Ophelia is a beautiful woman who is at the mercy of the male figures in her life – mainly her father, Polonius and her brother Laertes. Laertes and Polonius love Ophelia tremendously and feel it is their obligation to shelter her from the cruelty of the world. When Polonius is told that Ophelia has entertained Hamlet without any parental consent, it is stifled very quickly by Polonius and Laertes – the double voices of patriarchy – telling her that she is too naive and that her behavior is unsuitable. In Act I, Scene III he begins his dialogue with Ophelia by warning her of the potential danger that love with Hamlet (Ophelia’s lover) could bring. He feels it his obligation to protect her form a potential broken heart: “The canker galls the infants of the spring Too oft before their buttons be disclosed,” (I, III, 39-40) implying that Hamlet, as the canker, may ruin her before she ‘blossoms’.
Henry and Roy who both tells a story of their idealistic past, can be grouped together as the ones, who believes in the existence of idealistic love which tends to be fanciful like their own childhood memories. Roy claims that his love is equivalent to “Mozart’s love” which characterises the romance with happy endings. Henry’s depiction of his mother’s devotion has the sense of artificiality, and it’s almost like as if he forces the story upon himself to avoid other alternatives. However unlike Roy Henry understands the contradicting reality in regards to commitment and fidelity “everyone blames women but I forgive them, if they change their love a thousand times a day.. but I think it’s the necessity of women’s heart” Henry is aware and accepts the flaw in the concept of absolute faithfulness. Ruth, who suffers from her inability to distinguish reality from illusion, was a victim of a horrible relationship.
In the poem, the narrator was having an affair with a lord. As they weren’t married and had a child, the narrator was seen as impure by the society and so, he cast her by choosing her cousin Kate. During the whole poem she talks about how her love for him was truthful while he used her like a “golden knot”, like an object made her a fool. She compares her situation to Kate’s and in some way reproves her choice of accepting him by “If she had fooled not me but you/ If you stood where I stand/… I would have spit into his face/and not have taken his hand”. We can also notice jealousy when she compares “… I sit in howl and dust/you sit in gold and sing” and “He lifted you from the mean estate/to sit with him on high/I was a cottage-maiden/… Contented with my cottage-mates,/ Not mindful I was fair”.
We can see a few themes in Christina Walsh's poem "A Woman to her Lover" that are similar to themes in Romeo and Juliet. To begin with, we can liken the first stanza of Welsh's poem to the themes surrounding Paris's desires to marry Juliet. In this stanza, the woman proclaims to her lover that she refuses to be treated as one who should be subservient to a man, as one who should "bend to [a man's] will," like a "bondslave," or even as one who should be conquered by a man. This stanza captures a truism that often men have seen women as only child-bearers and household servants, which are things that the stanza is protesting against. We are not told a great deal about Paris, but we can speculate that, while he genuinely cares for Juliet as we can see from his profound grief, he might have treated her in this same way had he married her.
In A Midsummer Night’s Dream, William Shakespeare shows the futility in trying to control love. Not even the person in love can control it. Shakespeare constantly demonstrates the issues in trying to control love. Hermia attempting to control her love and she also has other people attempting to control it. Laws and social expectation can control people’s actions but they cannot control people’s feelings.
In the 17th century a man sought approval from the father, however in ‘Othello,’ Desdemona and Othello had confirmed their relationship through marriage before asking Brabantio. Moreover, Desdemona says ‘I am hitherto your daughter. But here’s my husband, ‘ the use of the word ‘but,’ showing that her marriage is more important than her than following her father’s orders, which at the time is a-typical since women were seen to be inferior to their fathers and would never defy them. Perhaps her defiance towards her father shows that she is prepared to disobey orders from men which could become problematic in a time where women were expected to obey. Nevertheless, it could be argued that the fact that she was prepared to go against convention infers that their relationship was based on true love, as she loved Othello enough to defy her father and was prepared to have an inter-racial relationship which were unusual in the 17th century, in fact racism is evident when; Iago calls Othello ‘thick-lips.’ Similarly the relationship between Catherine and Heathcliff in ‘Wuthering Heights’ seems happy and loving.
Capulet and Lady Capulet are responsible for Juliet’s actions. Without Juliet’s consent Capulet arranged a date of marriage to Paris. When Lady Capulet insisted that Juliet should marry Paris by telling her that he will make an excellent husband, Juliet was indifferent to her mother’s persuasions. Juliet portrays herself as a religious, obedient and sweet young girl so even though she was indifferent she
King Lear says to his daughters ‘if it be you that stirs these daughters’ hearts against their father’ which shows how he feels betrayed: a feeling he may have not felt if he had not been so foolish to dismiss Cordelia for her honesty. Cordelia, however, plays a smaller role in the first few Acts of the play as she is disowned by her father and is not visited. Gonerill and Regan are both cruel father and do not have the same loyalty we get the impression as Cordelia does. Cordelia says at the beginning of the play ‘what shall Cordelia speak, love and be silent’ which shows that she loves her father however doesn’t feel she should lie about how much she loves her father. This truthfulness however lands her in a bad place as she is disowned by her father for not professing her love.
Simultaneously she acts loyal to her husband by stating 'its my wedding ring, I never take it off.' Meg makes this layered remark to avoid creating unwanted rumours and gossip, but her face and slight smile reveals that she is intrigued and flirting with Darlington. In Wilde’s play, Lady Windermere doesn't enjoy Darlington’s obvious infatuation and tries to stop his constant compliments. Lady Windermere's strong Puritan values contrast Meg encouraging sexual tension between the two social elites. In Meg and her mothers first meeting, Mrs Erlynne is wearing the dress.
Lady Bracknell would rather have Gwendolen marry a man that knows nothing, rather than a man that knows everything. The love between the two couples is absolutely ridiculous and is based on nonsense. For example, Cecily says to Algernon: “It is always painful to part from people whom one has known for a very brief space of time. The absence of old friends, on can endure with equanimity” (Earnest 54). According to Miss Prism those who are unmarried simply live for pleasure and that marriage is not a pleasurable arrangement.