Love as a Theme in William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet Essay

A German philospher by the name of Friedrich Nietzsche once said, â€Å"There is always some madness in love. But there is also always some reason in madness. † Love, therefore, can cause some madness in a person and can make him or her forget reason. What then is reason and what then is logic if love exists within the depths of one’s soul? What then is common sense if love resides in the very core of a person’s heart and it makes him or her forget the logic of things? Love is just one very simple word, and yet it embodies so much within its existence. The actual presence and existence of the word of love itself can mean so much. Everyone thinks greatly of love. It is shown through the media, ever present in the schools, neighborhood, even in commercials and in advertisements. People have defined love as to be a many thing: love makes the world go around; love moves mountains; love is blind. Love, love, love — what is it? What is it with love that people are overly ecstatic about it? How does one know if he or she is in love? Many people have said that they have fallen in love, but have they really ever known what love is? What indeed is it? What is love? Today, I would like to cite a fine example of how love has made the lives of people revolve and point out how precious it is to love and to be loved in return. Love may be the greatest thing ever expressed by mankind. It is because of love that people are able to acquire great virtues and values. It is through love that people change for the better. It is through love that the world seem so much better to live in. However, there have also been many cases wherein love has been the cause of a person’s downfall. Love, being such a wonderful feeling and emitting an exhilarating aura, can also cause such great pain, suffering, fear, anxiety, sadness, and sometimes, even death. Love in Literature The theme of love has existed in literature for a long time. Many various works that have been written by renowned writers boast of both being popular and being a great example of quality literature—Mahabharata, The Iliad and the Odyssey, the Bible, The Notebook, and Harry Potter and Ginny Weasley. Myths and legends, epic, poems, stories, novels, and plays have had love pervade within the confines of their characters, lines, settings, motifs, and themes. This is no exemption with regard to the most famous love story of all time, William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. Also, another example of how love can change a person is Charles Dickens’ Great Expectations. Almost everyone knows the very famous story of Romeo and Juliet. It has been ingrained in the people’s minds about the lovers who cannot be lovers as their families have long been in conflict with each other. The famous play of William Shakespeare concludes in a tragedy as the lovers die in the end. Great Expectations, on the other hand, tells us a story of young Pip who gets fueled by his love for Estella and wants to succeed in life so he can be worthy for her. The novel, depending on what version of the ending a person would like to read, is either that of the happily-ever-after or that of the tragedy of love and fate unfulfilled, or maybe, that of love that is not meant to be and a fate that is meant to force them apart. The Theme of Love in Romeo and Juliet and Great Expectations Love as a theme is so obvious in the story of Romeo and Juliet. It has even been deemed as the greatest love story, for it embodies the strong impact between the emotion. It has shown the joys and pains of being loved. It is the theme of the play because the whole play’s existence and progress from the first act until the last act are based on the love of the two major characters—Romeo and Juliet. Moreover, by the end of the play, the death of the two lovers serves as the ultimate proof of how one can go to great lengths just because of love. By the end of the play, when Romeo and Juliet showed their families how great their love is, both the Capulets and the Montagues resolved to agree that they would end their feud with each other. Through the play, I realized that love is such a powerful emotion that a person would be willing to go to great lengths just for it. Because of love, a person will disobey his or her family and even forego his or her surname as what Juliet did when she said, â€Å"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† (Shakespeare, 2000, 2. 1. 34-36), which is also one of the more famous lines of the play. Love is a great emotion that people can even go crazy because of it. I know that love should never be treated with such shallow thinking or even played or toyed with because we can see how great the impact it can bring a person—it is so great that a person may even choose death just to be with his or her loved one. At the start of the speech, I quoted Friedrich Nietzsche on how people associate madness with love, and perhaps this is true. The fault of Romeo and Juliet lies with the fact that they loved each other so much to the point of being blind fools. Is it better then to be in love to the point of being foolish or just a plain fool who is in love? I think it is better to be a fool who is in love. Why? Because when a person is greatly in love to the point of being foolish, he or she is unable to be reasoned with—his or her mind is closed off to anything, to everything. He or she will not even give a chance to listen to logic. On the other hand, when a fool is in love, he or she is merely a person who is feeling a natural emotion, and he or she may listen to reason and then he or she will disregard it. Therefore, love, should be true and pure but moderate at all times. When young Pip fell in love with the beautiful Estella, he wanted to improve himself so he can be worthy for her. Thus, because of the love that Pip feels for Estella, he wanted to become a better person. I think, most of all, that is the most important thing — that people should fall in love and the feeling that they draw from that emotion is that they would want to be better in every way — a better individual. Love can indeed move mountains — in a metaphorical sense, that is. Unlike the play, the novel also focused on other aspects of the society, whereas, the play solely revolved around love and the chaotic things it may bring to a person. Love pervaded the whole play while the novel also touched on more serious things like societal problems present in the realities of the world. Conclusion To end my speech, I would like to cite the lines of the Prince of Verona who said, â€Å"See, what a scourge is laid upon your hate / That heaven finds means to kill your joys with love† (Shakespeare, 2000. 5. 3. 307-309). Love may also be connected to extreme feelings of pain and sadness, but love can also be a cause of such great happiness and redemption after the feeling of suffering has gone. When Romeo and Juliet died, the feud of the families of the Capulet and the Montague which seemed to be forever, finally came to a halt. Likewise, when the young Pip knew for a fact that he lost Estella, and he has lost a chance of the great feeling of love and being loved. He parts with her, as what he told Estella at the end of the novel, â€Å"Glad to part again, Estella? To me, parting is a painful thing† (Dickens, 2003, p. 484). However, eventually, when both parties have realized the pains of being apart and parting, they would come to understand that it is so much better to actually like the idea of love, be in pain because of naivete and ignorance, and meet each other again one day — because it is so much better to be in love when both have opened to the value of being in love. References Dickens, C. (2003). Great expectations. New York: Penguin Classics. William, S. (2000). Romeo and Juliet. Hertfordshire: Wordsworth Editions.