Replay: Love Is Real or Not?

True love is when a person has a deep, tender, ineffable feeling of affection and solicitude toward one other person. Even through difficult obstacles or changes in life, the strong feeling between the two persons should remain constant and last eternally. However, the novel, Replay, by Ken Grimwood, creates characters that are confused on the meaning of true love. Throughout the novel, the characters are constantly falling in love with many different people and are having many short term marriages as well. The protagonist of Replay, Jeff Winston, who was originally married to Linda, claims to fall deeply in love with Judy and Pamela. Secondly, another main character, Pamela Philips was married twice before she falls in love with Jeff. Besides the novel, people in real life such as celebrities have numerous marriages too. In addition, it is proven that a married couple would tend to get a divorce as they spend more time together. All of these examples support the fact that true love does not exist. There is no such thing as true love, because a people keep switching partners and their relationships are short term.

In the novel, Replay, Jeff Winston was originally married to Linda in his first life. However, during his replays, he falls in love with many other women and forgets about his original wife, Linda. Throughout the novel, Jeff had encountered many women, and made love with almost all of them. However, there were 2 other women besides Linda, which he loves so much, he marries them. During his second replay, he was madly in love with Judy, and decides to marry her because he wanted to spend the rest of his life with her. The following quote shows Jeff’s confession of love to Judy:

“Judy” His voice broke. He cleared his throat and started again. “I

just want you to know…how very much I have always loved you.” (pg. 102, Grimwood)

This passage shows that Jeff feels that he strongly loves Judy for all of eternity. Moreover, during his final replays, he meets another replayer, Pamela, and falls in love with her. This passage shows how Jeff feels about Pamela:

It had been over a year since he’d begun his fourth replay of his life, and all the hopefulness with which he had once anticipated sharing this cycle with someone he fully loved, someone whose experience and understanding matched his own, had disappeared. (pg. 184, Grimwood)

Jeff claims to “fully loved” Pamela in this quote, but also claimed to “have always loved” Judy. During different replays, he would love a different woman, which means he does not truly love one person.

In this novel, another character that has had many marriages and relationships is Pamela Philips. Although, Pamela’s love life is less complicated then Jeff’s, she has had many marriages before she has fallen in love with Jeff. This quote shows how Linda is married more than once:

“I didn’t have much time for socializing, but during my residency

at Columbia Presbyterian I met a young orthopaedist who … well,

he didn’t really remind me of my first husband, but he had a similar

intensity, the same sort of drive.” (pg. 140, Grimwood)

This quote is saying Pamela fell in love with an orthopaedist, who she ended up marrying. This quote shows that she has married at least twice before she falls in love with Jeff. Pamela’s numerous relationships and marriages with men have proved that true love in fact does not exist.

In reality, divorces are quite common, and it happens to everyone including celebrities. For instance, the popular singer and actress, Jennifer Lopez has married twice and is now engaged with another famous actor, Ben Affleck. This passage shows the complication of Lopez’s love life:

This is the second divorce for Lopez, who was previously married

to Ojani Noa. After divorcing him in 1997, she had a long, stormy

relationship with rapper Sean "P. Diddy" Combs. She announced

her engagement to Affleck in November 2002; rumors have circulated

that their wedding will occur on the next Valentine's Day.

(Enough (of Judd), Cottrill)

In this passage, it is very clear that Lopez has married twice, and then had a