The Idea of Love

Life is love, and love is life– but both are very contradictory and complex, and hard to get into. This is what Shakespeare is trying to say in his famous tragedy, Romeo & Juliet. In the play, Romeo seems to be enchanted with the idea of love instead of being in love himself– though he comes up with some thought-provoking insights on it. Perhaps he subconsciously finds love too complicated and contradictory to involve himself in. This made many ideas about young love arise in my mind, and whether it is possible or not.

1870 painting by Ford M. Brown

Romeo & Juliet is the tragic love story of two kids from enemy families (Montague and Capulet), Romeo and Juliet. Though they have been taught to hate each other for their entire lives, the pair inevitably fall in love and become star-crossed lovers (so we know that nothing good will happen in the end). At the beginning of the story, however, they have no idea the other exists. Romeo is obsessed with his love, Rosaline, who doesn't love him back. At the same time, Juliet's parents are arranging for the wealthy Count Paris to marry her. When the two meet at a masquerade (Romeo and his friends crash the party) at Capulet's mansion, they instantly fall in love and meet later on that night. Just before Romeo leaves, they vow to get married the next day (their love escalates rather quickly). We haven't read any further in class, but due to a viewing of Baz    Luhrmann's film adaptation, Romeo + Juliet, and the prologue to the play, we know that they end up dying in each other's arms after a disastrous misunderstanding. 

Romeo has a long speech about love in which he presents over 10 oxymorons. I took his use of the oxymoron to mean that love (and even life) itself is an oxymoron– a contradictory and volatile state of being. Here's an excerpt from the aforementioned speech:

Act I, Scene I: Oxymorons highlighted in red. 

ROMEO

[...] 

Here's much to do with hate, but more with love.

Why then, O brawling love, O loving hate, 

O anything of nothing first create!

O heavy lightness, O serious vanity, 

Misshapen chaos of well-seeming forms,

Feather of lead, bright smoke, cold fire, sick health, 

Still-waking sleep that is not what it is!

This love feel I, that feel no love in this.

Dost thou not laugh?

All of these oxymorons together seem to say that love is fickle and unstable, but some specific ones have second meanings after that general one. For example, serious vanity, which according to No Fear Shakespeare means "serious foolishness", could mean that love is fun but also an important undertaking. Bright smoke could mean that love has a bad side and a good side that it switches between. Feather of lead means that although love lifts you up and makes you giddy, it is still a serious thing that should be thought about with caution. 

I think that all of these oxymorons exist in real life as well– no matter how long ago Romeo & Juliet was written, it still relates to people today. Shakespeare chose a truly timeless topic! Now, let's get to how the oxymorons relate to our life today. I'll focus mainly on the three contradictions I mentioned in the previous paragraph. Serious vanity~ I definitely think that "serious foolishness" exists. For instance, say you're having fun with your friends and you go too far with something. Suddenly, the hilarious joke you were sharing is a serious, tense conversation. I feel like this is what happens with love sometimes: you are having fun one moment and the next something has gone wrong. This also relates to feather of lead– ups make you feel happy, while downs weigh you down and make you depressed. Love, like everything, has a bad side and a good side– it has ups and downs, romance and anger. 

Doesn't that seem complicated? This is why young love seems so hard to believe– would we ever be able to endure such tempestuous emotions and situations? We think we're quite knowledgeable, but we're really very inexperienced in life– so are teenagers ready to love? I don't really think so. We are simply attracted to the idea of it, like Romeo. Maybe it's because it seems like a mature thing, and we want to seem like adults, or maybe it's hormones and chemicals are taking over our mind. Either way, I believe that young love isn't real. This enchanting idea is lovely but it's risky: we could become so withdrawn from our world that our grades drop, our friends become distant, or even our families become estranged (I've known people like this). Therefore, I restate my claim: young love is merely an idea that teenagers like and subconsciously parade as real love. 

What do you think about young love? Do you think it's a real thing or just an idea? Please comment!

~Adrian

I think this is the longest essay I've ever written!