Romantic Love: A Force for Good
Victor Hugo once said, “The greatest happiness of life is the conviction that we are loved; loved for ourselves, or rather, loved in spite of ourselves.” Whether in Shakespeare’s tragic play about lovers doomed by fate, Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare’s sonnet describing love, “Sonnet 116”, or O. Henry’s age old The Gift of the Magi, love motivates the characters and authors to make decisions that have a weighty impact on their lives. Throughout these works of literature, authors use love’s power to drive the plot forward to create good events within the characters’ lives. Love is a force for good because it makes people willing to forgive each other, it brings the best out of people in bad situations, and it
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Many people cite Romeo and Juliet as a way to show that love leads to destruction when Romeo and Juliet died because of their love for each other. However, upon closer examination, the main reason of the lovers’ deaths was their haste in carrying out their love. If they had taken their relationship more slowly, their commitment to their love may have been able to overpower their negative circumstance. In truth, both Romeo and Juliet found meaning out of life only after they began their romantic relationship. Romeo was distracted from his awful state of being when he met Juliet, saying “Tut, I have lost myself. I’m not here / This is not Romeo, he’s some other where,” the night of the Capulet party (1.1.197-198). Romeo was brought out of his bad, mopey state into one filled with meaning and excitement, all because of Juliet’s love. Romeo and Juliet weren’t meant to live, they were meant to love, and they made the best out of their lives and their romance while they lasted. Love brings good, meaning, and hope to life, despite horrible situation and circumstance that may be present for the
Romeo and Juliet show very vividly that love can be a dangerous influence. Romeo and Juliet are from rival families and have found love. They had put aside their families ancient hatred and fell in love in secrecy which obviously came with consequence. In Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare, the author communicates the message that love causes humans to make irrational decisions. We know this because of their decision to get married, Juliet's decision to fake her death, and Romeo and Juliets to end their lives,
“Don’t waste your love on someone who doesn’t value it.” In the play Romeo and Juliet, William Shakespeare exposes the life of two young lovers in the Renaissance period fighting for something they cannot live without; each other. Although fate takes its toll, the everlasting feud between two families, conditional love by parents, and the irresponsibility’s of father and mother like figure are the main causes in the death of Romeo and Juliet. The idea of love is something that is valued in this play from many different aspects of characters, lines, and scenes. Shakespeare leaves the minds of readers soaring over not why it happened, but who was at fault.
The story of Romeo and Juliet is a tragedy. The two lovers go against their families and against their hate to be together but they don’t think about the consequences, which in the end are devastating.
Romeo and Juliet is a tragic story about a pair of star-crossed lovers whose demises were unexpected to most. However, their deaths were a result of their impulsiveness. It caused their problematic marriage, Romeo’s preventable death, as well as Juliet’s preventable death.
Love is a wonderful curse that forces us to do unexplainable things. Romeo and Juliet is a famous play written by William Shakespeare, who does an exceptional job in showing the readers what hate, mercy, death, courage, and most importantly what love looks like. This play is about two star-crossed lovers who are both willing to sacrifice their lives just to be with one another. Unfortunately tragedy falls upon the unconditional love Romeo and Juliet have for each other, but along the way they experience immeasurable forgiveness and extraordinary braveness just to be with one another. Sadly enough, love is a cause of violence in the end. Even though the pair spends less time together, it is enough for them to fall in love. It is clearly true
Love caused his logic and sensibility to fail him, and provoked him to commit monstrous acts that destroyed many lives. Through analysis of “Happy Endings” by Margaret Atwood, it can be concluded that one of her many intended lessons was to show the value and the powerful effects of love. Atwood successfully proved this lesson by using powerful examples of both successful and disastrous relationships to illustrate the positive and negative effects of love. Atwood truly demonstrated what it is like to follow your heart.
“Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins”. I Peter 4:8-9 says that love is essential to life, the same thing Shakespeare believed. The tragedy Romeo and Juliet written by William Shakespeare is a love story in which Romeo Montague and Juliet Capulet experience the highs and lows of a relationship in five days. Romeo Montague is son to Lord and Lady Montague. Romeo’s family is feuding with Juliet’s family, specifically her parents Lord and Lady Capulet. County Paris is the man that is chosen by Lord Capulet to marry Juliet. Paris is excited to marry Juliet but does not truly know Juliet for who she truly is. Romeo and Juliet meet at a Capulet party that Romeo crashes. It is love at first sight for these two. Romeo and Juliet continue to see each other without anybody knowing except for Juliet’s nurse and Friar Lawrence, the priest in Verona, Italy. Juliet and Romeo are so in love that they decide to have Friar Lawrence secretly marry them. After a fight in the streets after the secret marriage, Romeo is now forced to flee to Mantua so he does not have to serve his punishment, death, for killing Tybalt. Friar Lawrence devises a plan to fake Juliet’s death by using a sleeping potion so he can then take Juliet to Mantua to be with Romeo. The plan goes askew and Romeo poisons himself after Juliet appears to be dead. Juliet then wakes up and sees that Romeo is dead. She cannot bear the weight of him being gone and stabs herself with his dagger. Within five days, Romeo and Juliet meet each other, marry, and love each other to the point of death. Shakespeare suggests that impulsive love and no love leads to destruction, but patient love and sincere love leads to joy.
