| Description |
Genuine communication between lovers is essential to a successful relationship in Shakespeare's plays. There are three insights which Shakespeare dramatizes which help to identify the level of communication and thus the success of the relationship between the beloved and the lover. These are first: the vision of the beloved; is the object of love truly the beloved or is he/she obscured by another thing? Second, the self-awareness and autonomy of the lover; is the lover an autonomous individual or is he/she controlled by outside elements? And finally, is the proximity of the two; lovers; do the lovers exist on different levels of the social order, or are they able to meet on equal ground?; This paper will discuss each of these points in relation to the lovers of five plays: Romeo and Juliet, Troilus and Cressida, Henry V, Othello, and Much Ado About Nothing. Through the discussion of these characters, this paper will show how Shakespeare refutes the ideals of romanticism and specifically the artificiality of romantic communication. Those characters who are aware of the necessity of real communication are successful in their endeavors of love. On the other hand, those characters who cling to the ideals of romanticism and the courtly love; tradition suffer themselves or bring suffering on the women they love. |
