The concept of love in Lucifer’s Hammer is associated with several characters such as Maureen, Harvey, Joanna, Tim, and Eileen. However, its meaning does not shift throughout the novel. In the novel, the word “love” appears a total of thirty-eight times. I was surprised by this number because I expected it to be higher. It seems like the concept of love should be more prevalent in a book about the collapse of human civilization because that is when human beings need each other most. By concentrating on the word “love” in the novel, important themes stand out such as the lack of love and the degradation of love among the characters. Before Hammerfall, we primarily see characters cheating on their spouses by engaging in affairs. We see both Harvey Randall and John Baker cheating on their wives with Maureen who shows no remorse about sleeping with married men. We also see the ambiguity of love in Joanna’s relationship with Mark. They obviously care about each other however we do not really see any strong feelings of love. Joanna even admits to herself, upon thinking about her relationship with Mark, that “Living with Mark was a lot of fun. She didn’t know if she was in love with Mark, because she wasn’t sure what love was, but they were compatible in bed” (210). The characters view love symbollically as simply a physical act and in this way they degrade love. This passage emphasizes the idea that love is not present in the novel but rather physical desire is present.
Love is consistently degraded into something that is merely a basic necessity. After Hammerfall, the characters start becoming couples not out of love but for security. Tim Hamner and Eileen Hancock decide to marry, I believe, out of necessity. Eileen even admitted earlier in the novel that she did not want to marry Tim. Towards the end of the book we also see Maureen confronting her lack of feelings for Harvey. The degradation of love is also seen in the character of Fred Lauren and his “love” for Colleen.