From my favorite Taylor Swift album, Folklore, there’s a line in the song Cardigan stating, “chase two girls, lose the one.” Along with Cardigan, the songs August and Betty detail the love triangle between three teenagers: James, Betty, and Augustine. The story begins with a couple, James and Betty, who are portrayed to be young and in love. Unfortunately, James’s attention begins to stray to a girl named Augustine, who has no knowledge of James’s relationship with Betty. Later on, Betty learns of their affair. The song Betty is told from James’s point of view, featuring his regret for his actions and his efforts to win back the girl he believes to be the love of his life. In the song Betty, a significant line is, “the worst thing that I ever did was what I did to you.” Their story is a representation of the feeling of not knowing exactly what you have until it’s gone, and it’s a symbol of how your trust in another person can end up hurting you in the end. It begs the question, if James truly loved Betty, why would he betray her the way he did? What causes people to knowingly hurt the people they love? There isn’t just one way to answer this question, but a simple explanation is deeply rooted in insecurity, immaturity, and impulsivity. 

Another example of this appears in Shakespeare’s play Othello. Othello shifts from a mature, calm, centered leader, to an impulsive man riddled with doubt. He acts irrationally towards the end of the play, killing his own wife because he was under the notion that she was having an affair. In reality, the insecurity in his marriage was a result of manipulation. Othello and Desdemona were presented as an idealistic couple, who fell in love with each other after developing a strong bond. While most people wouldn’t go to the extent that Othello did, it’s a common pattern in relationships today for people to let insecurity and impulse get in between themselves and the person that they love. 

In my own life, I’ve seen this become an apparent issue in one of my friends’ relationships. She and her boyfriend have been together, on and off, for about two years now. For her, love is blinding and binding, tying her to a relationship that’s dragging her back instead of pushing her forward. For him, love makes him scared, planting a seed of insecurity in his mind; that combined with his own immaturity, sets the two up for failure from the beginning. Similar to James and Othello, my friend’s boyfriend has presented to with the traits of being immature, insecure, and impulsive. The three have proved the ways that it’s possible to hurt the ones you love, regardless of what your true intentions are.