"What We Talk about When We Talk about Love"

In Raymond Carver's short story titled, "What We Talk about When We Talk about Love," two couples are gathered around a table with a bottle of gin. Something said by the narrator very early in the story, "...somehow got on the subject of love," (901) would become the subject for the entire story. Mel, the main character of the story, seems to have a very open mind on love. However, there are times in the story when he is sometimes rude and inconsiderate to those around him. The first story talked about was from Terri and how the man she was with prior to Mel "...loved her so much he tried to kill her" (901). Whether you want to call it love or not, the thought of beating up your significant other and constantly threatening her does not seem like love at all but more like dominance and control. Terri made an attempt to defend her prior lover whenever Mel would criticize him for what he had done. Terri went on to say, "Sure, it's abnormal in most people's eyes. But he was willing to die for it. He did die for it" (903). For the first part of the story most of the talking went on between Mel and Terri while Nick and Laura would question them and ask to continue their stories. Mel believed that real love was, in fact, simply spiritual love. Both couples continued to drink and loosen up a tad more on the main subject, especially Mel. The other story was about the old couple that had been in the crash. That was real love, that the husband was depressed because he could not see his wife. The story is left with the couples sitting around the table in absolute silence. What were they all thinking about?