Comparing Romeo And Juliet's 'Romance In The Air'
20-10-2013 “Romance in The Air”
Romance can be a very tricky thing. When it is experienced, it becomes something that we want more of. Why is that you may ask? Simply because we like things that make us feel good about ourselves, and lets face, romantic love does a good job of that. True love and romantic love does exist. It might be a different time and era now, however, along with time changes, romantic love also does evolve as well. Looking back in time, we see the cliché acts of chivalry and ‘old school love’ which is the most appealing and more of what we crave for. Meaning the simple things that show you care such as holding the door open, giving a coat to their partner when its cold, picking her up from her home and meeting the …show more content…
parents, etc falls into the category of chivalry. Now it is more common to run into skeptics on romantic love. Just because romance isn’t the same as it used to be doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist. There are those who believe in such romantic love and those who are afraid of letting others in or let themselves experience it. To create such a bond, you have to open up.
There are many examples that are proven romantic love exist, especially in the most classical an obvious example such as Romeo and Juliet by Shakespeare.
The play focuses on romantic love, specifically the deep passion that comes up at first sight between Romeo and Juliet. This reading shows that both Romeo and Juliet’s love is not only dramatic but also pure. Pure in the sense that nothing can come in between their love. Not even family. In Act 2: “In truth, fair Montague, I am too fond, / And therefore thou mayst think my havior light. [ . . . ] I should have been more strange, I must confess . . . ” (Shakespeare 2.2.103-104, 107). That is the first and most obvious hint of romantic love being love at first sight. As soon as she laid her eyes on Romeo he was exactly what she wanted. In my opinion, Juliet could be so taken aback by Romeo simple because he is out of the ordinary and different. Being of human nature, we want what we can’t have. Their lives are so different that is just wouldn’t be accepted by either families’. Shakespeare presents this as a force (romantic love) of nature, so strong that it leads to a societal rule where family and social standards start to get in the way. This idea is set in the play with the line “a pair of star-cross 'd lovers take their life.” Maybe Romeo and Juliet 's love is fate; their love is given a high importance, which can therefore knock down any of the social boundaries of “fair Verona.” The Capulet and Montague …show more content…
households forbids their love, and Juliet is to marry Paris, yet, they as it might be expected, find themselves completely drawn together.
The story of Romeo and Juliet is a very strong one and can be very overwhelming.
Its true when it is said that it their love is the rare kind. How often do you see someone, a complete stranger, and think of spending the rest of your life with that person? Their story proves that there is still hope. However, “Romeo and Juliet” is not the only kind of romantic story out there. A similar type of love is also shown in the movie, A Walk to Remember. This also being a tale of two very different lovers who learned to look past each other’s differences and fell in love. The only difference would be that the two main characters’ love started with a friendship which is also shown in Sharon Olds’ work that a bond as strong as friendship, can very easily lead up to romantic love. (As in the
movie.)
There are other examples such as the most obvious way of showing love, poetry. Poetry is a very strong way of showing and/or proving romantic love to someone. One poem, out of the much romantic poetry, that does a good job in portraying real romantic love is Sharon Olds’s True Love poem. In the poem, we see a love that is bounded and more psychically romantic than the love we see in Romeo and Juliet. One of the main concepts of this poem is of the narrator’s immediate response to sex without love. The speaker reflects upon her love life after making love with her husband. She then takes the reader into the bathroom with them showing the depth of their intimacy with each other (lines 4-5). Olds suggests in this poem that “True Love’’ is all about two people having passion, oneness, and comfort with each other. These three things in a marriage or relationship create true love. Also, she tries to show that without true love, sex is no good. From the opening line she is the type who falls in love to feel, loyal. She starts by saying, “In the middle of the night, when we get up/after making love, we look at each other, in complete friendship/We fully know what each other has been doing,’’(1-4) Here, the speaker says she feels as if her and her husband have complete friendship. Friendship seems to be the key in romantic love, however it is not shown in the story of Romeo and Juliet, and this is just the journey of a friendship that blossomed into romantic love. (Who knows, the probably would have happened in Romeo and Juliet.) She then says, “we fully know what each other have been doing’’ (line 4), which means that she and her husband trust each other. Also it means that despite what happens in their lives, they still see each other as friends and as equals.
