Love Between Desire and Drive

In the typical melodrama plot, the leading character is forced to make a choice and to experience a loss: he or she has to give up a person loved, choose between one person and another, betray the family, or even give up on love altogether. But a special kind of melodrama deals with the choice made between love and profession, especially the profession of music. This tension between sexual love and devotion to music is the theme of the film Rhapsody , which I will use as an example to clarify the connections among love, desire and drive in Lacanian psychoanalysis.

The film starts with the young, rich Lulu (played by Elizabeth Taylor) accompanying her poor boyfriend Paul (Vittorio Gassman) to Zurich, where he has come to study the violin. Lulu quickly realizes that her lover is devoted first to music and that his love for her comes second. For this reason, they end their relationship after the big success of his first concert. Lulu then marries a pianist, James, who in his love for Lulu gives up on his career. However, as a result, he starts drinking, and Lulu comes to despise him. In Paris, Lulu once again meets Paul, whom she still loves, but he blames her for ruining James. To become worthy of Paul's love, Lulu decides to help James to continue with his study of music. She thus devotes herself to his career and forces him to practice. But before James's first concert, Lulu informs him that now that he has become a great pianist, she is going to abandon him for Paul. Heartbroken, James finishes the concert with great pain, but he does not give up—the concert is a great success. Lulu listens from the back row and is totally taken by James's performance. Paul waits for her, but she decides that she is not going with him, because she truly loves James.

The plot of this melodrama revolves around the problem that the subject is never loved in the way he or she would like to be. Both men, Paul and James, love Lulu in the way that she does not want to be loved. Thus