Present strong feelings in their stories.
William Shakespeare and Emily Bronte’s stories have both been described as the greatest love stories ever told. Romeo and Juliet was written between 1591-1596 whereas wuthering heights was written around 1846–1847. The most powerful feeling after reading these stories is love. I shall be exploring both how Bronte and Shakespeare present love in two very contrasting ways. And I am going to be focusing on Romeo and Heathcliff.
When Romeo is first introduce we find that he is one of the star crossed lovers and that his love for Juliet is there to break the ancient grudge that there is between the two families, but this instead breaks out into a new mutiny. Whilst this new mutiny is occurring, Romeo is officially proclaiming his love for Juliet which leads them to their days of happiness.
When Shakespeare wrote Romeo and Juliet, he wrote it as a play and as it was made to be performed he had to make it as powerful as possible, so he used love and passion for the strongest feelings and to make the biggest impact. The way Shakespeare used love was he made sure it wove into and between most of the other key relationships. Examples of this are shown because we find that most of the characters fall in and out of love very quickly. An example of this is that at the start of the play Romeo is in love with Rosaline but the love is shallow and is not really strong enough to last, this is shown when Romeo is talking to Friar Laurence and says ‘Thou chid'st me oft for loving Rosaline.’ Which Friar Laurence replies with ‘For doting, not for loving, pupil mine?’ This shows really just a silly immature infatuation, so puppy love more or less.
Another type of love is the classic idea of romance, this is presented as a force of nature which crosses all boundaries and natural limits because it is more significant than them. This is known as in the prologue it says “a pair of star-cross'd lovers take their life.” So it is quite clear their love is strong so strong it has disastrous consequences. Also when in the prologue it states, the place all this is set is “fair Verona” this could be argued that as the two are not allowed to be together the situation itself isn’t exactly fair. But even so there love clearly is fate , as they find them selves drawn to one another.
Other types of love that are presented through Romeo is friendship which actually is just as sincere and Romeo and Juliet’s love. Like the friendship between Romeo, Mercutio and Benvolio are heartfelt and geniune.
Other Types of Love
Many of the friendships in the play are as sincere as Romeo and Juliet’s love for one another. The close relationships between Juliet and her Nurse, and between Romeo, Mercutio and Benvolio are meaningful and heartfelt. They care deeply for another and protect each others honor – this ultimately costs Mercutio his life.
This platonic love is offset by the sexual innuendos made by some characters – particularly Juliet’s Nurse and Mercutio. Their view of love is earthy and purely sexual, creating an effective contrast with Romeo and Juliet’s romanticism.