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Romeo and Juliet
My regular readers will already know what my blog is all about. It concerns my life, and especially my personality, and the things that affect that personality. I introduce William Shakespeare's play ' Romeo and Juliet ' because I feel that some lessons can be learned about my life and my personality. Particularly, some insights as to that thing that we call Unrequited love . Personally, I would call it a disease; it is a disease or affliction concerning the business of love. I do not think it would be unfair to further categorize it as a form of love known as lust or physical love. Now, I might be being too hard on myself characterizing my affection in that form. Maybe it is just hard core Romantic Love. Whatever my brand of love is it is most definitely of the intense variety. The professionals dealing with matters of love might prefer to call it an ' Intense Personal Attraction. ' I prefer the term lust and it is all the same to me. It is a physical attraction to be sure; that is what is it at minimum. If it is something more then so much the better. And, I believe it is something more than that, so please do not misinterpret this thought of mine.
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We are introduced to these ideas about love early on in the play when we learn about Romeo's love for Rosaline. This is the girl he met before he was introduced to Juliet. Romeo is encouraged to seek the love of a girl who will appreciate him and he is even chided by his friends for simply being in lust with Rosaline. He quickly forgets this love for Rosaline upon meeting Juliet, and apparently his love turns into a different kind of love since Juliet is also in love with Romeo. I think this is a major message of the play; that unrequited love can be broken, or at the very least, transformed into something else.
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The story is also a trajedy as events unfold that are not kind to either Juliet or Romeo. I believe these to be secondary concerns, however, as the story to my mind really is about love and what it can do to human beings.
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I did not know about the rather sexual nature of this play until I started reading it. If I studied this play in school then I have mostly forgotten it and the sexual meanings contained within it. Fortunately, now, we have the internet and its resources. For example, it is possible now to link up directly with the play and to have a study guide close at hand. This study guide is a most useful device and I have included it below. You can also listen to the play on-line as well. And, you might want to read Wikipedia for a summary and further resources as well.
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....How is loving your romantic partner different from loving a child or friend? Marino thinks that they are similar, although romantic love includes sexual desire and a greater intensity. Is there some quality of the person that you love has, as in the example from the Symposium, or is it just an accident of history that you love one person rather than another? Marno supports the historical idea of love. Love takes on a relational component over time that deepens the relationship. How can one love humanity? Does the possibility that love can be reduced to the interaction of endorphins undermine the worth of love?
Above: introductory notes from Philosophy Talk.
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