Love. In all its facets and colors, love is understood and accepted as a concept by even the most primitive cultures. But what is love? Many writers have debated this subject. Many works have been produced detailing the understanding individuals had of the concept of love.
The more accepted conception of love is usually found in Romeo & Juliet. Many people refer to it as love at first sight, in French, “le coup de foudre”, as if you had just been struck by a lightning bolt. This interpretation dates back to the courtly love tradition which manifested during the late Middle Ages, first through chivalry and then more openly among the nobility. In fact, many references to the courtly love tradition are found in the play, for example,
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“That's how the carpenter's young wife was plumbed For all the tricks his jealousy could try And Absalon has kissed her nether eye And Nicholas is branded on the bum.”
Somehow, Chaucer is mocking the behaviours of the characters in this story, he does not condone their actions, in fact, he punishes them for behaving in such a fashion. One can wonder if Chaucer is expressing the idea of a majority of people from his time, or if his voice was singled out among his countrymen. Now, a similar conclusion can be reached upon analysing Shakespeare's Romeo & Juliette. The most convincing argument is the ending of the story itself. While it is true that Romeo and Juliette do not comply with the courtly love tradition in all its particularities, the lovers do fall under the “love at first sight” category. Romeo's words upon seeing Juliette seem to corroborate my assumption.
“Did my heart love till now? Forswear it, sight! For I ne'er saw true beauty till this night.”
Only Juliette's lack of experience in matters of love and her confession on the balcony of her house somehow breaks with tradition. She can hardly tell Romeo she is not interested or resist him after he has heard her profess her love for him. Her only recourse is to go along with him, which she does, and they marry. However, we soon realize that their hasty decision leads into a spiralling twist of fate which can only end, as
"LOVE IS A Certain Inborn Suffering derived from the sight of and excessive Meditation upon the beauty of the opposite sex, which causes each one to wish above all things the embraces of the other, and by common desires carry out all of love's precepts in the other's Embrace" is definition of medieval love. But Really, How much does Shakespeare's Romeo And Juliet comes to terms of traditional " love"? Think about Romeo in the very beginning of the play, when he talks about Rosaline. He describes, rather about her looks as he says: " O, she is rich in beauty, only poor". Romeo talks of his unattainable love to the beautiful Rosaline. He sees Rosaline as strong, for she would never be hit by cupid's arrow. This is an example of courtly
“An intense feeling of deep attraction.” That is the definition of love. Love between a man and a dog, a kid and ice-cream, a mother and her family, and love between two selfless people. This is true love. In the play, Romeo and Juliet, written by William Shakespeare, the feeling of attraction between the two main characters is not true love. The setting of this play is the streets of Verona, Italy, during a time when arranged marriages at the age of 14 were socially acceptable. Two young teens, Romeo and Juliet, were convinced that they had feelings for each other, but acted more out of lust than anything else. Lust is defined as “a very strong sexual desire”, and it becomes more apparent as the
As stated previously heroic/courtly love has many elements that make up the structure. While the man is in the process of bettering himself to gain the love of the women he finds desirable his persistence and consistency of doing whatever it takes to be worthy of her love leads into another element of heroic/courtly love that is important. The persistence and consistency of the man comes from the woman being able to inspire her man and the man seeing her to be so desirable he is willing to do anything possible to gain her love. This element can be found in multiple forms of literature from the medieval era. For example, William Shakespeare’s “Rome and Juliet”. Within “Romeo and Juliet” they fall in love at first sight. The two lovers even
do not think this is genuine love to me as he later falls in love with
However, when Romeo attends a ball for simply the fact that Rosaline would have been there, he sees Juliet and instantly ‘falls in love’. Sure, we have all heard of the popular saying “It was love at first sight”, but how much of us really believe it? For how many of us does this actually apply to? Chances of ‘love at first sight’ is zero to none. And Romeo and
‘Romeo and Juliet’ is a tragic play about two star crossed lovers written by Shakespeare in 1595. The play is a timeless teenage tradgedy. “The play champions the 16th Century belief that true love always strikes at first sight,” (Lamb 1993: Introduction) and even in modern times an audience still want to believe in such a thing as love at first sight. Act II Scene II the balcony scene displays that romantic notion perfectly.
In the first scene of Act one there is the servants Sampson and Gregory talking about sexual love. As they both talk about taking girls virginity. They both sound arrogant as they talk as if it is through experience. To them the thoughts of taking a girl’s virginity seems a joking matter.
