Response To Shakespeare

Response Paper 1 As we’ve been reading, I often have found myself paying particular attention to Shakespeare’s analysis and critiques of love. Occasionally it seems as if Shakespeare is holding up love as the most intensely wonderful and perfect feeling one could experience. Yet, most of the time, it seems that Shakespeare cannot describe a single couple that is actually as perfect as it appears to be. At first I thought that Shakespeare was criticizing love as an ideal, saying that it actually does not exist and is too perfect an ideal to ever be reached. The sonnets are the only clue that Shakespeare gave legitimacy to the concept of “love”. After reading several of his plays and sonnets, I have come to the conclusion that Shakespeare definitely believed that love existed; he just also recognized that it existed in various situations. Though he recognizes the depth of some love, he seems to explore just how shallow other relationships are. In each of Shakespeare’s works, he seems to explore a different type of relationship. In the first play that we read, Twelfth Night, Shakespeare shows the struggle of unrequited “love” through the interest in Olivia shown by Orsino. Orsino, who really knows little to nothing about Olivia,
claims to be in love with her and disappointed with her lack of interest in him. He is so disappointed, in fact, that he says that he will do anything to win her affections. After giving her gifts and sending multiple messages to her home, he finally sends a new “boy” of his household (who is actually Viola) to woo Olivia. This is a particularly ridiculous move because Orsino does not know Olivia for anything but her beauty. He has never spoken with her for any length of time, nor does he have any reason to believe her to be the object of his affections. Orsino is just gluttonous and because he wants to get married and because he knows Olivia is of the proper station for him to marry into, he believes that he will and should love her. Olivia, though still foolish, is only slightly less foolish than Orsino in that she does not think they are perfect for one another just because of their stations in life. Olivia is not necessarily interested in Orsino, yet she foolishly falls in love within moments of meeting Viola (whom she believes to be Cesario) solely because of his wit. The fact that these character’s affections can be switched so easily just proves how silly and unfounded in reality their feelings are. The fact that both characters are capable of falling in love at the drop of a hat shows that neither character knows the meaning of true love. In this way, Shakespeare criticizes love comes and goes so easily. In the sonnets, the audience definitely sees Shakespeare’s opinions on love that is real and true.
Though the Shakespearean sonnets cover a variety of topics, the sonnets about love show the reality of the subject for the author. When he speaks about his love having no boundaries, even in age and beauty (sonnets 116 and 130), Shakespeare is showing that he believes that the kind of love that overlooks one’s flaws actually does exist. In these sonnets the author seems to speak from personal experience about how absolutely wonderful and rewarding love can be. He seems to be creating almost “odes” to love in establishing what a rare and beautiful thing real love is instead of criticizing it like he seems to be in all of the
plays. Shakespeare’s overall analysis of love seems to focus its’ lasting qualities in individual cases. He cites that real love overlooks physical beauty, the changes brought on by time, and other frivolous aspects of the overall emotion and, instead, focuses only on the most important and basic tenets of love. Shakespeare is showing that love that changes itself over time instead of focusing on the inner beauty of the two individuals involved is not real or lasting love at all. He is mocking that variation of love that he so often writes about as inconstant, and showing through his analysis of these individual characters, that real love is nothing like that at all. Real love, though complicated, is based on a real connection between two people that outlasts time, beauty, and any other ideal on earth.