An Enduring Theme
Written by Olivia M Ojeda, August 2018
William Shakespeare once wrote, “My bounty is as boundless as the sea, My love as deep; the more I give to thee, The more I have, for both are infinite.” (Romeo and Juliet) But William Shakespeare also wrote, “The course of true love never did run smooth” (A Midsummer Night’s Dream) The theme of love relationships is enduring and will forever be. Through time and space, from the Renaissance to contemporary society, love has survived. And with it William Shakespeare has sealed his legacy through his exploration of everything wrong and right about love relationships. Even today we read Shakespeare’s plays and sonnets and can relate, for love is endlessly powerful and our emotions are ever-changing. The combination makes for drama that we not only experience while reading or watching a Shakespeare play, we experience it in our lives. Through his work, Shakespeare tried communicating his own beliefs of what love meant. “...Seeking to express their sense of what love means, speak of it in a metaphysical, religious terms of ‘soul’ and ‘spirit’ as a transcendental state of being which reaches earthly fruition in sexual union; the richest kind of human communion which, though it may seem like a ‘descent’ to earthliness from spirituality, yet is the nearest that ‘weak man’ can attain to the communion of the gods.” (Wells, Stanley W. Shakespeare, Sex, and Love) Of course he does this by contradicting the society he lived in. So in order to understand Shakespeare we have to go back to the times in which he lived and worked. The Elizabethan era is a time of flourishing literature, poetry, theatre, and romance. It is a time period that society would accept the romantic essence of love. However it is still a time period that, “Love was not, generally speaking, the motivating force for marriage in the world around Shakespeare, yet in many of his plays (and most all of his comedies) lovers are attempting to defy parental or societal conventions and make their own decisions about whom they will marry based upon love and not social or political connection. This was a very new idea at the end of the 16th and beginning of the 17th century, and, as such, was a fascinating subject for Shakespeare to examine in his plays.” (Dr. R.C. Vasuki)
Romantic relationships are volatile and unpredictable, as with Benedick and Beatrice in Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing, ever-changing as with Bridget Jones and Marc Darcy in the contemporary work Bridget Jones’s Diary, and enduring as we see between Donna and Sam in Mamma Mia!
Much Ado About Nothing by William Shakespeare is a comedy rich in love relationship dynamics. Set in Messina, Italy, it follows a family of high rank and their guests, focusing on love relationships. Leonato is the governor of Messina and has a daughter named Hero that will be married to a man named Claudio whom of which is coming back from a successful battle, after he woes her. Benedick is a soldier as well and swears to never marry and dislikes Beatrice. Beatrice, Leonato’s niece is a witty woman who has a dislike for Benedick. Rumors and gossip are all part of this play and help to change perspectives of these lovers. Some take on a negative perspective of their lover while others do not. Claudio is tricked to believe that Hero is having relations with another man and he quickly turns and cancels the wedding in front of everyone, embarrassing poor Hero. Benedick and Beatrice are tricked into believing that they are objects of each other’s affection. They quickly fall in love with each other and end up together. Claudio and Hero eventually join back together and finally marry as well. Much Ado About Nothing is descriptive of the society of its time period. The Elizabethan era is traditional in the sense that men took the lead rather than the women, and for the most part people married less for love and more for economical and societal reasons. Shakespeare seems to contradict these societal norms in this play. For instance, Beatrice is not a submissive woman, rather she is a woman with a sharp tongue and a witty sense of humor. Benedick does not want to marry, which contradicts many societal views of the day, in which men are not to be bachelors but are to be husbands of wives. Marriage is a theme and it is used as a backdrop in order to keep the attention of the audience.
During the Elizabethan era it is clear that marriage is a union of families rather than a union of lovers. Nevertheless the wedding is a special day and joyous occasion that many people value. It is also an occasion that parents use to persuade their offspring into a marriage. Shakespeare uses marriage as an example in Much Ado About Nothing in order to gauge his audience. For many people of the time period the wedding is the highlight of the marriage and often the only “joyous” part. Yet Shakespeare poses a question for his audience through this play:
Is a wedding truly important to a union of lovers? If so, are the bonds of the union of marriage really bonds? The love between Beatrice and Benedick, Hero and Claudio, is enchanting. So much so that we don’t realize the absence of a wedding ceremony.
