moved now by the compassion which is my due” (53). She asks why he has forgotten her and answers that she, and everyone else, suspects that it is because he felt only “the flame of lust rather than love” (53). Heloise adds that she felt grief and shame when Abelard forced her to become a nun before him, as if he had not trusted her to follow through. She reminds him that this vocation was not of her choosing, but that she would have followed him anywhere. Heloise reaffirms for those wondering whether it was lust or love for her that it was the latter, and that her actions prove it. She asks Abelard to explain himself.
Chapter 3 Summary: “Letter 3. Abelard to Heloise”
Abelard’s response to Heloise’s impassioned and frank letter is more reserved. As Radice notes in the Introduction, Abelard writes as an abbot, rather than a troubled former lover. He begins by noting that he did not write to Heloise not because he was indifferent, but because he trusted in her good sense and did not believe that she needed his help. Indeed, she had done so well after becoming a nun that he believed his help superfluous, but if she does indeed need advice on matters related to God, she can write to him. Abelard refers to Heloise as “my sister once dear in the world and now dearest in Christ” (56).
Abelard is grateful for the community’s prayers for him, especially because prayers by women and wives are particularly potent. He recalls the Old and New Testament and Scripture, delving into the immense power of communal prayer and the miracles of resurrection brought about by female prayer. Abelard states, “May this example give you and your convent of holy sisters greater confidence in prayer, so that I may be preserved alive for you all” (58).
After this, Abelard turns to Heloise. He notes that her sanctity must have the greatest influence on God when it comes to prayers on his behalf. He refers to himself as “him who is especially yours,” and details various examples from Scripture and history of influential and exemplary Christian wives (59). Abelard then reiterates that the Paraclete community should continue to pray for him, and he writes out a special prayer. He ends his letter by asking that his body be brought back to the Paraclete if something should happen to him, noting that there can be no better place for his burial than among women dedicated to Christ, because such women also tended to Christ’s tomb and were graced by his resurrection and touch.
Chapter 4 Summary: “Letter 4. Heloise to Abelard”
Heloise responds to Abelard’s reserved letter by reaffirming the frustration and misery that she spoke of in her first letter. She begins by inquiring why Abelard put her name before his in his letter, because this upends the natural order and paints her as a superior, when she is his inferior. Heloise chastises Abelard for making her and the Paraclete community feel even worse by discussing his impending death and asks Abelard to spare her of such talk because it hinders her from “God’s service to which you specifically committed us” (64).
She uses this to remind him of and revisit their personal history, noting that she would have nothing left to hope for if she lost him. Her writing becomes more and more distraught as she bemoans fate and “What glory she gave me in you, what ruin she brought upon me through you!” (65). Heloise admits her all-consuming grief and states that she is a most wretched and unhappy woman.
She writes that “all the laws of equity in our case were reversed,” giving us more insight into what transpired between their marriage and Abelard’s castration. After marrying, they had parted, Abelard working in Paris and Heloise living in the convent at Argenteuil, “both of us leading a life which was more holy as well as more chaste” (66). She reflects bitterly on the fact that they were punished not when they were sinning, but rather when they were trying to atone for their sins.
The subject of guilt arises when Heloise recognizes that Abelard alone was punished for their sins, referring to his castration. She asks, “Is it the general lot of women to bring total ruin on great men?” (66). Heloise notes that the devil recognized that he could get to Abelard by doing evil through good and by using her as an instrument of his malice. Despite the fact that she was wholly opposed to the marriage from the very start, she notes that too many sins were committed before the marriage to expiate her guilt.
Heloise then details her trouble with repentance and her life as a holy woman. She asks for strength to do penance and make amends, but she recognizes that she cannot stop thinking of the time they shared as lovers. She writes that “the mind still retains the will to sin and is on fire with its old desires” (68). Because of this, she feels like a hypocrite, especially because others consider her pious, while she secretly suffers. Heloise ends her letter by telling Abelard that she has always been eager to please him rather than God, and that she took her vows on his command. She asks him to stop praising her, believing that she is well, and neglecting her, because she is greatly distressed.
Chapter 5 Summary: “Letter 5. Abelard to Heloise”
Abelard is less reserved in this response, both openly reproaching and attempting to bolster Heloise. He begins by chastising her for “a recital of your misery over the wrongs you suffer,” groups her complaints into four categories, and purports to address them one by one (72). First, he addresses putting her name before his in his letter, noting that she became his superior the day that she became a nun. Therefore, her name belongs before his.
Second, he explains that he had shared fears about his impending death because she had demanded that he write to her. He asks “Why then do you accuse me of making you share my anxiety when I was forced to do so at your own behest?” (77). Abelard notes that, as true friends, they should share both adversity and prosperity. Lastly, given his miserable life, he writes that she should be happy to see him freed from it.
Third, Abelard approves of Heloise’s rejection of his praise. He warns against doing so if one is simply fishing for more praise, rather than truly being humble, as this is a common occurrence. However, Abelard assures that he does not suspect such a thing from Heloise and has “no doubts about [her] humility” (79).
Abelard’s last counterpoint is devoted to what he refers to as Heloise’s “old perpetual complaint against God” (72). He writes that Heloise should not be bitter and blame God but glorify him for his divine mercy. She was created specifically by God as “the cause of so great a good,” and says that God rescued them from their many past and potential future sins, such as lust (79). He expresses his gratefulness in writing: “I deserve death and gain life. I am summoned and reprieved” (83). If she wants to please him, he notes, she has to stop being bitter and blaming God for punishing them out of care. He writes that “[i]t was he who truly loved you, not I” (86). Here, he refers to Heloise as his “inseparable companion” and his “partner both in guilt and in grace” (83, 127).
Abelard ends his letter by reminding Heloise that God wants them to use the talents he entrusted to them to glorify him. While she has been doing a stellar job taking care of her nuns, he is struggling with the wayward monks of St Gildas. Recognizing her sexual frustration, he tells her that she should keep striving and see it as a blessing, because he has nothing to strive for on account of his castration.
Chapters 2-5 Analysis
As editor, Radice chose to group Letters 2-5 together as “The Personal Letters” because they provide us with insight into the mindsets of Heloise and Abelard a decade after their separation. We glimpse their innermost thoughts on their turbulent history and lives. The primary themes that emerge are those of closure and of their respective relationships with God and their profession.
In her letters, Heloise reveals that she is deeply unhappy and has had no closure. Initially, she reveals only that she feels severely neglected by Abelard and believes that this is because he felt only lust for her. Her emphasis on the fact that everyone else believes this as well underscores the public nature of their scandalous relationship and the fact that this past continued to follow and haunt both. We deduce that she feels some bitterness not only because of Abelard’s neglect, but because she entered a convent to satisfy his wishes, and not her own. Because Abelard’s initial response to her pleas, in Letter 4, is measured, she is far more explicit and revealing of her guilt, grief, and bitterness. Rather than reorienting her focus to God, Heloise reveals that her sole focus remains on Abelard. We infer that she feels disconnected from her profession and distant from God, an impious hypocrite, because of the tumult of feelings she still feels after all these years and because of the lack of intention behind her religious vows.
We get the sense from Abelard’s letters that though he has found no peace in his intellectual life, he has gained perspective and closure in regard to their relationship and past history. Rather than blaming God, Abelard has come to view his castration as an act of mercy and love that absolved him of the sin of lust and allowed him to fully devote his life and intellectual talents to God and theology. Ultimately, he seems to suggest to Heloise that she must shed her bitterness and achieve the same sense of closure.
