Loving Relationships Essay

987 Words4 Pages
“Plato claims that the ultimate principle of friendship is based on doing what is best for the friend. Aristotle concurs with this view and develops it further” (62). “Can a friendship be retained when a physical distance develops between friends?” (64). “If a woman has a close male friend before marriage, should she continue this friendship after marriage?” (68). Many interesting and important ideas regarding friendship were mentioned in this chapter. It was stated that Plato and Aristotle are in agreement about the idea that “the ultimate principle of friendship is based on doing what is best for the friend.” I would have to both agree and disagree with this statement. While a good friendship would mean that both friends care about each other respectively, and generally act with kindness and goodness toward one another, doing what is best for the other person in every situation could result in a destructive relationship. For example, I have a friend who is very clingy, needy, and manipulative. We were once “best friends” and if I were to express an interest in another friend, or see another friend, she would become incredibly jealous and pick fights with me. It was as if we were dating, and she was a jealous partner. If I had friend separate from her, she would attempt to become closer with them than I was, so that she could control my friendship with them as well. It became very tiring and frustrating to deal with this type of friend. I put up with this for a very long time, rather than expressing my annoyance with the situation and my need for a less controlling friendship. I did what was best for her emotionally, by pretending not to notice or care, and failing to bring the issue up so that our friendship wouldn’t become awkward. Therefore, the situation was fine for her, but incredibly undesirable for me. Eventually I stopped
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