What We Talk About When We Talk About Love

Mel is 45 years old, and the story is set in his kitchen in Albuquerque. He is tall and athletic, with curly soft hair and arms tanned from playing tennis. A cardiologist by profession, his full name is Dr. Melvin R. McGinnis. Before he trained as a doctor, Mel lived for five years in a seminary, an educational institution for teaching students about theology. This suggests that he was preparing for a life in the Church before going into medicine, and he says that he looks back on those years as the most important time of his life. After divorcing his first wife, Marjorie, he met Terri. He and Terri have known each other for five years and have been married for four. Although Mel is not the narrator, his dialogue drives the story forward. He speaks the most and has strong views on the meaning of love, even though he is ultimately just as unable to define it as the others. Thematically, Mel most illustrates The Inability to Define Love and how Talking About Love Is Ineffectual.

Unlike Terri, who has a fixed view on what love means, Mel provides the reader with the most variants. His life in the seminary may have influenced his belief that “real love is nothing less than spiritual love” (126). He rejects Terri’s belief that love can be expressed through violence, but at the same time, he hates his ex-wife Marjorie and fantasizes about killing her via a swarm of bees. Mel’s anger has misogynistic undertones, as he directs his latent threat to both his ex and Terri: “’Bzzzzzzz,’ Mel said, turning his fingers into bees and buzzing them at Terri’s throat. Then he let his hands drop all the way to his sides” (138).

Mel likens his profession to a “mechanic” and views the human heart merely as something he has been trained to “mend.” Mel grapples with the idea that love is fleeting and transferable. He questions where love goes when it ends (e.g., divorce) and wonders how love can continue with another (e.g., remarrying). Mel becomes progressively antagonist as he consumes more alcohol. He verbally disparages Terri and becomes vulgar when his attempts to explain love fail to reach a logical conclusion.

Terri, short for Teresa, is Mel’s second wife. They met five years ago and have been married for four years. She is “bone-thin” (126) yet pretty with dark eyes and long dark hair. She likes to wear necklaces made of turquoise and long earrings. Prior to Mel, she was in an abusive relationship with Ed. In recounting her traumatic experiences, she asks, “What do you do with love like that?” (126). Terri perceives Ed’s volatile behavior as evidence of real love and rationalizes that love drove him to his death. Terri is drawn to the drama and passion of her previous relationship and tries to recreate this by taunting Mel. Whereas her current husband aspires to the high-mindedness of spiritual love or is unable to see the workings of the human heart beyond its medical attributes, Terri is looking for a love that is more visceral and instinctive. In all her comments, she shows herself to be insecure, seeking assurances from others that her perspective is correct. Terri’s immobility in the story’s denouement reflects her inability to move forward in life.