Love Makes Us Liars

Have you ever lied about how you felt about someone, whether to protect yourself or someone else? Or have you ever lied to someone you love to protect yourself or someone else? We all tell lies, whether big, detrimental, ones or small little ones, honest motives or not, we still lie for and to the people we love. You could even say love is what makes people, good or bad, whether a liar already or not, tell lies.

In the "Mortal Instruments" by Cassandra Clare 16-year-old protagonist, Clary Fray, finds out she is really, Clary Morgenstern, a Nephilim. Throughout the series Clary is trying to find out who she is and who her family is. Along her journey there is lots of love and different relationships, all having there own struggles and hurdles; often involving lies.

For example, in this series Clary's mother, Jocelyn never told Clary they were Nephilim/part angel, and never acknowledged that world at all, constantly lying to Clary and shielding her from the truth. Jocelyn claims to have done out of love to protect Clary from a world of violence, death and pain that Jocelyn had experienced. She made a choice for who Clary is and who she would be without telling Clary she had a choice of who she was and could be. She indeed shielded Clary and had her eyes closed to that side of her she could not close the eyes of that world, which later resulted in Clary being exposed, and alone, in a foreign world, with nothing and no one to give her answers. Not knowing who she could trust to tell her the truth after what she saw as her mothers betrayal, missing a woman who she felt she no longer knew. While this was a act of love by Jocelyn, she lied to Clary, a young girl, betraying the innocent trust she had in her mother, leaving behind resentment where there had once only been love.

Also, when Clary was thrust into this world of shadow-hunters, she met and fell in love with Jace, a Nephilim boy who later turned out to be her biological brother, another piece of the life Jocelyn had run from. Clary no longer had any hope of being with Jace and had to hide her feelings away, never telling anyone how she felt, and no longer able to act upon her feelings. In the midst of covering her feelings for her older brother she tried to go out with Simon, an old mundane/human friend who had always had feelings for her. Not only did she lie and say and act as if she never had or has feelings for Jace, but she also tried to lie to herself and make herself love Simon. In some ways lying about not having feelings for someone just for the look of it is really just us lying to ourselves, by trying to tell ourselves that this is the truth.

In addition, in this book a Nephilim friend of Jace, Alec, lies about his love life constantly. While the Nephilim are not bias towards race, and gender they are extremely old fashioned, resulting in Alec not being able to come out with his sexuality due to his fear of exclusion from the government and his family. He confided in no one and never told anyone his secret. He even kept him self from any potential relationships due to his fear of acknowledging his sexuality, and made himself love Jace, his adopted brother, because he knew that there was no possible way he could be in a relationship with him, without breaking the law. While he's lying to everyone he also lies to himself and convinces him self he will never have feelings for any one ever while he was never even in love with him.

Lastly Luke, a father figure of Clary's and Jocelyn's old friend lies about his love for Jocelyn for twenty years in order to preserve his own feelings and their friendship. When Jocelyn first married Valentine Morgenstern, he never told her that he too had feelings for her because he was friends with both of them and was petrified with the idea of losing either of them if things ended badly for him. Later when Jocelyn ran from her old life, he joined her and said he would marry her, but she only dismissed it as him pitying her, for she was pregnant with Clary so Luke never mentioned his feelings again and acted as if he never had feelings for her and even went back home without her while she sought refuge in New York. But again, later his fear of her not in his life at all resulted in him going to find her and staying with her, even though they were only friends and that was all they ever were. He lied to everyone about his feelings out of the fear of rejection and ruining any relationship, even friendship between him and Jocelyn. Any love from her was enough for him, even if he had to lie and say it was enough.

Love while has the reputation of bringing out the best in us; sometimes it can bring out the worst parts of us. Lying to who we love in order to protect them but then distancing them from us because of the lies we tell for and to them. Lying about who we love to everyone and ourselves in the fear or rejection and heartbreak, willing to do anything for them except tell them the truth because they alone hold the power to hurt us worse then any other person. While love is something that can make us stronger it is also the thing that weakens us. While love seems the most powerful of feelings it also makes it the most dangerous and terrifying leaving us stripped and bare with only our feelings for someone left behind. Love gives us the power to blindly tell the truth to who we love but also the power to lie blindly for and to who we love. It's love that makes us liars in the end.