Shakespeare's Love at First Sight

In his day, William Shakespeare was known as a great playwright and a lover of the theatre. Today, his plays continue to be great works loved by many. Throughout the theme's of his plays, Shakespeare conveyed tragedy, comedy, and above all, love. Though there is little known information about Shakespeare's personal life, there is evidence of who the man was in his writings. The following paper will discuss Shakespeare's writing on love at first sight and the possible connection of these writings to his own views on love.

Much of William Shakespeare's life has been speculated due to the lack of information documented. Though we have some information on the business man that he was, there is the idea that he was a man of great love, or at least he desired great love, based on the information in his writings, more so in his plays. There are many questions that can be raised when discussing his writings on love at first sight as well as much speculation into how he felt about love. Though his marriage was thought to be one that was unhappy, is it possible that Shakespeare wrote about love at first sight because he had experienced this himself? Why did Shakespeare write plays where characters fell in love and were then forbidden to be together? These answers may be answered by analyzing some of his greatest plays and a few not so famous ones.

In the play Romeo and Juliet, the two characters fall in love but are forbidden by both their parents to be together. They meet a tragic end when their love becomes so strong they died for each other rather than living a life apart. This love was the result of "love at first sight." If we back up and start at the beginning, Romeo falls in love with Juliet when he first sees her at the Capulet Ball. Romeo says, "Did my heart love till now? Forswear it, sight, for I ne'er saw true beauty till this night" (Romeo and Juliet, Act 1, Scene 5). There is little to be analyzed in this statement. Romeo saw Juliet and fell in love with her. Why would Shakespeare write this? One idea is that Shakespeare felt this immediate love when he met his wife. Is it possible that Shakespeare was writing about his own life? One could assume so. By further reading of Romeo and Juliet, one can find that though the play was written around love, it was also surrounded by continuous grief and sorrow. One expects love to be happy and the "end of all things," a happy ending, yet Shakespeare took this one step further and made love something to be grieved by. Some may take Romeo and Juliet as a play where love conquers all in the end, yet that is far from the truth. Shakespeare wrote a play where two people fall in love and die tragically without being able to fulfill that love as a life of love, but more of a few days. Shakespeare's marriage may not have been a happy one, but it would appear that the man did love someone, if not his wife, then possibly another woman.

In As You Like It, Shakespeare wrote "Who ever loved that loved not at first sight? (Act 3, Scene 5). Though this play is not a tragedy, he still manages to convey what real love is. He shows it as an instant occurrence, something that is known immediately, without wooing. This play ends with the marriage of three separate couples, two of whom fall in love at first sight. They did not know each other or their loved one's life, yet they knew immediately that they were in love and thus married as soon as they could. This shows that Shakespeare must have believed that there was such a thing as love at first sight. In both As You Like It and Romeo and Juliet, each couple fell in love and rushed marriage so they could be together. This could be taken as a reflection of Shakespeare's feelings about his own marriage. It is known that his wife, Anne, was pregnant before they got married and it is suspected that the child was the reason for the married, which was thought of as hasty. Did Shakespeare write about immediate love and marriage because he wished the same had happened with his own. It is quite possible. He seemed to be a man with a great feeling of love, yet it wasn't seen in his own life. It's possible that he did feel this love, but was unable to show it because it was not true to his own marriage and his wife. It's also possible that before he married Anne, he was in love with another woman and was forbidden to be with her, thus opening the door for him to write about this forbidden love.

In the Tempest, Shakespeare writes, "Hear my soul speak. Of the very instant that I saw you, did my heart fly at your service" (Act 3, Scene 1) and "I would not wish any companion in the world but you" (Act 3, Scene 1). These statements lead us to believe that Shakespeare could have been in love with another woman and that he has written his play as a way of expressing his love. Though this is just speculation, this can be acknowledged as a possibility due to the lack of information about his life.

We will never know the reasoning behind Shakespeare's writings about love and loss, though he has brought a connection between the two to create a belief about love that sustains the continued reading of his works. He has romanticized love and brought it to a higher sense in his portrayal of it through the characters of his plays. Shakespeare wrote about love that moved people in the 1500's and today people still applaud his works and his notions of how love should be. He set a tone for romantics around the world and offered us examples of what love should be like, though it is hard to state concretely that these were his beliefs. We can speculate and analyze his plays and poems to find the answers we want, but still we do not have facts regarding his romantic beliefs. We can, however, surmise that his works mirrored the beliefs he had about love.

In A Midsummer Nights Dream, there is the line "love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind, and therefore is winged Cupid painted blind" (Act 1, Scene 1). This is a powerful statement that offers a definition of love, at least in Shakespeare's mind. This shows the passion that was inside him and he shared it with all he could. One could not think that, though he was a successful business man and playwright, that he did not believe in love or understand the meaning of it. Throughout time love has been one thing that people have looked for, whether in a parent, sibling, friend, or significant other. Love is the strongest emotion that can be felt by the human heart, and is not something that is given easily. Love can be a happy ending or a destroyer of someone's world. Shakespeare knew this and explored both sides of love. He knew how to show how love felt and what people were willing to do to have the love they desired. His notion of love at first sight, which is dominant in many of his plays, tragedies and comedies alike, shows the purest form of this emotion and has captured it for all to see and know. Shakespeare may not have been known as a romantic, however, his plays lead us to believe that, to him, love was important.

Today, love at first sight is something that is thought of as the ideals of a "hopeless romantic," someone who lives in dreams and doesn't live in the "real world,"

as if the real world should be loveless and without passion. Yet there was a man, one of stature, who wrote without shame about an emotion that people are so hesitant to avoid. He captures the dreams that one may find a true love, and though he wrote about love so long ago, the love he wrote about is still sought after in today's world. If Shakespeare's marriage was an unhappy one, it did not show in his writings. This leads us to believe that he was a man in love, or at least a man that desired a love so strong he could do nothing but share his feelings with others.

There are many ways in which Shakespeare's reasons for writing about love at first sight could be seen. Was he truly in love with his wife or was he secretly in love with another woman, one he felt he couldn't be with? These are the questions that cannot be answered specifically and without doubt. What can be decided is that Shakespeare wrote about love unlike any before or after him. His examples of love at first sight and the sometimes tragic consequences of this love appears to be his interpretation of what love truly means. Is there such a thing as love at first sight? Shakespeare's writings convey he believed it so.