The dark side of love In Faust (first part) by Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe as well as in Nathan the Wise by Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, love plays a fundamental role. Love is the reason why an individual strays from the path to enlightenment and begins to act in strange and unpredictable ways. It diminishes an individual's reasoning ability and takes away any incentive to seek enlightenment. Because love is based on faith, it goes against Enlightenment ideals that emphasize individual thought. Love generates a sense of fulfillment, which also goes against the ideals of enlightenment that advocate a constant struggle within the individual to find the truth or reach a higher plane of thought. In the Enlightenment, love is a temptation that man must overcome to achieve enlightenment. Looking at Faust, we can draw an analogy between love and an illness. If a person has vulnerabilities, love can exploit them and manifest in that person. When Faust kisses Gretchen's hand, she says “How can you kiss my hand? / It's so ugly and so rough! / I have to scrub and scrub and sand anyway” (139). This shows us that Gretchen has very low self-esteem. The act of Faust kissing her rough hands reminds her of her own poverty. Faust notices this and takes advantage of it, engaging her in conversation and dropping subtle hints of his interest in her: "She was an angel, if she were like you" (140). Gretchen is confused about what Faust sees in her, and says that Faust must be brave in thinking that "Such a light girl would give him everything he wanted" (142). She fails to understand that her body gives her what her lack of sophistication does not. She becomes involved in the fact that Faust has a far superior social status. This is evident in his... middle of paper... hinders one of the most important elements necessary to achieve enlightenment: Reason. People in love do irrational things without considering the consequences of their actions and how they might affect not only themselves, but others as well. They are more interested in immediate gratification, both for themselves and for the person they love. Love can also be thought of as another temptation placed before man. It is a path that a man on the path to enlightenment should not take, no matter how great the benefits may seem. The individual must realize that love ultimately leads to the destruction of enlightenment. The most dangerous thing about love is that once an individual succumbs to it, it is extremely difficult to go back. For this reason, love can be the most powerful of all the temptations and tests that man must overcome to reach enlightenment..