Although the classic Shakespearean tragedy Romeo and Juliet depicts love at first sight between the two titular protagonists, such is not truly attainable in its entirety. Mainly, this is due to the nature of true love, which requires more than what can be obtained upon first sight, or even over the course of a few days, as in the case of Romeo and Juliet, where it is illustrated that the protagonists are so deeply in love with each other that they consider their romance to be of a higher priority than their own lives; that they had been willing to sacrifice themselves for their lover. In addition, love often segues
William Shakespeare was the man who wrote the play Romeo and Juliet, meaning that the play is fiction. So by that account, love at first sight is fiction and is not a viable reality. The play of Romeo and Juliet is a romantic tragedy. A young couple driven to suicide because they could not be together is a tragic thing. Shakespeare called attraction love because it made the play all the more tragic. In Act 2 scene 2 Juliet says “Deny thy father and refuse thy name; or if thou wilt not, be but sworn my love, and I’ll no longer be a Capulet.” In this part Juliet is contemplating what it is to be a Capulet and what a Montague is. She seems to be willing to forget her family in order to be with Romeo, who she has not even known for a night.
Love is defined as the intense feeling of deep affection. In the play, Romeo and Juliet written by William Shakespeare, the attraction between the two protagonists, Romeo and Juliet, does not factually classify as true love. Meanwhile, lust is a concept in which is commonly mistaken for love, which is very apparent throughout this classic “love story” of Romeo and Juliet. While others could debate that Romeo and Juliet’s love, was love at first sight, it is debateable that their feelings towards one another were pure lust. Romeo and Juliet are too immature to fully understand the concept of love as they are too young and hormone-driven, they were both in search for escapism from their present troubles, and they had an excessive amount of
The play The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet, by William Shakespeare, shows how love at first sight is deadly, rushed marriages can kill, and obsessive love is fatal. Love at first sight always leads to a deadly ending. Romeo said, "It is my lady! O, it is my love!" (Shakespeare 2.2.10).
What is love? Is it an object? Is it a feeling? Is it even attainable? Love is everything, it is an object, it is an emotion, and it cannot be bought, stolen, given. Love can only be found. Love is discovered in the most unthinkable places during the most unimaginable times. It can never be predicted who you fall in love with or when you do but all you do know is that you are in love and you would give anything for that person, and for your love to always stay resilient through all other obstacles and distractions. In Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, Montague’s and Capulet’s are know and expected to hate each other until the miracle of love presented its self. Romeo is a Montague and Juliet is a Capulet. They both fell in love when
There are many different types of love in this world, thus there are many different ways of expressing love. What revolves around that love, and the many different circumstances, trials, and tribulations that a love might face can greatly influence the outcomes of that love. These trials and tribulations can also be seen as different literary elements when used in plays. When looking at Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, he used many different themes and elements to provide complexity to the love story. Shakespeare cleverly takes the main theme of the play, love, and ties in other elements such as time, stage imagery, and language to pull the whole play together in a way that makes one think about the play on other levels.
Juliet and Junice, both are in love with their men very intensely, but at first the girls fall in love differently than each other. Juliet falls instantly in love with Romeo when she first sees him, it was love at first sight. Juliet sees Romeo at a gathering, and instantly wants to know who that handsome man is. (Rom 1.5.) Soon after her and Romeo meet and both know that this is the person they want to be with for the rest of their life, because they are a perfect match. On the other hand junice took love in a totally different perspective than Juliet. “Who is he? High horsing into my life . “ (Myers 37) At first Junice is very skeptical of Damien and is unsure on how to take accept Damien’s love for her. After a while of getting to know
In the movie, Moulin Rouge, it is said that, “The greatest thing you’ll ever learn is just to love, and be loved in return.” In many of today’s movies, we are faced with the idea of unrealistic love, like love at first sight. Even though many idealize this reality, it’s not always the case. However, there are some cases where love is depicted realistically in movies. Examples of that would be if the couple has arguments, and become friends before falling in love. Those are seen in modern relationships. As seen in Much Ado About Nothing by William Shakespeare, readers are able to see love being compared to an unrealistic standard. Benedick and Beatrice are being compared to Claudio and Hero who claim to have found love at first sight and are driven by lust. Benedick and Beatrice however, learn to love