Their lovemaking does not make neither of them feel ashamed or downgraded because they have a special friendship and comfort with each other. It also means that there are no secrets in their relationship. The narrator then says, “I can barely walk/I wobble through the granular, shadow less air/I know where you are with my eyes close, we are bound to each other with huge invisible threads/Our sexes muted, exhausted, crushed, the whole body a sex,’’(8-14). The narrator says their sexes are muted meaning that their genders are muted. They do not see each other as a woman or man but as one. Which is how is should be in a relationship. They work together as one unit, not as separate individuals. The end of the poem leads to the million-dollar idea that love without sex is bliss and freeing yet sex with love though hard is also bliss. Love in Sharon Olds’ poem is a lot more relatable in the modern day due to the fact that there are people who have sex without love, but what is the point of that? Pleasure perhaps? The narrator in the poem has a clear opinion on sex and friendship first; such a physical and intimate setting should not be done without the feeling of love, however who can judge?
Another textual evidence were romance and love is deeply looked into is Anastashia Toufexis’s, The Right Chemistry. In short, this essay, Toufexis explains all the feelings and tingles we get when we meet that special person and focuses on the scientific way of romantic love. The brain getting flooded by chemicals explains the feeling of being “swept away”. Researchers have found the reason for almost all the little feelings that the body gets when falling in love. It 's really interesting how they can pinpoint all of these little feelings that occur and we don’t even realize it! One researcher in the essay said that nature has picked for one special person. This is the only part of the essay that could be questionable. Does it mean that when a couple has been married for 5 years, and one passes away, that the remaining one will not be able to find love again? Or when one of the couple dies, does the love the two shared die with it. The idea that there is only one person for us is not something I personally agree with. Obviously, one person is always best for someone, however when a couple is married, they have found the best they could for each other, in most case scenarios. There is no one who can make them smiles, laugh, and be more comfortable with them. If something should ever happen to a couple, there is always a second best for them. There are some situations where marriage is interpreted differently either it be culturally or religiously. The main concept of marriage should be love. Going along with that theory in mind, you would pick the best match for yourself no?
Going back to the main idea the author brings across is that love as with e truly other biological action and feeling is very much controlled by our body and brain. Although these biochemical actions have to happen to show the features of love, they are started by our very own opinion of who is best for ourselves and who is not. So in a way we do have little control, these chemical reactions are triggered by what we see and if what we see matches up with who we think to be perfect. The author’s purpose in this piece is to inform the readers about the ‘Scientifics of Love’ and the chemicals within our bodies which cause us to react this way, such as Amphetamines- Dopamine, Nor epinephrine and Phenyl ethylamine (PEA) which causes us to feel in Love. It is literally the scientific romantic love, putting it in a better way. The author is convincing the audience that love can be optional and explaining how it works scientifically. To most people, the more explanation there is, especially scientific, the easier it is to understand. As complicated as romantic love is, scientific terms does a good job at breaking down the many questions that can be left unanswered.
It is safe to say that romantic love is still in the air. Even though it isn’t experienced like Romeo and Juliet, it can still be experienced in a different way. Everybody’s different and there is not explanation or set of rules on how romantic love should be expressed. The most random moments and actions are the ones that catch you off guard and make you fall harder for the person. It is shown that there are different ways of approaching love, and each way can be the one that works for some but not all. It all depends on being open to experiences such as love when you believe in it or not, you never know you might get lucky.
Works Cited
Shakespeare, William, Barbara A. Mowat, and Paul Werstine. The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet. New York: Simon & Schuster Paperbacks, 2011. Print.
Toufexis, Anastasia. "The Right of Chemistry." N.p., n.d. Web.
Olds, Sharon True Love
"Shakespeare Love Quotes." Shakespeare Love Quotes. 23 Oct. 2013 .
Van, De Vate, Dwight. Romantic love: A philosophical inquiry. University Park [etc.: Pennsylvania State UP, 1981.
