Chance Pruiett
Eng 102-016 Winter
Colin Hester
Essay—Shakespeare
Love in Shakespeare
In John Madden’s 1998 Academy award winning film Shakespeare in Love, a bet of fifty
pounds between Colin Forth’s Lord Wessex and Joseph Fienne’s Will Shakespeare occurs and
Judi Dench’s Queen Elizabeth 1 is the judge. The argument is that a playwright can reveal “the
very truth and nature of love.” The last scene reveals that Dench’s Queen Elizabeth rules in
favor of Will forcing Wessex to give up the money he bet to Qwyneth Paltrow’s Tom who
eventually gives it to Will. The question is does the film and the play within the film,
Shakespeare’s immortal Romeo and Juliet, actually reveal the “truth and nature of love?” Indeed
it does, Fienne’s Will and Paltrow’s Viola experience that “truth and nature of love,” because
they both share the intimate feelings of passion, devotion, and true friendship.
The famous Will Shakespeare was born in 1564 and was the first of eight children, but
didn’t establish himself as any sort of playwright until 1592 in London. Shakespeare created his
immortal Romeo and Juliet In the mid-1590s but the original story of the two lover’s dodging
forced marriage goes all the way back to the 5th Century ACE. Shakespeare’s immortal Romeo
and Juliet was his version of Arthur Brooke’s The Tragicall Historye of Romeus and Juliet,
which was written before Shakespeare was born. Shakespeare used the same plot about courtly
love and made the story his by changing it a bit, and eventually he became very famous.
The plot involved the evolvement of “Courtly Love” into Romantic love (Madden).
Courtly love was the loveless, arranged marriages of that time, where the women were placed on
the highest pedestal, and you didn’t get to choose who you got to love and ultimately marry.
There are many pedestals in Romeo and Juliet. In Madden’s Shakespeare in Love, when Thomas
Kent is holding auditions for his role in the play they’re putting on, he is on a pedestal while the
actors audition far below and are trying to win the role of Will. Viola reads a part of one of his
plays and Will quickly descends from his pedestal to chase Viola. Will chases Viola through the
town and across the Thames River in London, all the way to her father’s house. Eventually Will
goes to Viola’s father’s dance and finds Viola dancing, while he once again is on a pedestal, he
comes down from it and runs into Viola but when he does he finds himself in the moment of his
passion being unable to speak. In Madden’s Shakespeare in Love, he uses a line from
Shakespeare’s sonnet 18 when Will says, “Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?”(Madden)
This line that Will says is a way of showing his passion toward Viola. Passion isn’t the only
important feeling one has when in love.
Devotion in Madden’s Shakespeare in love and Romeo and Juliet is evident throughout.
In Shakespeare in Love, Viola starts reading lines from one of Will’s plays in her audition, which
shows that she is into him enough to follow him and his plays. He shows his devotion when she
spouts part of his own play in an audition and he chases after her through town and across a river
because he wants to talk to her. Them showing interest in each other when Will is actually
married to Anne Hathaway, and Viola is promised to Lord Wessex thanks to her father, just goes
to show that when in real love they are capable of being devoted to their partner. This devotion
shows that they are willing to fight for true love against the planned marriages with Courtly love.
At the end of Romeo and Juliet and Shakespeare in Love, there is a prime example of devotion
that Romeo shows. When Juliet is lying down in her “deathbed,” Romeo gets some poison and
takes it while lying next to Juliet because he is in true love, even thought Juliet wakes up to find
Romeo dead next to her. It only shows Romeo’s love and devotion to Juliet when he took the
poison because he didn’t want to go on living without his love Juliet.
Many people have devotion in their relationships with their significant other. It’s one of
those things that are needed for a successful relationship; otherwise it could easily go downhill.
An example of a relationship that went downhill quick is my aunt and her ex-husband. They
didn’t devote themselves to each other, and my aunt’s husband started cheating on her, which
upon finding out my aunt did the same, and it quickly spiraled downhill from there. They split
up and he moved to Oregon to marry his distant cousin, while my aunt kept more of a normal life
and is with a nice man who just proposed to her. They will be getting married within the next
year. Just watching this happen between them shows me that they may have gotten married to
early to know that they were right for each other. Devotion is a very important part of being in
love. In Madden’s Shakespeare in Love, Will is very devoted to being with Viola, as is she to
him. Devotion may be important but isn’t actually the most important part of being in love.
The most important aspect of being in love is being friends with the one you are with.
Romeo and Juliet display true friendship toward each other in every version of the production.
Romeo and Juliet cannot be separated just as Will and Viola when he’s chasing her through the
town. They never want to be apart, especially because they are finding ‘romantic’ love and not
settling with the courtly love they are supposed to have. When Romeo thinks Juliet is dead, he
doesn’t want to go on living without Juliet so he kills himself with poison. In Madden’s
Shakespeare in Love, Will shows not only true friendship, but deep love for Viola when saying
goodbye he says, “Goodbye my love, a thousand times goodbye” (Madden). He exclaims how
much he loves her, being twitter pated and completely sincere. True friendship is truly needed in
a loving relationship. You need to want to be with your partner all the time if you’re in love with
them. If you are good friends with your loved one, then it will make it easier to live every day
being with them.
In Madden’s Shakespeare in Love, Will finds true love in Viola. Not only does Will find
love, but he finds the Queen’s definition of love, “the very truth and nature of love.” Even
though Will and Viola don’t tie the knot they experienced true romantic love not just courtly
love. They shared the intimate feelings of passion, devotion and true friendship, which is how
they experience “the very truth and nature of love” according to the Queen.
Works Cited
"Shakespeare in Love (1998) - Plot Summary." The Internet Movie Database (IMDb). Web. 08 Mar. 2010.
<http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0138097/plotsummary>.
"Everything Shakespeare - History." FIELD OF THEMES ENTRANCE. Web. 08 Mar. 2010.
<http://www.field-of-themes.com/shakespeare/shakehis.html>.
"Courtly Love." Students.depaul.edu. Web. 08 Mar. 2010.
<http://condor.depaul.edu/~dsimpson/tlove/courtlylove.html>.
Shakespeare in Love. Dir. John Madden. Perf. Will Shakespeare. 1998. DVD.