The characters’ likings change in the play is troubling, where Lysander is intensely in love with Hermia at first and with Helena at another point. “Transparent Helena! Nature shows art that through thy bosom makes me see thy heart” (Shakespeare and Foakes Act II). The aim of the play is not to observe the nature of true love but reasonably to mock misunderstandings that love brings. Lysander, Hermia, Demetrius and Helena are destined not to be romantic classics, but somewhat sympathetic figures thrown into perplexing situations of romantic farce.
Browning contrasts the Duke’s representation of the duchess with the factual representation emphasising the Duke’s manic state and causing the audience to strongly oppose the duke as a person. Men feel the need to retain their pride in relationships which reflects the social attitudes and patriarchal values of the Victorian Era. The Victorian Era was a time of a changing social attitudes and people felt insecure and questioned their dominance with an increased male ego. This is evident in Browning’s portrayal of the Duke in “My Last Duchess”. Browning contrasts the happiness of the duchess with by providing imagery of nature, “Bough of cherries” and “orchard” with the dark, manic mind of the duke.
In Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen, and Our Mutual Friend, by Charles Dickens, two proposals, despite their few effective moments, end up being horrendously ineffective. The first of which, William Collins proposes to Elizabeth Bennett. And the latter, Bradley Headstone—his last name, which he will need after he dies from the painful embarrassment of his rejection—proposes to Lizzie Hexam. What makes a marriage proposal successful is a display of commitment, intimacy, and passion—though not too much or too little of any one factor! A lack of one or more of these—which both proposals are guilty of—will lead the proposer down the path of one of the main struggles of wooing: rejection.
In Medusa, another emotion is bitterness. ‘I stared in the mirror, love gone bad’. This shows bitterness because she is bitter about the way ‘love’ has turned out. It is almost an oxymoron, because society teaches us that love is good and should be sought after, whereas what she is saying goes against this. This intensifies the emotion and reinforces how much of a ‘mess’ their relationship is in.
His attitude makes it seem like he finds women untrustworthy and weak. Throughout the play Hamlet’s treatment towards women were unkind, unfair and disrespectful. Hamlet is unkind towards Ophelia and Gertrude throughout the play. Hamlet: Ay, truly; for the power of beauty will sooner transform honesty can translate beauty into his likeness; this was sometime a paradox, but now the time gives it proof. I did love you once.
'Violent passions lead to violent ends', therefore the romance becomes a tragedy. Philip Larkin however deliberately downgrades romantic ideas of love and is, is much more cynical in his poems like ‘Love’, ‘Sad steps’, and ‘Love songs in age’,‘ An Arundel tomb’ and‘ Talking in bed. His poems are filled with unconventional ideas of love and in some ways, he is more truthful about it than Shakespeare. However, people may say that Larkin is narrow-minded and critical. Even though there are some similarities between the two writers, there are also many differences.
In “A Rose for Emily” and “The Rocking Horse Winner” Faulkner and Lawrence present the theme of love in a twisted manner. Although both of these stories are about love, they are about two very different kinds of love: Emily Grierson is in a romantic relationship with Homer Baron, while Paul’s love is maternal for his mother. Both stories do however, give a macabre view of love, as they each end with the deaths of the protagonists. Although both stories illustrate love as a source of pain and anguish, it is Emily that presents a more twisted view of love, as she is in control of the decisions that she makes in her life. Conversely, Paul’s story is actually tragic in nature.
Much Ado is a play based around the theme of deliberate deception- sometimes this deception is malevolent and sometimes benevolent but much of the play hinges around them and their effect on the characters. An example of malevolent deception would be Don John trying to ruin Hero and Claudio’s marriage whereas an example of benevolent deception would be the gulling’s of Beatrice and Benedick in an attempt to get them to admit their true feelings for one another to get them to wed. The gulling scenes both rely on Beatrice and Benedick being persuaded into believing that they are in love with one another, this is dependent on them ‘accidentally overhearing’ the other characters talking about them whilst being within earshot but so as not to be seen. The majority of the subplot is dependent on these gulling scenes being successful as if they hadn’t worked or if Beatrice and Benedick hadn’t been so susceptible to this benevolent deception than there wouldn’t be much of a story. These gulling scenes provide comic relief in contrast to Don John’s malevolent deception and make Much Ado lean towards being a comedy rather than a tragedy as they use dramatic irony for humour.
Compare and contrast the different ways in which the writers present the destructive nature of jealousy in ‘Othello,’ ‘Wuthering Heights,’ and ‘A View from the Bridge,’ The dark side of love is presented in the three texts as the way that love can turn from appearing happy to destructive. Pride, jealousy and obsession are presented as components of flawed love and the inevitable consequences in such relationships after the intervention of a catalyst. These components combined with the flawed personalities of the characters lead to the need for revenge resulting in destruction and tragic death. One similarity between the texts is that the relationships at the beginning seem to be happy. In the 17th century a man sought approval from the father, however in ‘Othello,’ Desdemona and Othello had confirmed their relationship through marriage before asking Brabantio.
Critical Lens Love is irrational, love is oblivious, love is stupid and unknowing. People make uncharacteristic, unrealistic, and odd decisions when trapped in the cloudiness of love. They see only what they want to, that is why couples in love are commonly told to be blind. Geoffrey Chaucer once said “Love is Blind.” This quote explains how lovers do not think dearly and do absolutely stupid things when their love between one another, takes over. This unknowingness and unrealistic-ness is shown many times in different texts, including the romantic tragedy play, Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare, and the short story “Scarlet Ibis,” by James Hurst.