Shakespeare subtly communicates with his audience that love is enough, and a wedding ceremony or the institution of marriage is unnecessary.
“Shakespeare’s comedies, while often gesturing toward marriage and strongly implying that one or more couples in the narrative will become married, never stage a wedding ceremony or complete the legal requirements for marriage on stage. However, his comedies go out of their way to set up the requirements for potential weddings-both legal and religious-and then universally interrupt, skip over, or destabilize the actual event, often replacing the wedding with an alternative cultural performance.” (Leonard, Nathaniel C.) The theme love relationships can be found throughout William Shakespeare’s works, whether they be tragedies, comedies, or both. In Taming of the Shrew we watch Katherina, or the shrew, turn into a submissive wife and fall in love with Petruchio. “Fie, fie! unknit that threatening unkind brow: And dart not scornful glances from those eyes, to wound why lord, thy kind, thy governor,: It blots thy beaty, as frosts do bite the meads; confounds thy fame, as whirlwinds shake fair buds; and in no sense is meet or amiable.” (Act V Scene II, Taming of the Shrew) Romeo & Juliet is a tragedy of sorts that follows the love of two young hearts that would rather die together than live apart. “A glooming peace this morning with it brings; the sun, for sorrow, will not show his head: Some shall be pardon’d, and some punished: for never was a story of more woe than this of Juliet and her Romeo.” (Act V Scene III, Romeo and Juliet) The historical play of King Henry VIincludes him wooing his eventual wife. Love relationships is a theme that follows in all Shakespeare plays.
Love relationships have so many dimensions, dynamics, and points of view that they are often confusing and exhausting. Through Shakespeare’s work we are able to examine different parts of the love relationship and, in turn, examine our own selves and our own relationships. Today readers the world over still refer to Shakespeare in order to gain much needed perspective into their own unique love lives. Much Ado About Nothing focuses on environmental, or external influences of our love lives. Gossip, deception, and lies are all influences on how we perceive our lovers. And if Much Ado About Nothing focuses on the external, then A Midsummer Night’s Dream focuses on the subconscious, or internal influences of our love relationships. Our mind often plays tricks on us and Robin Goodfellow represents just that. How quickly we can have such change of heart when it comes to our lovers. Often times we over-analyze and trick ourselves into seeing our lover in a different light. How quickly we can look to another and find that we are now more smitten with this one. Through tricks of the mind Lysander, Demetrius, Hermia, and Helena are all victims in the silly game of love. Even Titania is tricked into falling in love with an ass by Oberon:
“I know a bank where the wild thyme blows, where oxlips and the nodding violet grows, Quite overcanopied with luscious woodbine, with sweet muskroses, and with eglantine. There sleeps Titania sometime of the night, lulled in these flowers with dances and delight. And there the snake throws her enameled skin, weed wide enough to wrap a fairy in. And with the juice of this I’ll streak her eyes and make her full of hateful fantasies.” (Act II, Scene I, A Midsummer Night’s Dream)
Often times we ‘wake up’ and come back to reality to find that all is well and our love relationships just as we left them.
