Comparative essay on theme of Love in Romeo and Juliet and the Taming of the Shrew

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Comparative essay on 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 the theme of love in both plays is.  There are three couples in the plays, they are Romeo and Juliet; Lucentio and Bianca; Katherine and Petruccio.  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 Bianka’s “sudden sight hath thrilled my wounded eye” (1.1.217).  Since Romeo and Juliet are mutually attracted to each other, there is no courtship between them.  However for the case of Lucentio, Bianca does not fall in love with him 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 father of Katrherine uses money to “buy” the marriage for her.  On the surface, it seems Petruccio does court Katherina but indeed he forces her to marry him and he does not offer her any choice. 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.  

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   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 Petruccio and Katherine, 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, is worth discussing.  One may ask the love between the two couples is kind of secret love, why do they bother to have the ...

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