Heloise was overcome with extreme guilt when Abelard proposed to marry her. "She, however, most violently disapproved of this, and for two chief reasons: the danger thereof, and the disgrace which it would bring upon me. What penalties would the world rightly demand of her if she should rob it of so shining a light!" Heloise then went on to stay with nuns, and her uncle assumed that Abelard had sent Heloise off to go become a nun. .
This tragic and unfortunate love story was not yet finished. Both Heloise and Abelard went on to continue contributing to literary history and living their lives separately. In letters Heloise wrote things such as "While I am denied your presence, give me at least through your words of which you have enough and to spare some sweet resemblance of yourself," to compensate for the agony of not being with her love. Two lovers had been separated against their will and tried to continue their romance through writing letters.
One major debate that was possibly stirred up in this time period may be about the authenticity of the letters. Women in the middle ages did not typically have the intelligence to write these letters in Latin as Heloise did. Then again Heloise was a well educates woman, and this may be one of the reasons why Abelard was attracted to her. Abelard faced a lot of hardship because of how he distanced himself from Heloise to save his reputation. Heloise was also going through problems as well. She was facing hypocrisy because it was impossible to be in love with someone so deeply, and also be deeply involved in religion. .
Heloise went against the normal, typical, and proper role of women in her society. Heloise viewed herself as a hypocrite; she said that men who did not know her secret longings praised her for her virtue. She wrote Abelard, "How can it be called repentance for sins, however great the mortification of the flesh, if the mind still retains the will to sin and is on fire with its old desires?" This excerpt from a letter proves that Heloise never completely gave herself to religion and God, because she always in a way belonged to Abelard.
