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Hiya Everyone,
I've been asked to research "shakespeare's opinion on Love" For and english essay, i have a few ideas, but you lot probably know lots more ;)
In his plays he has alot of great love relationships, does that mean that what he wrote the characters to say, is what he feels?
Thanks :)
Well, for Shakespeare, love can mean a lot of different things and be shown in a lot of different ways. Personally, Shakespeare's love-life was rather interesting, as he married a much older woman who was already with child (presumably his) and then there is of course, the mysterious Dark Lady of the sonnets. So overall, biographically it is hard to link his personal reflections on love to his plays. BUT he does show many different kinds of love: Romeo and Juliet's young rash passion that turns out tragically; Beatrice and Benedick's firey love-war of words; Helena and Bertram's love via bed-trick (always a questionable one...). Shakespeare shows 'true love' and shallow love and all of the inbetween. One thing that he often doesn't account for though is the time to develop love, often it is at first sight or close after that. You can also look at familial love and the love between a parent and a child. Plays such as King Lear, Much Ado About Nothing, even the Merchant of Venice, all show interesting family relationships and love plays into those.
My best book on interpreting Shakespeare in terms of such topics (love is one of several) is Stephen Greenblatt's "Will in the World", there is much along the line of what was said in the previous post but naturally more in depth and underlined by quotes and comparisons. There are also many references to Will's possible private convictions(as far as they may be inferred). The book is relatively recent and should be available in paperback.