Pain and Joy of Love

Pain and Joy of Love in Romeo and Juliet

William Shakespeare knew a few things about people and a few things about life as well. One play that demonstrates his astute powers of observation is Romeo and Juliet, where he explores the pain love. Love is often praised because of the good emotions it brings into the world. However, the truth is that love also brings much pain. Things rarely go just the way we want them too and sometimes, they do not go our way at all. With tragedy, Shakespeare illustrates the power of love and the tenacity of the human spirit because it is better to have known love than not to have experienced it at all. Love has two sides; one side is beautiful while the other is painful and love, the emotion, can hardly exist without lovers experiencing both sides. This theme is just as popular today as it was in Shakespeare's day. Love cannot exist without pain and people around us prove this every day. Love is nothing without suffering and Shakespeare proves this with Romeo and Juliet.

Romeo and Juliet is magical because it captures the quintessential beauty of love. The young couple experiences the depth of love that changes lives and drives people to do almost anything to be together. Love makes people want to change their lives and this is what makes Romeo and Juliet so popular. These two would go to the opposite end of the world to be with one another and while a part of this seems crazy, we can relate to it. Shakespeare allows these two to be themselves throughout the play. They are young and far from prudent. Character is an issue because it directly affects the outcome of the play. A more submissive Romeo or Juliet would have never rendered the same results and this is why character matters. Henry Myers says that through them, Shakespeare tells the audience, "Character is a deeper and more important influence in human affairs that luck or chance" (Myers 1963). Young or old, in love or not, we hold the power of our destiny in our hands and Romeo and Juliet prove this with every move they make.

Shakespeare emphasizes the power of love when sparks fly as the lovers meet. They are bound to one another almost instantaneously and nothing describes this better than love. Their path of passion will not be stopped by no one or nothing. Shakespeare allows the audience to see how this love transpires with language. When Romeo sees Juliet, he says, "O she doth teach the torches to burn bright; / Her beauty hangs upon the cheek of night / Like a rich jewel in AEthiop's ear" (Shakespeare I.v.41-6). Similarly, Juliet finds Romeo equally attractive and upon finding out he is a Montague, she says:

My only love sprung from my only hate!

Too early see unknown, and known too late!

Prodigious birth of love it is to me,

That I must love a loathed enemy" (I.v.38-41)

Here we see how powerful love is and how quickly it can happen. This aspect of their relationship reinforces how we cannot control the emotion we call love. The heart simply knows when it knows and the head has very little to do with the choice the heart makes. Shakespeare knew this and wanted to bring it to attention with these two young people from feuding families.

Love will not be controlled and, many times, it refuses to be rational. Those in love rarely stop to consider reason or logic in their decisions. This is because the heart overrules the head and makes logic seem almost silly. We see irrationality with Romeo and Juliet as Romeo will abandon his family name on a dime and he even tells Juliet, "Call me but love, and I'll be new baptized; / Henceforth I never will be Romeo" (II.i.93-4). Juliet, too, experiences the same kind of irrationality, noting how she has fallen so quickly for this young man. She swears to "prove more true / Than those that have more cunning to be strange" (II.i.42-3). She also tells him, "My bounty is as boundless as the sea, / My love as deep; the more I give to thee, / The more I have, for both are infinite" (II.i.175-7). Love becomes all these two think about. Everything else occurring in their world is of lesser importance and while see this as impulsive, we also know what it is like to become so wrapped up with someone else that we show less attention to friends and family. Shakespeare is pointing out how normal these two are. They find love and they experience the good side of love. They bask in the passion and desire more.

The truly sad aspect of love is that it cannot be good all of the time. In fact, many would argue that love would not be as good as it is without pain. Love does not stay good all the time for everyone, especially Romeo and Juliet. Shakespeare brings us to the pain of love rather quickly in the play as the couple begins to encounter trouble at almost every turn. They will do anything to be together and if this means faking death and running away, they have no problem doing it. The risks are strange and compelling and while Juliet is wise to stop and weight everything before she drinks the potion, she still puts all of her faith in the power of love. That is a nice thought but a misguided one. Juliet listen with her heart instead of her head and it costs her dearly. When Romeo thinks his beloved is dead, he says, "I will lie with thee tonight" (V.i.35) and in the tomb, he says:

I will stay with thee;

And never from this palace of dim night

Depart again: here, I still will remain

With worms that are thou chambermaids. (V.iii.104-7)

In this scene, we see the pain of love in all its glory. We know the truth but he does not and the sadness he feels is nothing next to the sadness she will feel upon awakening. Death is almost a welcome relief as Juliet tries to taste some of the remaining poison on Romeo's lips. Loves takes a turn for the worse in someone's life every day. A lover cheats or a lover runs away. A lover may turn abusive or addictive and these are things that bring pain and they can happen almost overnight. How Romeo and Juliet suffer is not so important as why they do. They suffer because they love and most of the time, we simply cannot have one without the other. Strangely, without pain, the joy of love would be devoid of almost happiness because there would nothing with which to compare it.