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What Is The Ideology Of True Love In Romeo And Juliet

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William Shakespeare was a playwright and author in the 16th and 17th centuries, with at least 37 plays and 154 sonnets to his name. His many works span in genre and form, from the tragedy of ‘Romeo and Juliet’ to the poem of a father’s unconditional love and eventual acceptance of a loved one’s death. Through a vast variety of linguistic and structural techniques, he is able to promote, develop and explain his personal ideology of love. Evidence of this is seen through the character of ‘Romeo’ in ‘Romeo and Juliet’ and the narrative voice in a selection of sonnets.
Within sonnet 116, Shakespeare personifies the abstract noun of love when he states ‘Whose worth’s unknown’. Through personifying his ideology of true love, it makes it increasingly …show more content…

In sonnet 116, it occurs after the statement ‘love is not love’. Due to the creations of pauses before and after the quotation through caesura and enjambment, the reader is forced to consider and think of the ‘cut-off’ of the line, emphasising it and its meanings. In the case of ‘love is not love’, Shakespeare implies that courtly love is not real love, and thus the word ‘love’ is often used too lightly. He then proceeds to give metaphors of what love should not be, explaining that it is not what it is necessarily perceived to be; not an emotion, feeling or attraction, but ultimately something that evades definition. Hence why enjambment and caesura are used; the four words belong by themselves as a powerful statement, directly contrasting with the present ideal of love. Through using caesura and enjambment to signify a changing in the toning and topic of the text, it emphasises the juxtaposition of courtly love and true love in their immediate contrasts. This is achieved successfully through exclaiming that true love overcomes all problems, which is Shakespeare’s personal ideology. He then outlines what love is not, as a new topic with a general tone of weakness, in order to emphasise its assets and qualities in contrast. This is then further emphasised by the forced pauses created, which allow the reader to consider and compare Shakespeare’s concept of true …show more content…

Through isolating that line, it not only emphasises its importance as a statement, with ‘summer’ being a metaphor for his son, and thus showing pure paternal love; but also the importance of the new tone, pride. The word ‘But’, although with negative connotations, is used to positively emphasise the importance of the new phase of acceptance of his son’s death, and the continuation of his paternal love. It is through this line that Shakespeare goes on to explain how his love for his son will never diminish, as it is immortalised, along with his son, in the poem. This is the act of creating an autotelic memorial in that the poem will never fade away, ever when the writer dies. Due to this, Shakespeare is able to show that his concept of love, no matter what form it is in, is so strong and true that it is infinite and can overcome all obstacles, even death itself. To a 16th century reader, the concept of love taking many forms and overcoming even death was unconventional, as it contrasted greatly to the accepted ideal of courtly love, which was limited and weak. To a modern day reader, whose greatest fear is death; being told love overcomes death reassures them of its strength. This promotes Shakespeare’s ideology, especially through contrast in the

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