The foundations of family relationships lies in their love for one another. Sacrifices and expression of love are essential elements to further strengthen or weaken a family’s bond. How love is expressed between family members is a crucial part in sustaining healthy family relationships. However, if it is not maintained, it can bring downfall to the family. In King Lear, Lear’s mindset towards conveying love brought his downfall, he measured his daughters’ love by the flattery he received (Shakespeare, 1.44-45). Whereas in The Road, love was communicated between the father and the son by simple gestures, such as forehead kisses (McCarthy, 223). The sacrificial component in each novel played another prominent role in family relationships. In …show more content…
The father continually worked hard to find the necessary items essential for survival for both him and his son. However, the father sacrificed his body in the process. Despite the father sacrificing his body and health for his son, he is angry because he is aware of the limits that his body can perform. The son’s physique having “sunken cheeks” (98) and “knobby spinebones” (218) are evidence that despite the father’s best efforts, he cannot provide his child with the basic necessities of human life—food, water, and shelter. However, despite not able to provide these things, the father incessantly seeks to give the boy the best in each situation. By providing the child with treats such as the Coke Cola and the juice, it shows that these small acts were of a parent doing the best of his abilities trying to provide their child the best of things. The father’s feelings of uselessness because of his inadequacy to take care of his son (McCarthy, 96) led to his devotion to raise the chances of survival for the boy. The father’s persistence to push his body to the limits in order for his child to live is because he wanted his child to experience life. Then maybe in the end, his life may have had a purpose and his attempt to let his son live on can be justifiable. Furthermore, even though the father has a weak physique, he needs to be a …show more content…
To love is to have a strong emotional connection with an individual and being concerned for their welfare (OED Online). The love of a family brings sacrifice. Sacrifices are like a gamble, this is because it can be rewarding, in which it fosters love, or it can be detrimental, in which death and destruction is the only outcome. In King Lear, Lear’s sacrifice for the love of his daughters led to his kingdom’s downfall. However, in The Road, the father’s sacrifices led to the boy’s survival but it cost the father his life. Furthermore, there are a multitude ways to express familial love. In King Lear, Lear used extravagancy to appraise his daughters’ proclamations of love in order to properly divide the kingdom. Lear could not express his love towards his children properly, because of this his kingdom suffered greatly. Compared to the father in The Road, his love is immeasurable. The father’s love towards his child has surpassed human language because there are no need for words to describe the love he has for his son. In King Lear, despite having everything in his disposal, Lear did not give his children proper affection. And in The Road, even though the father had nothing to support his son, he gave him everything, even at the expense of his
In this essay, I will take a gander at the play of Romeo and Juliet. I will examine how Shakespeare has utilized dialect in the play for symbolic impact. I will also see how Shakespeare has displayed love and the path in which Romeo and Juliet converse with each other, I might choose whether their affection was genuine and discuss their parents differentiating perspectives and conclusions. I will likewise remark on the play's pertinence today and perceive how Shakespeare has utilized dramatic devices and structures to improve the discussion between the youthful lovers. All throughout the play, there is a consistent theme of love and destiny, I will be dissecting this subject and show how it influences Romeo and Juliet.
“The course of true love never did run smooth,” comments Lysander of love’s complications in an exchange with Hermia (Shakespeare I.i.136). Although the play A Midsummer Night’s Dream certainly deals with the difficulty of romance, it is not considered a true love story like Romeo and Juliet. Shakespeare, as he unfolds the story, intentionally distances the audience from the emotions of the characters so he can caricature the anguish and burdens endured by the lovers. Through his masterful use of figurative language, Shakespeare examines the theme of the capricious and irrational nature of love.
Love is such an abstract and intangible thing, yet it is something that everyone longs for. In Shakespeare’s play A Midsummer Night’s Dream, the difficulty of love is explored through the obstacles that characters have to face while pursuing their loved ones. Those characters that are in love in the play were conflicted with troubles; however, the obstacles of love do not seem to stop them from being infatuated with each other. The concept of true love is examined throughout this play. By creating obstacles using authority and a higher power, Shakespeare examines the power of love. Through Hermia and Lysander’s loving words, it is reasonable to conclude that love conquers all if you believe in it.
Service in love often has a positive connotation which suggests a profound love, whereas possession generally receives a negative connotation suggesting a superficial love. However, Geoffrey Chaucer and William Shakespeare explore in depth the roles of both possession and service in love and reveal to their readers which one is ultimately the superior way to gain love. The stories of “The Knight’s Tale” and The Tempest are different thematically, yet the thread which unites them both expresses similar ideas regarding love, possession and service. Both William Shakespeare and Geoffrey Chaucer show the reader love cannot be claimed; it is earned through service of the heart. By examining the similarities in “The Knight’s Tale” and The Tempest
“It is the nature of people to love, then destroy, then love again that which they value the most.” –Unknown. Countless authors have tried to display love as human nature, but no author does this better than the famous playwright, William Shakespeare. In both Hamlet and A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Shakespeare exhibits how love can control a person. To understand how love controls a person, one must understand that human nature is the sum of qualities and traits shared by all humans. All humans have exhibit love in one way or another, which explains how human nature relates to the controlling aspect of love. In Hamlet and A Midsummer Night’s Dream, conflicts between loyalty to family and friends, lack of trustworthiness towards others,
In the play `Romeo and Juliet` the writer William Shakespeare uses the theme of love as a main feature to push the story along. Presented are a plethora of variations of love including family love, true love and courtly love. This essay aims to analyse these three types of love chosen.
