These letters are the height of romance, but only in one sense of the word. They are romantic in that both of these young lovers end up obeying all of their emotions and in the end, they end up paralyzed by religious shame, unable to consummate their love because of Abelard's alleged mutilation, but also because Heloise and Abelard are unsure of love. They take a melodramatic point of view on love that also includes concepts like purity and religious shame.
The correspondents go back and forth in the letters, hoping to isolate whether God wants them to be together or not, and Heloise believes sometimes that God opposes their relationship. This is highly ironic, because one should think that, if there were a God, that he would have spoken through their animal nature, which would be a good reason for them to mate like all of their ancestors before. The idea that God hates sex is clearly present, and it kills a good thing.
That does not take away from the beauty of the letters, which are perhaps even more romantic because of the melodrama. They continue to wish for one another with great longing, and in the end Abelard and Heloise are united in a strange way. Having both been cloistered at monasteries, Abelard discusses this as the height of love: wishing for his lover to find her way into heaven. Perhaps a better heaven would be enjoying love without layers of metacognition and religious shame.
