The universal theme of love seems rather difficult to define. Shakespeare investigates this notion using his play, “As You Like it”; the characters’ actions, speeches and emotions reflect the different types of love according to Shakespeare’s point of view. One type of love, the irrational and exaggerated kind, is portrayed through the character of Silvius. Despite Phoebe’s multiple rejections, the shepherd’s obsession for her stimulates his will to maintain his stream of incessant love declarations. Another type of love is reflected through Touchstone, Duke Frederick’s fool: the purely sexual kind of love, demonstrated in the sexual references Touchstone employs in his journey with Rosalind and Celia. Despite the various types of love displayed …show more content…
As Rosalind encounters Phoebe for the first time, she scolds Phoebe for treating Silvius harshly despite his love for her. Silvius’ constant wooing yields a feeling of superiority within Phoebe as Rosalind observes that “Tis not her glass but you that flatters her, / And out of you she sees herself more proper/ Than any of her lineaments can show her” (3.5). From Silvius’ declarations of love, the thought of being charming and beautiful has been impregnated into Phoebe’s mind when, in fact, her appearance is rather mediocre. Indeed, she was described as “the ordinary of nature’s sale-work” (3.5) by Rosalind, implying that she is not as desired as she thinks. However, at the end, Phoebe realizes the love Silvius possesses for her and returns his love, “Now thou art mine, / Thy faith my fancy to thee doth combine” (5.4), meaning Silvius’ faith and love have won her over. It is when their love for each other becomes equal that both obtain a happy ending, hence highlighting the importance of a balanced relationship for …show more content…
[…] This fellow will but join you together as they join/ wainscot then one of you will prove a shrunk panel/ and, like green timber, warp, warp” (3.3). Jaques implies that relationships based on physical attributes never last long and extramarital affairs inevitably occur. However, the marriage between Audrey and Touchstone takes place. Shakespeare might imply that purely sexual love cannot be prevented; however, the outcome will never be positive, as demonstrated by the blessing of the priest, “You and you are sure together/ As the winter to foul weather” (5.4). Hence, Shakespeare suggests that relationships based on physical attributes are less
In Act I of Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare demonstrates different forms of love that characters face. From the beginning, Romeo struggles to find true love and what love really is. As for Juliet, she also struggles on what love is, but also finding her own voice. And when finally finding true love they discover that they have fallen in love their own enemy. They both realize that the idea of love can be amazing, but also a painful experience. Shakespeare demonstrates love versus evil and the forms love takes that is acknowledged as an universal issue that connects different types of audiences. Audiences are captured by relating on love and the emotions that are displayed. From Romeo and Rosaline’s unrequited love, Paris and Juliet’s false love, and Romeo and Juliet’s ill-fated love, create the forms of love that establishes love as a leading theme in Act I.
Love is only as strong as the people who share it. In William Shakespeare’s play, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, there are relationships from all different viewpoints of love. Four Athenian lovers are caught in a web of love for the wrong person, according to fellow peevish characters. Along the story line of the play, one will be introduced to additional characters that try to be helpful by committing acts they presume will benefit the young lovers, but these characters actually create plot-twists. Also, there are other characters that have the authority to change whatever they feel is necessary without thinking twice. Furthermore, throughout this humored play, Shakespeare portrays various forms of love through arranged marriages, forbidden love, magically tampered love, and unanticipated romances to show how there’s no right or wrong way to love someone.
Throughout the tragedy of Romeo and Juliet, by William Shakespeare, various types of love are portrayed. According to some of the students of Shakespeare, Shakespeare himself had accumulated wisdom beyond his years in matters pertaining to love (Bloom 89). Undoubtedly, he draws upon this wealth of experience in allowing the audience to see various types of love personified. Shakespeare argues that there are several different types of love, the interchangeable love, the painful love and the love based on appearances, but only true love is worth having.
Many of Shakespeare's plays show a strong theme of love. Romeo and Juliet and Much Ado About Nothing deal primarily with the issue of true and false love. Romeo and Juliet, tragic play, is about two lovers who struggle, sacrifice, and defy their families and society for the sake of love that changes them completely. Although the end of Romeo and Juliet's story is death both of the lovers, their love turns to be immortal. Much Ado About Nothing, comedy play, is about two lovers who their relationship starts as child like and develops to be true love that motives the lovers to sacrifice in order to keep their love. The two plays deal also with the idea of false love. Romeo, the hero of Romeo and Juliet, thinks that he loves Rosaline, but when he meets Juliet, the heroin of Romeo and Juliet, he falls in love with her, forgetting his love to Rosaline. In Much Ado About Nothing, the relationship between Claudio and Hero's, main characters in the play, is based on wealth and appearance attraction. Conventional love is another kind of that is shown in Romeo and Juliet, where it develops in social situations without any consideration to emotions.
As illustrated by the two plays Romeo and Juliet and Much Ado About Nothing, William Shakespeare was a true romantic. In each play, his characters suffer great hardship, but in the end, he delivers them to a life of eternal love. Characters plot against each other in each play. The relationships of the people in his plays are not always what they seem. Whether it be a tragedy or a comedy, Shakespeare encompasses three elements into his plays: love, intrigue, and identity.
