Romeo and Juliet

Physical separation is a powerful obstacle that is sometimes faced by those bound to each other in love. It brings about intense emotional pain and can hinder any relationship with which true love is at its core. Shakespeare’s Sonnet 56 involved two lovers that experienced physical separation as a stumbling block in their kinship. The “sad interim” with which the lovers found themselves suffering caused the intensity of their love to vanish. With their love fading quickly, the two desired for “sweet love” to “renew thy force.” They wanted their love for each other to be “blunter be than appetite, / Which but today by feeding is allayed, / Tomorrow sharpened in his former might.” They wished for a love like hunger, constantly returning and needing to be quenched. However, due to their separation, the people’s “spirit of love” had become “a perpetual dullness.” The “hungry eyes” of their love would “wink with fullness” and had lost its potency and strength. In order to repair the love that had waned, the lovers longed to “Come daily to the banks” of the ocean so that the “Return of love” could come to their relationship, and they desired “this sad interim” to be “winter, which being full of care / Makes summer’s welcome thrice more wish’d.” Sonnet 56 was a sad story in which separation caused two people’s love to become dull and boring. The obstacle of separation was also evident in the relationship between Hero and Claudio found in the play, Much Ado About Nothing. At the beginning of the play, Don Pedro and some of his men returned to Messina after battling in war. One of the men that Don Pedro brought with him was young Claudio. Claudio was highly respected in the eyes of Don Pedro and had exceptional war performan...

... middle of paper ...

...(RJ 3. 5. 197). Juliet was so disgusted with the thought of marrying Paris that she would rather “make the bridal bed / In that dim monument where Tybalt lies” (RJ 3. 5. 212-213). Out of desperation to prevent the wedding, Juliet went “to the Friar to know his remedy” (RJ 3. 5. 254). She told that Friar that she “long[s] to die / If what thou speak’st speak not of remedy” (RJ 3. 5. 67-68). The Friar provided Juliet with a poison that would cause “The roses in [her] lips and cheeks fade / To paly ashes, [her] eyes’ windows fall / Like when he shuts up the day of life” (RJ 4. 1. 101-103). Though Paris was taken by Juliet, Juliet had no desire to marry Paris. Their love was completely one sided. Paris desired the love of Juliet but Juliet did not grant the love in return. The obstacle of non-mutual love will prevent any relationship from being successful.