Different types of love among Shakespeares most famous plays Paula Labadet

Whenever we think of William Shakespeare, we immediately associate him with sensitive poetry, magnificent plays and passionate love. This last one appears to be a recurrent topic in most of his works. But is it the same type of love in each one of them? And does he approach them in the same way? Throughout this essay I will explore the variations of love and similarities along William Shakespeares most famous works:Romeo and Juliet and Much Ado About Nothing,and I will demonstrate that Love switches from one piece to anotherand that the literary devices he uses to mirror them are not the same. At the beginning of Romeo and Juliet, we are presented with Romeos angst for Rosaline, who he believes to be in love with. However, his love is unrequited and he is suffering: Islove a tender thing? It is too rough, / Too rude, too boisterous, and it pricks like thorn (1.4.25-26). This is the first notion of love that is mentioned throughout the play: an immature, impulsive or if you will, puppy love when compared to the true love that he will later feel for Juliet Capulet. Romeo fell instantly in love with Juliet the moment he saw her:Did my heart love till now? Forswear it sigh, / For I neer saw true beauty till this night (1.5. 49-50). As we can see here, this was a first-sight love. It is essential to mention that in this play, Romeo is presented as a courtly lover. According to Larry D. Benson in Courtly Love and Chivalry in the Later Middle Ages, the main characteristics of the courtly lover his courtesy, humility and religion of love are expressed in speech (2000: 7). All of which can be detected in Romeo and Juliet s first encounter: ROMEO If I profane with my unworthiest hand This holy shrine, the gentle sin is this, My lips, two blushing pilgrims, ready stand To smooth that rough touch with a tender kiss. JULIET Good pilgrim, you do wrong your hand too much, Which mannerly devotion shows in this; For saints have hands that pilgrims hands do touch, And palm to palm is holy palmers kiss. (1.5.90-97) Their first conversation is an extended metaphor, since Romeo compares himself to a pilgrim and he compares Juliet to a saint. This religious imagery of a pilgrim approaching a shrine makes their courtship seem pure and spiritual. It should also be noted that their first dialogue altogether forms a sonnet, which are series of love poems written to an unapproachable lady of extreme beauty.

The idea of an unobtainable female was also a characteristic of courtly love. This accepted form of love is not, however, displayed in the same way among Shakespeares plays.It is a well-known fact that in Elizabethan times, marriage was arranged for reputation, wealth and social standing. One example of this might be Pariss agreement of marriage with Juliet: A' Thursday let it be; a' Thursday, tell her, / She shall be married to this noble earl (3.5.20-21). Juliets father is, in this case, arranging a day for her wedding with Paris, who she did not love, but it was the tradition at the time. Another example of arranged marriage is that of Claudio and Hero in Much Ado About Nothing. Nevertheless, in this case, Claudio seems to genuinelylike Hero: In mine eye she is the sweetest lady that ever I looked on (1.1.149) One might think that his intentions are shallow, since Hero is the only one to inherit her fathers fortune, but he flatters her and even admits to have fallen for her: That I love her, I feel (1.1.179). Yet there are two characters which are against this idea of marriage in Much Ado About Nothingfrom the very beginning, Benedick and Beatrice:And the fine is-for the which I may go the finer-I will live a bachelor (1.1.201) Benedick clearly enjoys being a bachelorunlike Romeo - and wants to stay that way. He is against the idea of marriage, which would mean for him to be treasoned at some point by his wife:But that I will have a recheat winded in my forehead or hang my bugle / in an invisible baldrick, all women shall pardon me (1.1.189-190) Similarly, we are presented with Beatrices view on marriage: I had rather hear my dog bark at a crow than a man swear he loves me (107-108). We can see here that her idea on marriage is very similar to that of Benedick. Unlike Romeo and Juliet, these two seem to be untouched by love. Nevertheless, that changed later in the play were both Benedick and Beatrice ended up falling under their friends tricks and later in love with one another: BENEDICK Love me? Why, it must be requited! They saythe lady is fair; tis a truth, I can bear them witness. Andvirtuous; tis so, I cannot reprove it. And wise, but for loving me. (2.3.186-199) Here, Benedick chooses to express himself with long sentences in the form of prose. Even though this form of language is used throughout the play to display anti-romantic attitudes among its principal characters, in this case Benedick uses it to demonstrate how authentic and sincere his feelings are for Beatrice. It is said that passionate and reciprocated love is associated with fulfillment and ecstasy (Hatfield and Rapson, 1994).This is clearly shown when Beatrice finds out that Benedick loves her: And Benedick, love on; I will requite thee / Taming my wild heart to thy loving hand(3.1.117-118) Here, Beatrice uses a poetic language to display her passionate love for Benedick: we can also sense a childlike excitement in her words. There is also the use of animal imagery in Taming my wild heart to thy loving hand which is used as a metaphor for the relationships between men and women.

As regards relationships between men and women, there is another category of love which is important to mention: Love between friends. On one hand, there is the close relationship between Juliet and her Nurse in Romeo and Juliet: God mark thee to his grace! / Thou wast the prettiest babe that e'er I nursed (1.3.61-62) The Nurse has breastfed Juliet and taken care of her since she was a baby and since then, they have become not only friends but confidents and their relationship is similar to that of a mother and a daughter. On the other hand, it is important to noticethe loyalty in Much Ado About Nothingbetween Don Pedro and Claudio in: My love is thine to teach. Teach it but how / And thou shalt see how apt it is to learn / Any hard lesson that may do thee good (1.1.229-231) Don Pedro cares about Claudio and their relationship is so strong that he is willing to do whatever Claudio asks him to do. At last, there is an earthly, purely sexual view of lovegiven by Mercutio and the Nurse in Romeo and Juliet: 'Tis no less, I tell you, for the bawdy hand of the dial is now upon the prick of noon (2.4.90) Here, Mercutios language contains sexual connotationand their relationship actually creates a contrast with Romeo and Juliets romanticism . I have observed the variations of love among this two Shakespeares plays. Whether we are dealing with a first sight love - like the one Romeo and Juliet experienced, so strong and powerful that they even forgot to ask for each others name - or, if you will, a more mature love- like the one Benedick and Beatrice experienced- or simply a loyal friendship, it is fair to say that Love is an extremely powerful thing. This is not only because it can alter the mood of the characters or simply change the way they perceive life, but also because it can create a unique atmosphere when reading about it. What is remarkable about all the relationships analyzed above is the way in which they express their fellings and the strong bond that each character creates with its loved one.I have also come to realize that Love is a recurrent theme in Romeo and Juliet and Much Ado About Nothings but it is not described with the same intensity in each one of them- it would be interesting to keep on comparing other plays of Shakespeare to see if love ends up catching up with the characters as well.

Bibliography Beal, Duncan. Romeo and Juliet. UK: Nelson Thornes Ltd, 2003. Beal, Duncan. Much Ado About Nothing. UK: Nelso Thornes Ltd, 2004 Benson, Larry. Courtly Love and Chivalry in the Later Middle Ages. University of California, 2000. Bevington, David. Introduction to Much Ado About Nothing. The Complete Works of William Shakespeare: Fifth Edition. New York: Pearson, 2004. Hatfield Elaine and Rapson, Richard. Love and Intimacy. University of Hawaii, 1994. Nordlund, Marcus. Shakespeare and the nature of love: literature, culture, evolution. USA: Northwestern University Press, 2007.