Mogens’ Redemption An object in motion will stay in motion (newton’s first law of motion). Love, a giving and forward action, requires activeness of the individual to continue to its realization. The idea of love therefore evolves with the individual. One’s first love is that child-like innocence when every touch is a thing of wonder, every act inspiring a largess of emotion. With time, that love develops into a less volatile, but more gratifying emotion leaving one utterly at peace, in perpetual bliss. The titular character, Mogens, of Jans Peter Jacobsen’s novella, Mogens, is taken about this tumultuous journey of evolving love through his significant relationships and on this path, Mogens’ perception of love is interwoven with his sense of morality, and distorted, resulting in his mental instability and moral depravity. These relationships, which depict Mogens’ maturation and reveal various facets of his character, elucidate the allegory of how, through love, one can achieve redemption. Due to his mother’s role as his sole source of female companionship during his formative years, Mogens appears at first naïve in his manner of approaching romantic relationships. Homeschooled, Mogens learned of life from his mother as the two “indulged each other in everyway” (19). An insight into his relationship with his mother is provided when Mogens speaks fondly of her “tiny, tiny” (19) stature and how in her last years he would lift her frail little body around the park and garden, also a possible explanation for his love for nature as a reminder of his beloved mother. Nomadic and still reeling from his mother’s death (21), Mogens is in his element within the forest when he is enchanted by his first romantic conquest, the lovely Kamilla. Mogens is instantly enamored by Kamilla’s face alone, “astonished, but on the verge of laughter; a smile was already in her (Kamilla’s) eyes.” (12) Her effervescent and innocuous description embodies the childlike innocence that defines hers and Mogens’ love story. Jacobsen further intimates the ingenuous nature of Mogens’ love with his thoughts, those thoughts that plague all who fancy themselves in love; “What will you (Mogens) say to her (Kamilla)?.”(13) This is representative of the basis on which Mogens builds his relationship with her—a façade. As is indicative of one’s first love, Mogens idolizes Kamilla. Contemplating his new fixation, Mogens allows his thoughts to wander, “Most of them wondered how a person (Kamilla) could be so unbelievably beautiful. He (Mogens) could amuse himself for several days simply by recalling the features of a face, its expressions and changes in hue, the small movements of a head and a pair of hands, and the shifting voice of a tone.” (23) Clearly, Mogens devotes much of his time to the study of his lady love, Kamilla, but this is merely of her extrinsic traits. In idolizing her, Mogens ensconces the true essence Kamilla within his idealistic perception of her, proving himself a child in the matters of love. A deeper, psychological connection must be explicitly established between two individuals for their love to progress and, as such a profound link between Kamilla and Mogens is never established, their love does not reach a depth greater than immature infatuation. Even their engagement is indicative of the nature of their love as Mogens proposes by a childish threat, that he will vanish with Kamilla’s basket should she refuse to be his sweetheart, and grows “quite pale with emotion” (29) for a modicum of doubt in her acquiescence. Mogens’ idol worship of Kamilla exposes the obsessive characteristic of first love that ultimately results in his mental deterioration. The gruesome death of Mogens’ Kamilla directly results in his downward spiral of psychological distress and debauchery, and his associations with women of loose morals reflect his own lack of morals and failure to develop them. Watching the small white figure of Kamilla fall into
