As a self-indulgent Hedonist, Andrea's personality is defined first and foremost by his constant attempts to feed his insatiable desires. This conquest is characterized by consistent mood swings and dramatic changes of heart that not only present him as a volatile character, but as one incapable of emotional stability. His love for Elena is compromised by his unfailing objectivity of women; yet, his addictive personality makes him incurably jealous and inseparable from her. Andrea's materialistic desires stand apart from, for example Dorian's Gray's, because he associates with theses objects a certain soul. This concept is undeniable when it comes to Elena who seems to add reassigned value to the things she touches, the same way Elena's value is reassigned when Andrea touches her. Indubitably, Andrea's love for objects stems from his love for beauty, which is an element of his education. In fact, he seems to view his conquests as the pursuit of art--modeling each adventure after some form of art.
Andrea's education is "not based so much on books as derived from the presence of human reality...his spirit corrupted by high culture..." (35). Gifted with "the power of great sensibility," Andrea's life becomes a quest for the indulgence of pleasure early on. The pleasure that Maria brings him is one of a soulful and intellectually engaging basis: she is for Andrea the opposite of what Elena was for him.
I do agree with much of what you are saying but I don't think that Andrea and Elena's relationship was compromised by his objectivity of women. I believe that Andrea treated Elena right, as he truly did love her. Their relationship failed because they were too much alike, and to both of them, love was like a game. Here are two people who are in love with being in love. There relationship was getting so serious that it was in danger of losing it's artistic qualities and becoming something more conventional. For two people with a love of the dramatic, the joy would have quickly left their lives. Elena obviously realized this before Andrea and left even though she never stopped loving him.
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