The Final Path to Understanding Love in Shakespeare: Last Hub Post

This may be a bit of a rehash for those who read my blog recap from last week, but as I feel like I have some things I need to add, it will still be relevant. 

Thesis

Shakespeare, while drawing instances of love from his own life, tries to capture the essence of what true love is in each of his plays (and sonnets), while differentiating each situation with varying circumstances.

Support/Evidence

1. Othello As a Case Study- I talk about Othello's seeming change of emotion, and how that is actually not the case. Othello does not experience volatile love, because he still loves Desdemona when he kills her. His type of love can be considered "idolatrous" because his manifestation of love is the equivalent of worship.
2. Love is an Ever-fixed Mark- Here is a more textual interpretation of Sonnet 116. I wanted to contrast the poem with some of the ideas conveyed in Shakespeare's plays. I came to the conclusion that inconstancy in love is not really love at all. Therefore, in the case of Romeo and his previous love before Juliet, that was not really love because it changed. (This particular entry is still a work in progress.) I also looked at an analysis on shmoop.com and blogged about it.
3. Macbeth the Movie- Here I just wanted to see if I could see any semblance of love in a play that emphasizes the wickedness of one man and his wife. They are in a marital relationship, but it almost seems more like a business partnership. This only had a nominal connection with my focus. I will look at this play a little bit more when I attend the performance at U of U.
4. Shakespeare's Own Romance- This is where I compared Shakespeare's life with this theme of spontaneity in relationships. It turns out that he had a bit of a shot-gun wedding (or sword-point, whichever you prefer). I compared the rashness of his own marriage to that of Romeo and Juliet. Yet we are fairly certain that Shakespeare did in fact love his wife, as he dedicated poetry to her throughout his life.

Conclusions:

• There are connections between Shakespeare's life and the themes of love he used in his plays. 
• Constancy is still valued more by Shakespeare than volatility and spontaneity.
• Sometimes love is replaced by lust in his plays.
• Love takes different forms in Shakespeare's plays, just as it does in real life, but amplified.
• Love manifests itself differently depending on the person. For instance, some do not acknowledge love, others take an obsessive tact.

 So there it is. I will most likely update some of the research next week.

The Volatile Nature of Love in Shakespeare

Ever notice how Shakespeare's characters seem to experience pretty quick changes in emotion? One minute 2 characters hate each other, and the next they're living happily ever after. This is readily apparent in Much Ado About Nothing and Richard III. Or, they simply start as friends, but as soon as something in the situation changes, they're in love, like in Twelfth Night. The point is, can people's emotions really change as quickly as Shakespeare portrayed it? Or was he simply trying to make a point with this theme?

I also want to examine the volatility of love in Shakespeare's sonnets. Many of his sonnets talk of love that never ends: "It is an ever-fixed mark." It makes one wonder why there is such a disparity between his poems and plays. Does it come about because of different audiences, different ideas thematically?

For this, I have already found one source through Google books: A Companion to Shakespeare's Sonnets, by Michael Schoenfeldt. It contains an article by Jyotsna Singh called "Mapping the 'Emotional Regime' of Shakespeare's Sonnets." Having skimmed the article it seems to contain some valuable information about romantic love in the sonnets.

This is what I want to look at as I attempt to fulfill the depth requirement. So many of Shakespeare's plays include the genesis of romantic love in so many different forms. But so often, these relationships generate very quickly and can degenerate just as quickly. For instance, in Othello, all of the events leading up to Othello's marriage to Desdemona seem to move a pretty rapid pace, and the tables turn just as quickly when Othello discovers Desdemona's affair.

I'm hoping to gain some more variety in my sources throughout the weekend, so hopefully I will be able to focus my research on a few plays (any more than that would be too much) and a few sonnets.