Comparsion of 1984's Winston and Julia and Romeo and Juliet's love.

One distinct difference between Winston and Julia, and Romeo and Juliet, is how they met and fell in love. Winston met Julia at his work and from the first time he saw her, he hated her. Winston even wanted to kill her once, because he believed she was a spy from the Thought Police. His anger quickly changed to love when she secretly handed him a note containing the message, "I love you." Upon receiving this note Winston became obsessed with Julia, constantly trying to find ways to meet with her and worrying that she would lose interest in him. After much careful planning, Winston and Julia were able to meet, yet only talked for less than a minute and in a very business like manner. Eventually they found ways to meet a couple times a week for a few hours each time.

Romeo and Juliet, on the other hand, met at a party. Romeo was looking at the fish in an aquarium when he spotted Juliet on the other side. He was stunned by her amazing beauty and could not take his eyes of her. She eventually saw him through the aquarium and was very attracted to him. They both fell in love at first sight and were married soon after.

One similarity both these couples share is that their love is forbidden. Winston was a married man, and even though he does not live with his wife, the Party would kill both Winston and Julia if they found out abut their love for one other. And even if Winston wasn't married, love and marriage is frowned upon by the Party, but is allowed in order for there to be children, which are used as spies for the Party. Romeo and Juliet's love is forbidden because their families are enemies.

While both these couples' love is forbidden, the sincereness of their love differs. I find it hard to believe that Winston is really in love with Julia. He went from hating her to loving her just because she said she loved him. I think if you hated someone so much that you wanted to kill them, I don't think it wouldn't make a difference if they said they loved you or not. You might learn to like them over time, but I don't think you could just change your mind about someone that quick. Winston is a lonely, paranoid person, so he probably just wants someone to be with, and since he's never have a good friend, he probably doesn't know the difference between liking someone and loving someone. He's just happy he has a relationship with someone that hates the Party, because it makes him fell sane and better about himself. I think Julia loves Winston though; she has had lots of relationships and knows the difference between like and love. She also has never hated or even disliked Winston. She has apparently liked Winston for some time, but was too afraid to ever tell him.

With Romeo and Juliet their love seems to be more sincere. They are a lot more open about their love. Which is evident because of the fact that they got married, which meant someone had to know they were in love. The only person that might have a clue that Winston and Juliet are couple is the shopkeeper, and he is not threat to them. The fact that Romeo and Juliet both committed suicide, because they couldn't stand to live with out each other, also proves that they must have loved one and another. You would really have to love someone to kill yourself because you couldn't stand to live without them.

Even though Winston might not really love Julia, he still really likes her and would do just about anything to be with her. And Julia has also gone to great lengths to be with Winston, so their "forbidden love/liking" of each other has a very powerful affect on their lives. Yet even though this love has a powerful affect on their lives, it most likely will not affect their society. While they do break the Party's rules, they will most likely never do anything that would change the course of history. This is partially because Julia feels its "stupid" to try to go up against Big Brother in any way that the Party would notice.

The forbidden love in Romeo and Juliet's relationship also has a powerful affect on their lives, and their families' lives. Their being together is a disgrace to their families, but yet after their deaths, their family forgets their differences and become friends. So in Romeo and Juliet's case, forbidden love is extremely powerful, so powerful it changed the course of history.

In both cases I feel that the couples have very unreal love stories. Winston wouldn't just go from hating this girl to loving her with out at least thinking about it for some time. And I bet that there's not very many people see someone their attracted to and decided to marry them right away. In both situations the characters have a sort of Disney-like, fake love story, making both stories a little harder to believe.