Love in William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet William Shakespeare examines the concepts of love in the tragic play
Playwright, William Shakespeare, conveys the different forms of love between characters in his drama, Romeo and Juliet. In the small town of Verona the different types of love are highlighted, through character actions and speech. Unrequited love is seen in Romeo and Juliet through Romeo 's 'love ' for Rosaline in Act one, while the forbidden love at first sight, also known as romantic love is seen between Romeo and Juliet. Furthermore, the motherly love/ familial love, Juliet and the Nurse share is also explored.
What is love? Love is the pinnacle of all emotions, it is the epicenter for life, what is the point of living if there is no love, ironically love is the cause of many a down fall. William Shakespeare has single handedly captured and embraced this necessary feeling and has allowed us to view in on it through the characters in his two masterpieces, Othello and King Lear. Three different kinds of loves explored in both Othello and King Lear, sharing both similarities and differences are a love for a significant other, the love a father holds to his children, and the love a daughter holds for her father. By looking at the outcomes of these loves one may draw a sense of loves negative and positive effects, and how the different traits of loves play into the outcomes in the fate of Shakespeare's characters. Through the analysis of love in these two plays one will become a more knowledgeable student of literature.
Love is the central theme in the play ‘As You Like It’ by William Shakespeare, the author expressed many types of love in the play. Some of them are, brotherly love, lust for love, loyal, friendship love, unrequited love, but of course, romantic love is the focus of this play.
This duality of love is established early within the play with Orsino’s commentary on love. In Orsino’s lines, he describes the “spirit of love” as being “quick and fresh” (1.1.9), and he continues to explain how love “…falls into abatement and low pride even in a minute” (1.1.13-14). With these lines, Shakespeare expresses how quickly love can alternate from an entity of joy to one of extreme depression. By employing these lines so early in the play, the vision of love as a force of exceeding strength is firmly planted within the reader’s subconscious, and Shakespeare has prepared the reader to fully grasp the central theme of the play.
Love is a powerful emotion, capable of turning reasonable people into fools. Out of love, ridiculous emotions arise, like jealousy and desperation. Love can shield us from the truth, narrowing a perspective to solely what the lover wants to see. Though beautiful and inspiring when requited, a love unreturned can be devastating and maddening. In his play, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, William Shakespeare comically explores the flaws and suffering of lovers. Four young Athenians: Demetrius, Lysander, Hermia, and Helena, are confronted by love’s challenge, one that becomes increasingly difficult with the interference of the fairy world. Through specific word choice and word order, a struggle between lovers is revealed throughout the play. In A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Shakespeare uses descriptive diction to emphasize the impact love has on reality and one’s own rationality, and how society’s desperate pursuit to find love can turn even strong individuals into fools.
William Shakespeare (1564-1616) was a Renaissance poet and playwright who wrote and published the original versions of 38 plays, 154 sonnets, two long narrative poems, and several other poems. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language, and often called England’s national poet. Several of his works became extremely well known, thoroughly studied, and enjoyed all over the world. One of Shakespeare’s most prominent plays is titled The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet. In this tragedy, the concept that is discussed and portrayed through the characters is love, as they are recognized as being “in love”. The general umbrella of love encompasses various kinds of love such as romantic love, the love of a parent for a child, love of one’s country, and several others. What is common to all love is this: Your own well-being is tied up with that of someone (or something) you love… When love is not present, changes in other people’s well being do not, in general, change your own… Being ‘in love’ infatuation is an intense state that displays similar features: … and finding everyone charming and nice, and thinking they all must sense one’s happiness. At first glance it seems as though Shakespeare advocates the hasty, hormone-driven passion portrayed by the protagonists, Romeo and Juliet; however, when viewed from a more modern, North-American perspective, it seems as though Shakespeare was not in fact endorsing it, but mocking the public’s superficial perception of love. Shakespeare’s criticism of the teens’ young and hasty love is portrayed in various instances of the play, including Romeo’s shallow, flip-flop love for Rosaline then Juliet, and his fights with Juliet’s family. Also, the conseque...
It is well known that Shakespeare’s comedies contain many marriages, some arranged, some spontaneous. During Queen Elizabeth's time, it was considered foolish to marry for love. However, in Shakespeare’s plays, people often marry for love. With a closer look into two of his most famous plays As You Like It and Twelfth Night or What You Will, I found that while marriages are defined and approached differently in these two plays, Shakespeare’s attitudes toward love in both plays share similarities. The marriages in As You Like It’s conform to social expectation, while the marriages are more rebellious in Twelfth Night. Love, in both plays, was defined as
However, Shakespeare also picks on love. Not only did Malvolio's confusion about his and Olivia's relationship prove to add to the comedy, but it rather showed how one can play with love, and use it for another's harm. Apart from this example, love is depicted as a light and lovely emotion.
Shakespeare, William. As You Like It. Trans. Gayle Holste. Hauppauge, NY: Barron's Educational Series, 2009. Print.