There has always been a relation between value and sacrifice. It is a concept as old as human intelligence creating the structure of society, the creation of pride and dignity. It is a concept still strong today, especially in the matter of this essay. With the quote of “what we value can be determined only by what we sacrifice”, it creates the atmosphere for debate and discussion. This specifically can be applied to many variant situations in life, mind, and tales. Looking through major works of successful and noted writers, I believe the perspective quote can be suited quite well with the known work of King Lear by famous writer, William Shakespeare. Before we touch subject on the work of Shakespeare, I must expand on the quote itself to
Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet is a tragedy that involves young lovers, their “untimely death,” and a feud between their two families. The Capulets and the Montagues war against each other. The feud continues to escalate and provides the background for the story of these “two star-crossed lovers.” This literary masterpiece is still relevant today since it involves parental ambition, family fighting, and young love.
The Tragedy of Romeo & Juliet, by William Shakespeare, is one of the most well known and influential pieces in English literature; more importantly, most people recognize it as a story of true love, or star-crossed lovers. This play tells the story of Romeo and Juliet, who are from two feuding families. They fall in love with each other, despite being from rivaling families, and face numerous obstacles because of the feud. After a series of tragic events and miscommunication, Romeo and Juliet end up taking their lives for their “true love”. However, Romeo and Juliet’s decisions do not seem to be out of true love as they claim, but rather infatuation. In The Tragedy of Romeo & Juliet, William Shakespeare teaches readers that infatuation can
Family is meant to care for each other, love each other unconditionally, and support each other. Of course, as any holiday at home can prove, complete support is not always possible. Sometimes family members hurt each other and even, in worst-case scenarios, kill each other over issues as important as protecting another or as petty as fighting over a boy. In Shakespeare’s Othello, Macbeth, Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, King Lear, and The Winter’s Tale, if family members operate with selfish motives, they hurt the hero and contribute to his fall; but if the family supports each other with only love, the hero can redeem himself from his fall and even succeed in finding lasting happiness.
Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet – popularly considered by many to be the quintessential love story of all time – is a play that we are all familiar with in one way or another. Whether it be through the plethora of portrayals, adaptations and performances that exist or through your own reading of the play, chances are you have been acquainted with this tale of “tragic love” at some point in your life. Through this universal familiarity an odd occurrence can be noted, one of almost canonical reverence for the themes commonly believed to be central to the plot. The most widely believed theme of Romeo and Juliet is that of the ideal love unable to exist under the harsh social and political strains of this world. Out of this idea emerge two
In this essay, I will be examining Shakespeare’s treatment of relationships in Romeo and Juliet. As a poet and playwright, he wrote 154 sonnets, 2 long narrative poems and 38 plays, one of his most famous plays being Romeo and Juliet. There are many different types of relationships between characters, and these are essential to the play. The prologue tells us that the play is about two star-crossed lovers from two feuding families, the Montagues and Capulets. There is hatred between these two families, this explains this, ‘Thou villain Capulet’. This quote suggests because of the hate between their families, the lovers are doomed from the start.
The concepts of love and sacrifice are closely related and feature consistently throughout literature. To study the relationship between these ideas in more depth I have selected a range of texts over an extensive time period, these include Romeo and Juliet by Sir William Shakespeare, Titanic by James Cameron, Saint Joan by Bernard Shaw and Snow Falling on Cedars by David Guterson. The different eras that these texts explore will be instrumental in establishing the type of connection the two concepts hold in literature. The type of love and sacrifice varies however the underlying message is the same right through the texts, that humans in the right context will make sacrifices for love. How this is portrayed in the texts also differs yet
The word love can mean many things. Love can be an object, emotion, and a life. However, love could lead to a loss of power, prosperity, and status. In the literary work “Romeo and Juliet” written by William Shakespeare, the readers are introduced to a tragic love story. In this play, readers are also shown the different perspectives of love and the many downfalls it could lead to. The central theme of this work is the recklessness of love. The theme is significant because it is shown throughout the whole story and it’s a strong force that takes place of all the other emotions and values. In this play, Shakespeare uses characters to present different aspects of love. In addition, Nurse, Mercutio, and Romeo completely show what actual love is and what it is like to lose it due to their experiences.
The nobility of a sacrifice lies in how it demonstrates where a person’s priorities are held and how it contrasts ignoble deeds otherwise. In King Lear, Lear’s youngest daughter Cordelia, by not accepting to play the game of love test, willingly sacrifices her dignity and honor as a king’s daughter, surrenders her freedom for banishment and forfeits her possible inheritances and legacies from the “retiring” father. Out of her own choice, such willingness of self-abnegation shines a light on Cordelia’s virtue, love and devotion, if not loyalty, which are a moral compass that points to justice.