Love and Vulnerabiliy

For hundreds and hundreds of years, we, as humans have yearned for companionship; sharing our life’s with one another in an intimate, and special way. For some, this is extremely difficult, the feeling of being loved and loving somebody doesn’t happen as easily, quickly, or frequently as they would like, struggling their entire life to find that person who they are meant to be with. These are the people who are desperate for even the slightest bit of affection, the people who will do and give up about anything to feel wanted in this world. For others, this comes rather naturally, adopting the characteristics and behaviors of their parents, people or the environment around them. These people, who are experts at the art of being vulnerable and loving others, are presented with their own problem of being susceptible to get taken advantage of and heartbroken by others. To love is to be vulnerable, although that may seem like an obvious statement; the trick is the perfect amount of vulnerability. Love is a great, outstanding creation, but if somebody is too vulnerable or not vulnerable enough, it can come to a screeching halt where people get hurt or worse. Throughout history other pieces of work by various authors portray love to be a questionable thing that is untrustworthy and that vulnerability is a concept with hidden evils.

William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet is the perfect example of being vulnerable to another, but perhaps they exceed the idea. “My bounty is as boundless as the sea, my love as deep; the more I give to thee, the more I have, for both are infinite.” (Act II, scene ii, page 6) This may seem appeasing in hindsight, but the two are so in love it leads to both of their deaths at a young age because of their inabi...

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...thcliff makes sure that their graves are right next to each other so they can be together after life in death, this shows how much he loved her but also contradicts itself because they technically could’ve been together in life as well.

In many of the pieces I have read and have cited I was astonished at how characters who were seemingly ‘too open and vulnerable’ get hurt the most. This made me question if vulnerability is actually a good thing when you are dealing with love. Should you really let a person see every part of you? Throughout my research and writing I have found that it is all relative, and depends on the scenario. On the contrary, without vulnerability and love would we even know a sliver on who a person actually is? Furthermore if we never know who a person is does love really exist or are we as a society just infatuated with the idea of being in l