Romance can be a very tricky thing. When it is experienced, it becomes something that we want more of. Why is that you may ask? Simply because we like things that make us feel good about ourselves, and lets face, romantic love does a good job of that. True love and romantic love does exist. It might be a different time and era now, however, along with time changes, romantic love also does evolve as well. Looking back in time, we see the cliché acts of chivalry and ‘old school love’ which is the most appealing and more of what we crave for. Meaning the simple things that show you care such as holding the door open, giving a coat to their partner when its cold, picking her up from her home and meeting the …show more content…
parents, etc falls into the category of chivalry. Now it is more common to run into skeptics on romantic love. Just because romance isn’t the same as it used to be doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist. There are those who believe in such romantic love and those who are afraid of letting others in or let themselves experience it. To create such a bond, you have to open up.
There are many examples that are proven romantic love exist, especially in the most classical an obvious example such as Romeo and Juliet by Shakespeare.
The play focuses on romantic love, specifically the deep passion that comes up at first sight between Romeo and Juliet. This reading shows that both Romeo and Juliet’s love is not only dramatic but also pure. Pure in the sense that nothing can come in between their love. Not even family. In Act 2: “In truth, fair Montague, I am too fond, / And therefore thou mayst think my havior light. [ . . . ] I should have been more strange, I must confess . . . ” (Shakespeare 2.2.103-104, 107). That is the first and most obvious hint of romantic love being love at first sight. As soon as she laid her eyes on Romeo he was exactly what she wanted. In my opinion, Juliet could be so taken aback by Romeo simple because he is out of the ordinary and different. Being of human nature, we want what we can’t have. Their lives are so different that is just wouldn’t be accepted by either families’. Shakespeare presents this as a force (romantic love) of nature, so strong that it leads to a societal rule where family and social standards start to get in the way. This idea is set in the play with the line “a pair of star-cross 'd lovers take their life.” Maybe Romeo and Juliet 's love is fate; their love is given a high importance, which can therefore knock down any of the social boundaries of “fair Verona.” The Capulet and Montague …show more content…
households forbids their love, and Juliet is to marry Paris, yet, they as it might be expected, find themselves completely drawn together.
The story of Romeo and Juliet is a very strong one and can be very overwhelming.
Its true when it is said that it their love is the rare kind. How often do you see someone, a complete stranger, and think of spending the rest of your life with that person? Their story proves that there is still hope. However, “Romeo and Juliet” is not the only kind of romantic story out there. A similar type of love is also shown in the movie, A Walk to Remember. This also being a tale of two very different lovers who learned to look past each other’s differences and fell in love. The only difference would be that the two main characters’ love started with a friendship which is also shown in Sharon Olds’ work that a bond as strong as friendship, can very easily lead up to romantic love. (As in the
movie.)
There are other examples such as the most obvious way of showing love, poetry. Poetry is a very strong way of showing and/or proving romantic love to someone. One poem, out of the much romantic poetry, that does a good job in portraying real romantic love is Sharon Olds’s True Love poem. In the poem, we see a love that is bounded and more psychically romantic than the love we see in Romeo and Juliet. One of the main concepts of this poem is of the narrator’s immediate response to sex without love. The speaker reflects upon her love life after making love with her husband. She then takes the reader into the bathroom with them showing the depth of their intimacy with each other (lines 4-5). Olds suggests in this poem that “True Love’’ is all about two people having passion, oneness, and comfort with each other. These three things in a marriage or relationship create true love. Also, she tries to show that without true love, sex is no good. From the opening line she is the type who falls in love to feel, loyal. She starts by saying, “In the middle of the night, when we get up/after making love, we look at each other, in complete friendship/We fully know what each other has been doing,’’(1-4) Here, the speaker says she feels as if her and her husband have complete friendship. Friendship seems to be the key in romantic love, however it is not shown in the story of Romeo and Juliet, and this is just the journey of a friendship that blossomed into romantic love. (Who knows, the probably would have happened in Romeo and Juliet.) She then says, “we fully know what each other have been doing’’ (line 4), which means that she and her husband trust each other. Also it means that despite what happens in their lives, they still see each other as friends and as equals.
