Shelley has often been criticized regarding his love life. Every student of Shelley is familiar with his capricious and insensitive behavior toward the loves in his life. However, what many students may not realize is that he was an inevitable victim of illusions, and that the only alternative was to give up on lust for life. A passage from a letter he wrote to his friend T.J. Hogg in 1815 will help clarify exactly what I mean.

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