Love, What Is It Good for?

Love in today's world has been strongly effected by the social and artistic factors of the past. The question of how has the social environment, in which love is taking place, effected the people that are in love. In stories like Romeo and Juliet, the social environment is the major aspect of the main character love life. Because of their feuding families, their love almost did not exisist, but at the same time, if their families where not in this situation, their love might not of been inspired in the first place. Problem's like this show up in hundreds of fiction and true life stories all of the time. The only difference between the love between Romeo and Juliet and other scenarios such as West Side Story, and Splendor in the Grass, is that these social situations make the story interesting, therefore, a wonderful love story. In the story,
West Side Story, there is a huge social disagreement between two New York City gangs, the Jets and the
Sharks. The Jets are primarily a white territorial gang that has been sworn to defend there street from a Puerto Rican gang, the Sharks. This social difference had made these two groups sworn enemies of each and there fore there, it was known that there was to be no interaction between the gangs unless it was expressed in hostility. At a dance on night that both of the racial groups were attending, Tony, a Jets veteran, had his eye caught by a young girl, Maria, who happened to be the younger sister of the Sharks leader,
Benardo. Both of the gangs where outraged because Tony had crossed the social line because his love had ruled out the idea of fighting the Sharks because it was not acceptable.
Therefore, these two people in love, directly inferred with the social environment during the time that they were living in. In a different sort of social aspect of love, Splendor in the
Grass is an excellent example of how a social environment may be related to people in love. Bud, the main character in the story, is from a rich family in the Midwest. Bud's girlfriend, Deanie, is from a family with less money, who think the world of Bud, but look down at a sexual relationship between the two lovers. The play starts off with the two high school seniors very committed to each. They spend most of their time together and would enjoy times of being together alone. As the play moves on, many factors in
Bud's life make their relationship more and more complicated. Such as Bud's father Ace, encouraging his son to put things off for a while until he had the chance to finish schooling at Yale. There was also a mental block of Bud's sister by Bud because of extra curriculum activities which she participated in that confused Bud and angered him at the same time. Deanie, at the same time, was torn up over the lost relationship, because of social pressure from her and parents and because of a broken heart. Later in the play, these factors end up taking such a heavy toll on the characters, they end up completely separated. The painting
Dance by Renoir could be used as a good example of how love could be related to the social environment. This piece appears that the subjects are almost taking a chance on each other with something as complicated and at the same time, simple as one dance. The subjects almost seem to have an unexplainable bond with each other even though they could be so different. Since it expresses a spur of the moment feeling it has the ability to directly inspire love, which makes it a good example of love effected by the social environment.
On the opposite end of the argument, Huey Lewis and the
News in the song Power of Love said, that love is not always a major part of a social environment. "Don't need money, don't take fame, don't need a credit card to ride this train. It's strong and it's sudden and it's cruel sometimes, but it just might save your life, that's the power of love." This quote shows that love does not follow trends or get greedy, it is just something that is always there regardless of it's environment. This shows that a social influence does not always have to be present in a relationship. The social environment of a couple in loves will most likely be influenced by the atmosphere. In West Side Story the characters where held separate by there racial background and a feud between gangs. Splendor in the Grass had social pressures which made love not capable of existing between it's characters. In the painting Dance there was a pushing for a person to act in a spur of the moment fashion. Finally
Power of Love which insisted that the social environment did not effect a love in progress. All of these examples shown give off a hint of social interference which directly effects those which are in love in that certain romance.