Contemporary culture has many sources that are based on the theme love relationships.Mamma Mia! by Catherine Johnson, and Bridget Jones’s Diary by Richard Curtis, Andrew Davies, and Helen Fielding are two great examples. Mamma Mia! is a musical that was originally on broadway but was remade into a movie. This comedy follows a woman named Donna that runs a hotel on an island in Greece with her young daughter who is to be married. Her daughter, Sophie, wanted to get married with a father present and found three names that could be her father in her mother’s old diary. The three men come to the island for the wedding and find that Sophie could easily be one of theres. One of the men is still in love with Donna while Sophie is in love with her soon to be husband, and having a good time getting to know her father(s). In the end Donna marries the man that she thought she lost so long ago. This work is a perfect example of love relationships in contemporary culture. By following multiple couples around we are able to see different relationship dynamics. Between Sam and Donna we see an example of love enduring time and place. The musical isn’t short of love notions either, which makes it so popular. When Sam asks Donna to marry him, she responds: “I am not a bigamist!” to which Sam responds “Neither am I; I am a divorced man that’s loved you for twenty-one years.” (Mamma Mia!) In the end we can only assume they’ve lived happily ever after. InBridget Jones’s Diary we follow a thirty-something year old woman who just can’t seem to get her love life on the right track. She is quirky, a few pounds over weight, a smoker, who’s parents try to set her up with men often. She begins an affair with her boss who is a very handsome, successful man. This makes Bridget feel much more positive about life as she is so happy to have scored such a man. Simultaneously her mother invites her to a party where she meets a man named Marc Darcy. She knew the man since they were little but haven’t seen each other in a long time. Marc is a successful lawyer, but he seems stuck up, boring, and reticent. It turns out they end up liking each other very much and so begins a lover’s triangle. Bridget seems to be in the dreaded dating game that has her terribly confused. “I can officially confirm that the way to a man’s heart these days is not through beauty, food, sex, or alluringness of character, but merely the ability to seem not very interested in him.” (Bridget Jones’s Diary) This work shows the theme of love relationships greatly by following these three lovers and seeing the different ways they are with each other. Each of them love differently and you can see that with all three characters. Between Bridget and Marc Darcy we find an example of loves ever-changing, volatile nature. It is safe to say we absolutely melt when Marc Darcy, the notoriously reticent, rigid lawyer, tells Bridget:
“I like you very much. Just as you are.” (Bridget Jones’s Diary)
In conclusion, through the exploration of love relationships Shakespeare’s legacy has been sealed. Through time and space William Shakespeare is still the reference of all things love related, acting as a sort of guide for lovers of all ages. All different love angles can be studied and analyzed through one or more of Shakespeare’s plays. Moving forward Shakespeare will continue to bring light to love relationships and provide a guide to how we should be and not be conducting ourselves with our lover and external/internal influences. In addition, Shakespeare will continue to be referenced for ideas for new works. There has been so many contemporary works that are spin-offs of one, or several of Shakespeare’s plays. Ten Things I Hate About You, Warm Bodies, The Lion King, and many others are all movies based on a Shakespeare play. Surely, we’re not done hearing from William Shakespeare.
Works Cited
Shakespeare, William. William Shakespeare, The Complete Works. Oxford Press. 1994
Shakespeare, William. Romeo and Juliet. William Shakespeare, The Complete Works. Oxford Press. 1994
Shakespeare, William. A Midsummer Night’s Dream. William Shakespeare, The Complete Works.Oxford Press. 1994
Shakespeare, William. Much Ado About Nothing. William Shakespeare, The Complete Works.Oxford Press. 1994
Shakespeare, William. Taming Of The Shrew. William Shakespeare, The Complete Works. Oxford Press. 1994
Leonard, Nathaniel C. "Circling the Nuptial in as You Like It and Much Ado about Nothing."Studies in English Literature, 1500-1900, no. 2, 2017, p. 303.
Vasuki, R. C. "Shakespeare's Plays Reflect the Cultural and Social Conditions of the Elizabethan Age." Language in India, vol. 17, no. 4, Apr. 2017, pp. 233-236.
Wells, Stanley W. Shakespeare, Sex, and Love. OUP Oxford, 2010.
Mama Mia! Directed by Phyllida Lloyd, performances by Meryl Streep, Pierce Brosnan, Colin Firth, Amanda Seyfried, and Julie Walters, Universal Pictures, 2008.
Bridget Jones’s Diary. Directed by Sharon Maguire, performances by Renée Zellweger, Hugh Grant, Colin Firth, Jim Broadbent, and Gemma Jones, Universal Pictures, 2001.
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