A Comparative Study of the Theme of Love in Romeo and Juliet and the Taming of the Shrew.

Authors Avatar
28th April, 03

A Comparative Study of the Theme of Love in Romeo and Juliet and the Taming of the Shrew

Romeo and Juliet and the Taming of the Shrew are the famous plays written by William Shakespeare in the 16th Century. In the two plays, Shakespeare tried to explore many aspects in human life and the theme of love is one of the common themes in the two plays. According to the Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary, love refers to the affectionate devotion that exists between a relationship. There are many different kinds of love within a relationship. In this paper, I am going to focus my discussion on the kind of love between men and women. What I am going to do is to compare and contrast the theme of love in the two plays by answering two questions. Those questions are: what is the theme of love in the plays and how is it presented.

First of all, let's discuss what is the theme of love in both plays. There are three couples in the plays, they are Romeo and Juliet; Lucentio and Bianca; Katherina and Petruchio. In both plays, Romeo and Juliet and Lucentio and Bianca are young couples. The idea of love at first sight can be applied to their relationship. For example, when Romeo and Juliet first meet, they naturally fall in love with each other and it seems there is no reason behind their love. Everything just happens so naturally and directly. In the Taming of the Shrew, when Lucentio first sees Bianca, he complains that Bianca's "sudden sight hath thralled my wounded eye" (1.1.217). Since Romeo and Juliet are mutually attracted to each other, there is no courtship between them. However for Lucentio and Bianca's case, Bianca doesn't fall in love with Lucentio immediately after they meet, rather Lucentio has to disguise himself as a schoolmaster to court her. Even so, I think the love between both couples can be considered romantic love as the lovers react to their beloved with romantic passion. For example, Romeo compares Juliet to the morning sun, far more beautiful than the moon it banishes. They always compare each other with natural images. In the Taming of the Shrew, Lucentio does a lot for Bianca. He even exchanges his role with Tiano, his servant and play truancy from the school in order to court her. For Katherina and Petruchio, their love is not the love at first sight. Their love is so unromantic that Katherina's father uses money to "buy" the marriage for her. On the surface, it seems Petruchio does court Katherina but indeed he forces her to marry him and he does not offer her any choice: "Will you, nill you, I will marry you" (II.i.263). Though they do not fall in love at the first sight they see each other, they can still have a happy marriage as they have mutual understanding after their marriage. One point which is worth mentioning is that the three couples have a kind of married love instead of adultery love. Though Romeo and Juliet, Lucentio and Bianca cannot make their marriage public, both couples do marry with the witness of a priest. For Petruchio and Katherina, their marriage is not a significant issue to discuss as it is expected by others, like her father, Hortensio and Gremio. But for the other couples, their marriage, I mean the ritual itself, is worth discussing. One may ask the love between the two couples is kind of secret love, why do they bother to have the rituals in church before eloping or having sexual relationship. In my opinion, for the couples, the rituals itself is very crucial for the reason that both of the couples see the value of their love and they respect their beloved. Thus, we can say Romeo and Juliet, Lucentio and Bianca's love and marriage are based on mutual respect. However, for Katherina and Petruchio, wealth plays an important role in their marriage, but not love itself.
Join now!


Though both Romeo and Juliet and the Taming of the Shrew are plays with the theme of love, the way love presented in the plays is a bit different. However, there are also some similarities of the way love being presented, I will discuss them later.

Love appears to be more radical and extreme in Romeo and Juliet than in the Taming of the Shrew. In Romeo and Juliet, Romeo and Juliet regard each other not as ordinary human beings but saints. This can be shown by their use of blasphemous terms, for example, Juliet calls ...

This is a preview of the whole essay