Different Types of Love...

Love is an emotion of strong affection and personal attachment.[1] In philosophical context, love is a virtue representing all of human kindness, compassion, and affection. Love is central to many religions, as in the Christian phrase, "God is love" or Agape in the Canonical gospels.[2] Love may also be described as actions towards others (or oneself) based on compassion.[3] Or as actions towards others based on affection.[3]

In English, the word love can refer to a variety of different feelings, states, and attitudes, ranging from generic pleasure ("I loved that meal") to intense interpersonal attraction ("I love my partner"). "Love" can also refer specifically to the passionate desire and intimacy of romantic love, to the sexual love of eros (cf. Greek words for love), to the emotional closeness of familial love, or to the platonic love that defines friendship,[4] to the profound oneness or devotion of religious love. [5] This diversity of uses and meanings, combined with the complexity of the feelings involved, makes love unusually difficult to consistently define, even compared to other emotional states.

Taken from Wikipedia

Courtly Love
Courtly love is that which seems abundant in typical fairytales of princes and princesses. It originates from the middle ages and is a French concept that was brought over to the English courts in the 1300s and is based on the idea of gallantry and chivalry. The TROUBADOURS were its founders, types of medieval musicians that rose up the ranks to become the elite - bringing with them poetry and lyricality. The troubadours wrote poetry and ballads, publicising courtly love - the most famous of which highlighted in Geoffrey Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. Because of the troubadours courtly love remained fairly exclusive to the upper classes, i.e. royalty and knights, and thus was littered with fundamental rules, or the CODE of chivalry. For example;

Marriage is no real excuse for not loving.
The easy attainment of love makes it of little value.
Every lover should regularly turn pale in the presence of their beloved.
A new love puts to flight an old one.

Indeed such rules showcase how playing the game of courtly love caused many problems within courtly circles.

Literature: Chaucer "The Miller's Tale"
Jane Austen "Pride & Prejudice"

Romantic Love
This type of love is the most obvious form of love, the attraction between two people being built upon to form deep emotional attachment. Romantic love promotes the act of reproduction and uses the elements of lust and desire in the initial stages in order to do so. Whilst lust is not love in itself the two can go hand in hand. For example, boy meets girl, immediate attraction, this attraction develeops into lust, boy and girl have babies, boy and girl committed = job done.

Literature: ALL

Familial Love
The love one shares subconciously for their family is familial love, an attachment that bonds each member together. Unlike romantic love, familial love is unchanging and unconditional based on DNA and familiarity rather than hormones and attraction. Within this category is MATERNAL and SIBLING love, two equally powerful forms of love.

Literature: Louisa May Alcott "Little Women"
Jane Austen "Pride and Prejudice"
J.D Salinger "The Catcher in the Rye"
Tennessee Williams "Streetcar Named Desire"

ALSO SEVERELY CHALLENGED BY Martin Mcdonagh "The Beauty Queen of Leenane"

Platonic Love
The love one feels for friends is platonic love, one based on similar interests and a bond of familiarity and pleasure in each other's company. Arguably this type of love is not as strong as the familial or romantic loves but can still bind people together for life.

Literature: Louisa May Alcott "Little Women"
Lynne Reid Banks "The L Shaped Room"

Unrequited Love
Feelings of love that aren't returned are unrequited. This type of hopeless love is abundant throughout literature as the mega ouch moment that occurs after rejection often leaves people in feelings of desperation and depression. Often obsession and jealousy arise as the more tender loving feelings become exasberated.

Literature: Louisa May Alcott "Little Women"
Jane Austen "Pride and Prejudice"
Vladimir Nabokov "Lolita"
J.M Coetzee "Disgrace"

Religious Love
Religious love is based far less on emotions but more so on respect and a person's actions. For instance the AGAPE love taught by Jesus is in keeping with the commandment "Love thy neighbour". Whilst you can not love your neighbour in the same way you love your family, the idea is that you treat them in a way that promotes love and rejects sin or wrong-doing. People may also claim to love god or feel the love god has for his children, again the concept of love is far more vague and is based on acceptance, inclusion and worship. Applicable to other religions also.

Literature: Chinua Achebe "Things Fall Apart"
Louisa May Alcott "Little Women"