Their lovemaking does not make neither of them feel ashamed or downgraded because they have a special friendship and comfort with each other. It also means that there are no secrets in their relationship. The narrator then says, “I can barely walk/I wobble through the granular, shadow less air/I know where you are with my eyes close, we are bound to each other with huge invisible threads/Our sexes muted, exhausted, crushed, the whole body a sex,’’(8-14). The narrator says their sexes are muted meaning that their genders are muted. They do not see each other as a woman or man but as one. Which is how is should be in a relationship. They work together as one unit, not as separate individuals. The end of the poem leads to the million-dollar idea that love without sex is bliss and freeing yet sex with love though hard is also bliss. Love in Sharon Olds’ poem is a lot more relatable in the modern day due to the fact that there are people who have sex without love, but what is the point of that? Pleasure perhaps? The narrator in the poem has a clear opinion on sex and friendship first; such a physical and intimate setting should not be done without the feeling of love, however who can judge?
Another textual evidence were romance and love is deeply looked into is Anastashia Toufexis’s, The Right Chemistry. In short, this essay, Toufexis explains all the feelings and tingles we get when we meet that special person and focuses on the scientific way of romantic love. The brain getting flooded by chemicals explains the feeling of being “swept away”. Researchers have found the reason for almost all the little feelings that the body gets when falling in love. It 's really interesting how they can pinpoint all of these little feelings that occur and we don’t even realize it! One researcher in the essay said that nature has picked for one special person. This is the only part of the essay that could be questionable. Does it mean that when a couple has been married for 5 years, and one passes away, that the remaining one will not be able to find love again? Or when one of the couple dies, does the love the two shared die with it. The idea that there is only one person for us is not something I personally agree with. Obviously, one person is always best for someone, however when a couple is married, they have found the best they could for each other, in most case scenarios. There is no one who can make them smiles, laugh, and be more comfortable with them. If something should ever happen to a couple, there is always a second best for them. There are some situations where marriage is interpreted differently either it be culturally or religiously. The main concept of marriage should be love. Going along with that theory in mind, you would pick the best match for yourself no?
Going back to the main idea the author brings across is that love as with e truly other biological action and feeling is very much controlled by our body and brain. Although these biochemical actions have to happen to show the features of love, they are started by our very own opinion of who is best for ourselves and who is not. So in a way we do have little control, these chemical reactions are triggered by what we see and if what we see matches up with who we think to be perfect. The author’s purpose in this piece is to inform the readers about the ‘Scientifics of Love’ and the chemicals within our bodies which cause us to react this way, such as Amphetamines- Dopamine, Nor epinephrine and Phenyl ethylamine (PEA) which causes us to feel in Love. It is literally the scientific romantic love, putting it in a better way. The author is convincing the audience that love can be optional and explaining how it works scientifically. To most people, the more explanation there is, especially scientific, the easier it is to understand. As complicated as romantic love is, scientific terms does a good job at breaking down the many questions that can be left unanswered.
It is safe to say that romantic love is still in the air. Even though it isn’t experienced like Romeo and Juliet, it can still be experienced in a different way. Everybody’s different and there is not explanation or set of rules on how romantic love should be expressed. The most random moments and actions are the ones that catch you off guard and make you fall harder for the person. It is shown that there are different ways of approaching love, and each way can be the one that works for some but not all. It all depends on being open to experiences such as love when you believe in it or not, you never know you might get lucky.
Works Cited
Shakespeare, William, Barbara A. Mowat, and Paul Werstine. The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet. New York: Simon & Schuster Paperbacks, 2011. Print.
Toufexis, Anastasia. "The Right of Chemistry." N.p., n.d. Web.
Olds, Sharon True Love
"Shakespeare Love Quotes." Shakespeare Love Quotes. 23 Oct. 2013 .
Van, De Vate, Dwight. Romantic love: A philosophical inquiry. University Park [etc.: Pennsylvania State UP, 1981.