Why does Shakespeare use love in his plays?

For Shakespeare’s characters, love transforms. It prompts them to change their personalities, to take risks, and to make sacrifices that would otherwise be unthinkable. In The Taming of the Shrew, Kate gives up her abusive and headstrong behavior and becomes a domesticated version of her former self.

What is Shakespeare’s stance on love?

“Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind, and therefore is wing’d cupid painted blind.” – A Midsummer’s Nights Dream, Protagonist Helena’s unrelenting love for Demetrius despite his faults and foibles.

Why do you love Shakespeare?

The power of Shakespeare’s plays and poetry is that they take something ordinary and transform it into something extraordinary. Themes of love, passion, ambition, revenge, hatred, despair, desire, and family dysfunction make his work interesting and relatable to just about everyone.

What was love like in the Elizabethan era?

The Elizabethans were very practical lot. You didn’t marry for love, you married for social standing and to legitimize your children. While it was legal for boys to marry at age 14 and girls to marry at age 12, Elizabethans “reached the age of consent” at age 21, and many did in fact wait until then to marry.

What is love and what is it not according to Shakespeare?

Within his bending sickle’s compass come… In the third quatrain, it appears that Shakespeare is saying what love is not, “Love’s not Time’s fool,” but what he’s actually saying is that love is eternal and remains unaffected by the natural process of aging.

How does Shakespeare present love in A Midsummer?

In some plays, like Romeo and Juliet, he explores the tragic side of love. He also understood how funny love can be. Shakespeare explores the lighter side of love in A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Love can make us ridiculous – Helena asks a boy to treat her like a dog, whilst Titania falls in love with a donkey.

What do you think of Shakespeare?

Many people believe William Shakespeare is the best British writer of all time. His many works are about life, love, death, revenge, grief, jealousy, murder, magic and mystery. He wrote the blockbuster plays of his day – some of his most famous are Macbeth, Romeo and Juliet, and Hamlet.

Why does anyone care about Shakespeare?

Humans still experience love, loss, be-trayal, war, humor and tragedy, which gives Shakespeare a foothold in modern times, Craven said. Still, the playwright wrote for live audiences, and Craven encourages students and other Shakespeare lovers to get out of the books and go see the plays in a theater.

How does Romeo and Juliet represent love?

The play focuses on romantic love, specifically the intense passion that springs up at first sight between Romeo and Juliet. In Romeo and Juliet, love is a violent, ecstatic, overpowering force that supersedes all other values, loyalties, and emotions.

What were Elizabethan marriages like?

Elizabethan women had very little choice in husbands. Marriages were arranged by their families in order to bring prestige or wealth to the families involved. This is why poor women could sometimes choose their spouses. Women were required to be subservient to their husbands and to men in general.

How does Shakespeare deal with the theme of Love?

Shakespeare’s treatment of love in this play is masterful, balancing different representations and burying them at the heart of the play. For example, when we first meet Romeo he is a love-sick puppy experiencing infatuation.

Are there any love letters in Shakespeare’s plays?

We look at three instances of love letters in Shakespeare’s plays: Orlando’s love poems to Rosalind in As You Like It, Hamlet’s passionate missive to Ophelia in Hamlet, and Proteus’s romantic letter to Julia in The Two Gentlemen of Verona.

What kind of Love Does Shakespeare have in Romeo and Juliet?

Love in Shakespeare is a force of nature, earthy and sometimes uneasy. Here are some key resources on love in Shakespeare. Love in ‘Romeo and Juliet’ Leonard Whiting plays Romeo Montague and Olivia Hussey plays Juliet Capulet in the 1968 production of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet directed by Franco Zeffirelli.

Who was the director of Shakespeare in love?

Director John Madden’s film, Shakespeare in Love, written by Marc Norman, winner of seven Oscars, including best picture, though lenient in its historical factualness, portrays a young “Will” Shakespeare who finds the inspiration and drive for penning Romeo & Juliet by his fictional love interest, Viola.