Comparing the Love of Romeo and Juliet, Twelfth Night and the Bible Ess

No emotion has such universal meaning as wonder. It is an intrinsic part of the human condition. hunch is the basis for by which all other emotions can be gauged. Friendship and even grief are steeped in love. Love is so central to our lives that it is fitting and proper that it should be the topic of so much discussion. Every culture and every writer has some commentary or rating of love. The New Testament has its share of love commentary. The entire basis of the Christian tradition is Gods love for humanity. God so loved the world that he gave his only Son. (John 36) Jesus pr to each oneed a great deal about love of neighbor, love of God and even love of enemies. (Matt 544) Shakespeares Biblical experience is well known and he was certainly familiar with these concepts as he wrote his plays on the subject of love. By looking closely at his works, we can examine the nature of true love. In Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare gives an example of true love overcome by tragic fate. Hi s star-crossed lovers are so madly in love with each other that they cannot live without being together. (RJ Prologue, 6) By contrast, in 12th Night the characters are so fickle that they switch love interests in the span of a few lines. By comparing the true love of Romeo and Juliet with the shallow love of Twelfth Night, it becomes clear that Shakespeare agrees with the Biblical assessment of love. It is necessary, of course, to begin by explaining what the Biblical evaluation of love is. Of all the references to love in the Bible, and there are many, three sources apply best to this discussion. In the Old Testament, Song of Songs, a descriptive love poem between a woman and her true love, has many parallels to love in Romeo an... ...nd Juliet, Critical Essays. Garland Publishing, New York (c)1993 Palmer, D.J. Twelfth Night and the myth of Echo and Narcissus. in Shakespeare pile 32. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge (c)1979 Parker, Barbara. A Precious Seeing, Love and R eason in Shakeswpeares Plays. New York University Press, New York (c)1987 Shaheen, Naseeb. Shakespeares Knowledge of the Bible -- How Aquired in Shakespeare Studies XX. Burt Franklin & Co., New York (c)1988 Shakespeare, William. Romeo and Juliet. Cliffs Notes, Lincoln (c)1965 Shakespeare, William. Twelfth Night. Cliffs Notes, Lincoln (c)1965 Summers, Joseph H. The Masks of Twelfth Night in Twentieth Century Interpretations of Twelfth Night. Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs (c)1968 Vyvyan, John. Shakespeare and the Rose of Love. Chatto & Windus, London (c)1960