Khalil Gibran, during his transient but glorious lifetime, experienced unsettled destitute life, lost kinsfolk, and underwent love’s twists and turns. Also he was involved in debt and suffered from ailment. Khalil Gibran was born in the Bsharri in the north of modern-day Lebanon. The elegant scene and mountainous hills in his hometown endow him with artistic imagination and inspiration. At the small place, he spent his childhood with his beloved mother and two sisters. The whole family worked for the expense on Gibran’s study. He pursued his study abroad sponsored by two women. Both of two did not marry him. They nevertheless maintained a platonic love with him. During his bachelorhood, however, he didn’t live an abstinent life. He kept a sexual relationship with many women at the same time. The affairs what happened to Gibran made his life so paradoxical.
Gibran loved painting from the very young age and once was cultivated by Rodin, a great sculptor. Apart from Rodin, Khalil Gibran was affected profoundly by a giant English romantic poet—William Blake in painting style and writing style. His debut began with the Spirits Rebellious in 1908 after he was rejected by an aristocratic girl, Hala Daher, during their courtship. The event led him into a different destiny in which traditional writing shackles was broken. Nietzsche, on the other hand, played the role of pathfinder, whose Thus Spoke Zarathustra facilitates Gibran’s prose verse and resonates with the idea of superman philosophy. Gibran applied the new writing skills in works which endowed later generations with priceless treasures both in literature and in intrapsychic purity.
At last one conclusion is always true that one feels purity, calm and relaxation in the bottom of heart after reading The Prophet.
2. Literature Review
In recent years, many researchers have dedicated themselves to the study of Gibran’s works. Many people do research on ecological ethic, thanatopsis and its cause, biotic connotation, and Bahai philosophic influence on Gibran, so that they can conclude the outside reasons embodied in Gibran’s works, from the aspect of culture, environment, religion, as well as biology. A lot of prominent celebrities have made commentary and review of The Prophet. Gibran’s best friend, Mihai, with the close connection to Gibran on literature, recognizing quintessence of The Prophet, “As Zarathustra is the embodiment of Nietzsche, Mustafa is also the embodiment of Khalil Gibran.”(Mihai, 1986: 212) Du Weina explores the conception of Gibran’s love, “Gibran’s love comes from elucidation of relationship between human beings, human and nature, human and society. It can be seen as monolithic, depending on each other but also being independent in some ways.”(Du Weina, 2012:69-71)
They focus on external influence exerting on Gibran, and this thesis will explore the internal changes in the heart. Raise different views on love and marriage based on predecessors’ works. It will talk about, for example, relationship between love and money, marriage and education from the dialectical perspective. Discussion which focuses on proper contrasts is given on desperate love and marriage as well as hints for future research.
3. Khalil Gibran's Dialectical Feeling on Love
The writer mentions the theme of love in most his works. “Love is life in its fullness like the cup with its wine.” (Tagore, 2011:148) As a man,He had no marriage but Gibran had never lacked of women in his life.He had sexual relationships with many ladies.However in his works,he kept seeking Plato love.Mary Haskwell and May Sedan were two important women in his life.But the love relationships between Gibran and the two women were still in spirit.And at last,he never married any one of them but the very two women exerting great influence on Gibran.
One is Mary Haskell, a doomed charming woman affected his lifetime. Because of her sponsorship and supports, Gibran had chance to enter Pairs Artistic Institution to learn drawing skills so that he could make his gift at his acme. In Pairs he enjoyed himself in artistic ocean so much as to forget to leave, and expanded greatly his horizon. Marry herself had a good knowledge and percipient of literature, which influenced Gibran a lifetime. He made a proposal to her, but failed. In 1991, Marry recorded the reason why she rejected Gibran’s proposition was that she was afraid that their marriage might exert undesirable influence on his talent in the arts. She rejected him on the pretext of 10 years older than him. Later Gibran met another lady.