SHAKESPEARE AND LOVE
What is love and what causes us to fall in love? Love is a timeless topic and will be forever a source of confusion for men and women alike. Another question I have thought about after pondering my thoughts about Shakespeare’s works was is romantic love based on physical attraction or love at first sight? Shakespeare seems to explore this concept throughout his plays in his characters. After watching and reading Shakespeare’s plays during this semester course, I have realized that no one understood this better than Shakespeare himself and is reflected through his great works such as Midsummer Night’s Dream and Othello. It appears to me that Shakespeare was preoccupied with the meaning and value of human love through his different characters as they seek, find and lose love in various ways. Another observation I have made while watching the plays is how Shakespeare describes two different but powerful types of love relationships in his works. One type is passionate love between male/female as in Othello & Desdemona in Othello, and couples Lysander & Hermia, Demetrius & Helena and Thesus & Hippolyta in Midsummer Night’s Dream. The other type is friendship love as displayed by Othello’s love for Iago in Othello.
A thought comes to mind when I think about these two plays and the type of love shown with each couple. Is the picture painted of love always romantic? In the beginning of Midsummer Night’s Dream, Thesus and Hippolyta are preparing for their wedding. He is anxious to consummate his love for Hippolyta and I believe their love to be that of romantic. Then we also see how Lysander and Hermia are passionately in love, but without the blessing of Hermia’s father. So she has to decide whether to adhere to her father’s wishes and settle for “courtly” love in marrying Demetrius whom she does not love, or face death. Hermia chooses the “romantic” love she has for Lysander, but it’s not an easy road for them. Lysander tells...