Love cannot stabilize on empty values with ecstatic pleasures. In a predominant relationship, the superior can cause the inferior resentment and empty passion. One can offer complete delectation, yet an interconnection cannot form without mutual feeling. A mutual relationship expresses equivalence among two people, creating a balance of ardent mentality. The tone of Odysseus in his relationship with Nausicaa is ironically content in comparison to his affair with Calypso and her apparent island of paradise.
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The diction of The Odyssey adds a sympathetic tone to the relationship between Odysseus and Calypso. Calypso's "love was all on her part"(65), forcing Odysseus "to sleep" (65) with her, and "wearing out his soul"(63). Calypso is always alone in various ways, especially in her relationship with Odysseus. Her love for him is "all on her part", suggesting that Odysseus" love for Calypso is subliminal, especially because he focuses on his longing for home and independence. Calypso's demands only cause Odysseus to disdain her. Even though the audience is sympathetic for the hero Odysseus, the obligation of the author is to reveal that Calypso's solitary life deserves empathy as well. Calypso's emotions in her relationship with Odysseus are not mutual, and she remains forever in mental anguish alone, even amongst the company of others, because she maintains the lone mentality for the rest of her life. Calypso's eternal longing for pleasant association with others by keeping Odysseus captive causes his suffering that wears "out his soul". The word choice of the author for this reference of the text reveals the results of deterioration of the mind and soul as a disease, and how it eventually affects others. Calypso seems to be smothering Odysseus with love that only result to his realization of life beyond an island of isolation. Her empowerment over Odysseus allow his hope to ebb away along with his psyche.