Love is ironic. It can take you anywhere in the world unexpectedly, and turn you into a person that you never were. However, love is also two-faced, having both a negative and positive view. It is what drives you to the point where you do not know who you are anymore. In Shakespeare's story, The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare perceives love with the personalities and actions of the characters, Romeo and Juliet. Both Romeo and Juliet are characterized as immature and irrational due to their "love." In addition, both characters fail to realize the reality of life and go towards the path of adolescence. Even though Romeo and Juliet are doomed at the end of the journey of "love," their demise was caused by their rash and silly decisions because their belief of everlasting love blinds them from reality and shapes their lives into an unstoppable time bomb.
In both of these texts we see love destroy people mentally and physically instead of bringing happiness to their lives. When Juliet noticed that Romeo had drank poison and had killed himself, she was not only upset about his death but also seemed more upset that he “left no friendly drop to help me after! I will kiss your lips. Haply some poison yet doth hang on them” (Shakespeare V.iii.168-170). This bond that seems to be unbreakable between them causes more harm than it would have if they were not together like society would want them to be.
Ultimately`, William Shakespeare shows in many different ways throughout the play, ‘Romeo and Juliet’, that love is the more powerful force than hate. The readers see how the characters continuously forgive one another, even when the conditions are tough. The friendships between specific characters display a loving bond that cannot be broken with hate. Shakespeare demonstrates that Romeo and Juliet’s love can overpower the hate of many events in the play. He shows that their love can even overpower the death of one of their own family members. Romeo and Juliet’s love brings friendship between their feuding families. This story is a true example of how love can conquer all.
The power of love can have a huge affect on life. The conflicted families join each other in the end. The hate between that two families stopped because of the power of love. Romeo killed himself because he thought Juliet was dead and wanted to be with her. Juliet killed herself because Romeo was dead and didn’t want to live without him alive. The main theme of Romeo and Juliet is the power of love because of their love to kill themselves and bring two conflicted families together.
Romeo says, “Then love-devouring death do what he dare” (2.6.7). Romeo and Juliet make the decision to risk everything, however Shakespeare makes it evident that these decisions are influenced by fate. This is also revealed through Friar Lawrence as he says, “These violent delights have violent ends” (2.6.9). By foreshadowing further, Shakespeare reveals that a grim fate shall befall Romeo and Juliet. Although their love seems perfect, they know the trouble that it will cause their families, making it violent to everyone that is involved. He also reveals his stance through simile, “And in their triumph die like fire and powder” (2.6.10). By comparing their forbidden love to fire and gun powder, Shakespeare reveals that their acts will have consequences. Their love may be powerful, but it may just as well go up in flames for they are fated to die. Although Romeo seems to understand what is fated, he says “It is enough I may but call her mine”, revealing that he is blind to fate in that his only goal is to be with Juliet, no matter the grim cost (2.6.8). Through his use of foreshadowing and simile, Shakespeare reveals that our choices have consequences, but in the end our fate will be our
Due to an ancient grudge, the tale of the downfall of Romeo and Juliet showcases themes of love persisting through all, including death. The two portray an equal lust for each other’s love, yet approach the situation differently. This reflects the contrast between their immature or realistic actions. In the balcony scene in Act II scene ii, Romeo is shown to be impulsive and impractical, whereas Juliet is more reasonable and mature. This is revealed in their attitudes toward love, their current situation, and the language they use.
In Romeo and Juliet, love serves as the tragedy. According to critic Denton J. Snider, "love, the emotion of the Family, in its excess destroys the Family; though it be the origin and bond of the domestic institution, it now assails and annihilates that institution." The love of Romeo and Juliet for one another, not only destroys their families, but ultimately destroys them as well. Their love and devotion for one another causes them to rebel against the institution of family. All in all, "love, which is the emotional ground of the Family, is here destroying the Family itself" (Snider).
Love has been expressed since the beginning of time; since Adam and Eve. Each culture expresses its love in its own special way. Though out history, though, it’s aspect has always been the same. Love has been a major characteristic of literature also. One of the most famous works in literary history is, Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare. This story deals with the love of a man and a woman who’s families have been sworn enemies. There love surpassed the hatred in which the families endured for generations. In the end they both ended up killing their selves, for one could not live without the other. This story is a perfect example of true love.