The Five Love Languages of Enchanted

When clicking on this title some of you may be asking, “What does the five love languages mean?” or, “What does the movie Enchanted have to do with the five love languages?” Well Dear Reader, allow me to expand on the matter.

For those of you that do not know me I have been reading and studying the works of Dr. Gary Chapman, counselor and author of the New York Times bestseller The Five Love Languages. Dr. Chapman has come up with a way of life that not only helps married couples but also singles, children, teens, and more. His books guide readers through each language and how they can apply it to their relationships with siblings, friends, family, and even significant others. I have been extremely curious about his works and now they have become common in my daily thoughts as I go through life observing different relationships at the store, in books, on campus, etc. I will not get into the great details of each language because I would love for you to investigate them more yourselves.

The five Love Languages are Words of Affirmation, Gifts, Acts of Service, Quality Time, and Physical Touch.

Words of Affirmation are verbal compliments that express love and appreciation toward someone. You can express love through words in many ways; a letter to a loved one letting them know how much you care, complimenting their accomplishments, or lifting them up instead of critiquing them.

Gifts are a tangible symbol that reflects your thoughtfulness and effort. This can be expressed by giving someone flowers for his/her birthday, making a lovely homemade gift, or getting them something that reminded you of them.

Acts of service is any act that eases the burden of responsibility from one’s shoulders. This can be done by washing the dishes, cleaning the house, or just saying, “here let me do that for you.”

Quality time is focused and undivided attention spent together. This can be shown by going for a walk, planning a date night, and having a meaningful technology free talk.

The last Love Language is physical touch. Physical touch the non-verbal use of body language and touch to reinforce your presence. This can be shown by cuddling, hugging, holding hands, massaging, etc.

Now that you have a bit of a summary of each love language you should know everyone can receive all the Love Languages, but everyone gives and receives a certain Love Language better than the others.

Now follow my train of thought as we journey through the movie Enchanted and discover what the six main character’s receiving love language is.

We are going to start with Queen Narissa because even though she is evil, she still has a small want for love. Couple of things that stood out to me while analyzing the movie is that she likes to manipulate people into doing her dirty work for her. I know this obviously is not a sign of love but she is relying on someone to get things done for her. In her own twisted way that someone would be filling her love tank because they did a service for her. This led me to the conclusion that if Narissa had a little room for love in her heart she would receive Acts of Service the best. Nathaniel, the queen’s right-hand man, is head over heels in love with Narissa so to show his love he is willing to prove his loyalty to her by serving her throughout the movie. I think we can safely assume that the queen’s receiving Love Language is Acts of Service.

Next is Nancy Tremaine. Shout out to IMDb for adding the last name and bringing the fairy tale full circle. Nancy is Robert’s love interest at the beginning of the movie, but soon she discovers that she is not Robert’s true love. It was hard to pinpoint exactly what Nancy receives as love because we do not get to see much of her in the film. There was one part that did trigger an idea. After the big fight in Robert’s apartment when Nancy thought he was cheating on her with Giselle she storms out with the intent not to forgive him. Later, Giselle starts singing “That’s How You Know” and in the middle of the song she instructs two doves to deliver flowers and tickets to the ball to Nancy. When they get there, Nancy calls Robert and raves about the gift he sent her. She says, “You usually send the digital flowers with the e-cards, but these are just exquisite.” How could someone with feelings of intense anger and hurt turn around and forgive someone just because they sent flowers. Nancy’s Love Language is Gifts because when she saw the real flowers with the real doves her love tank went from empty to full because the gift meant that Robert cared.

For this one I will be combining Prince Edward and Nathaniel because they both receive Words of Affirmation, but they like it expressed in different ways. Edward loves to receive praise about his charm and mighty deeds. He is not the sharpest tool in the shed, but he knows what he loves to hear, and he quickly finds out that Giselle is not his one true love. Nathaniel wants to be recognized for his works and be loved by Queen Narissa. Everything Nathaniel does in the movie he does for Narissa, but she never thanks him or reciprocates his acts of service for words of thanks. Nathaniel just wants to feel better about himself, but no one is helping him fill his love tank so throughout the movie he just looks drained. I like this example because it shows two different ways that people can receive this particular language.

We are getting down to the final two characters and languages, and up next is Robert Phillip with the Love Language of Quality Time. None of you should be surprised by this at all. I mean throughout the whole movie he states that he does not believe in a true lasting relationship because his wife up and left him and Morgan, his daughter. This is something that is extremely important to him because he wants to make sure he knows a lot about his other half before jumping headfirst into a commitment. As the story goes on you can see that Robert gravitates toward Giselle and her personality. He wants to get closer to her and get to know her even when they just met, and that is because Giselle fills his love tank up. The more time Giselle and Robert spend together the more Robert begins to have feelings because even though their time is short, they learn a lot about each other and what makes each other tick. I think his tank also fills when someone takes the time to be with Morgan and makes sure she is also being loved.

Last but not least, Giselle and her Love Language of Physical Touch. This too should not be surprising to anyone because the whole movie is about Giselle reaching out to all different kinds of people and connecting with them through physical touch. She loves to hold hands or wrap herself in people’s arms just to feel happy. I just love watching her dance around and invite others to join in by grabbing their hand and forcing them to come along. On the dance floor with Robert during the King and Queen’s Waltz you can tell when they start dancing that Giselle glows because her love tank is being filled by the man she truly loves.

As I said before this topic is something I have researched and read about a lot and I agree that these five languages should be the foundation of relationships because they are tools to help love grow stronger. I hope that this has made you think about yourselves and how you can now observe life more differently than most. If you are interested in learning more about this subject, I encourage you to delve deeper on your own, you will not regret it.

Until next time,

Peace out Lovers!