Britney Le

Mrs. Mulvey/ Parrott

English 1P/ Period 1

17 March, 2017

Sweet Sorrow
Diane Arbus once stated, Love involves a peculiar unfathomable combination of

understanding and misunderstanding. Arbus is saying how love is complicated and it is a

combination of many things good and bad. In the play, Romeo and Juliet by William

Shakespeare, the author shows the readers how two people, Romeo and Juliet, from rivaling

houses fall in love which leads them to die in the end. Romeo Montague, from the house of

Montague falls in love with Juliet Capulet, from the house Capulet. These two families have

been feuding for many years. The feud of the two families lead the two lovers to die. In the

literary work, Pyramus and Thisbe by Ovid, the reader is introduced to two star crossed lovers,

Pyramus and Thisbe, who try to escape their own homes to visit each other in secret. They

successfully do so, but a misunderstanding occurs and it leads them to their deaths. Love is

complicated, it has many facets such as joy, passion and pain.

One facet of love is joy. Joy makes literature interesting because it shows the happy

aspect of love. Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare and Pyramus and Thisbe by Ovid

both show how love can be joyful. In the play, Romeo and Juliet when the nurse comes back to

deliver Romeos message to Juliet, she says, Then hie you hence to Friar Laurences cell, There

stays a husband to make you a wife (Shakespeare II/v/67-68). This quote is saying that Romeo
is waiting for Juliet in the cell of Friar Laurence so Friar Laurence can wed them. This quote

connects to the point that joy is a characteristic of love because the Nurse brings Juliet good

news of Romeo wanting to marry Juliet as soon as possible. In the myth, Pyramus and Thisbe

by Ovid, when the narrator is introducing the characters and the conflict of the story, the narrator

says, ...but lovers will discover everything; you were the first to find it, and you made that ceft a

passageway which speech could take (Ovid 17-22). This quote is saying how the two lovers

found a cleft in the wall that was separating them from seeing each other. They used that cleft in

order to communicate with each other because they can still hear each other through it. This

quote connects to the point that joy is an aspect of love because even though the lovers cant see

each other, they can still communicate with one another. Their love is so deep and powerful that

they will try to find anything they can in order to communicate. Readers can come to the

conclusion that joy is a facet of love because it shows the gleeful aspect of love.

Another facet of love is passion because it shows how love is strong and you can not

control it. In the play, Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare, when Romeo first sees Juliet

at the Capulet party, he says, O, she doth teach the torch to burn bright! It seems she hangs upon

the cheek of night like a rich jewel in an Ethiopians ear (Shakespeare I/v/42-44). In this

quote, Romeo is describing how beautiful Juliet is and he expresses his passion for her. This

quote shows how passion is a characteristic of love because he is expressing how beautiful she

is. He is expressing a very strong feeling he has, even when he is alone and talking to himself.

In the myth, Pyramus and Thisbe by Ovid, when the lovers find the cleft in the wall, they say,

O jealous wall, why do you block our path? Oh wouldn't it be better if you let our bodies join

each other fully, or if that is asking for too much, just stretch your fissure wide enough to let us
kiss! (Ovid 27-31). The lovers are saying that the cleft is not enough, they want to feel each

other. They want to be able to kiss each other without anything blocking their way. This

connects to the point that passion is an aspect of love because their love grew stronger for each

other as time went on. They had so passion that they started yelling at the wall because they at

least wanted to kiss. This shows that lovers will do anything to try and be together. Readers can

come to the conclusion that passion is a facet of love because it shows how powerful love can be.

The last facet of love is pain. It shows the desolation of love and how it can also be

agonizing, not only happiness. In the play, Romeo and Juliet, when the nurse finds Juliet is

dead, Lady Capulet walks in and she says, My child, my only life! Revive, look up or I will

die with thee! (Shakespeare IV/v/19-20). Lady Capulet is conveying how sad she is when she

thinks that her only daughter, her only heir is dead. She is saying that if Juliet doesnt open

her eyes or wake up then she will die alongside her. This links to the point that pain is a

component of love because love isnt all unicorns and rainbows. When something happens to

the one you love, you feel dead inside. You feel like you can not go on with life knowing

something bad has happened to your loved one. In Pyramus and Thisbe, when Pyramus leaves

to go to the tomb to meet up with Thisbe, he finds her bloody shawl and he says, Now this

same night will see two lovers lose their lives: she was the more worthy of long life: its I who

bear the guilt for this (Ovid 78-81). Pyramus is saying that since Thisbe is dead he will die

too. Hes saying that he will no longer live without her and that he is the cause of her death

because he had her go to the tomb by herself at the dead of night. This connects to the point that

pain is an aspect of love because love can cause you pain. When you love someone, it hurts

when something bad happens to them. You dont know what to do so youd rather kill yourself
than live without them. In conclusion, pain is a facet of love because it shows the sorrowful

aspect of love.

Love is a very complicated feeling, you can endure joy, passion, and pain at the same

time. Love can be joyus because if its either marriage or communication with the one you love,

it doesnt matter what you do with them. As long as youre with them, it can feel like the best

feeling in the world. Love can also be passionate because its a very intense feeling. Love can

make you do things that you have never done before, it can take over you and make you into a

new person. Lastly, love can be painful because it can be sorrowful. When something bad

happens to the one you love, you dont know what to do with yourself. You feel like you cant

do anything anymore now that theyre not in your life. The lesson you can pull out from Romeo

and Juliet and Pyramus and Thisbe is these violent delights have violent ends, which means

if you go into love very fast, it can end very fast. If you want to savor something delightful then

you would want to ease into it and you will be able to keep it longer, but if you rush into

something then it will end very quickly. Pieces of literature like Romeo and Juliet or Pyramus

and Thisbe are interesting to read because they all have the aspects of love which make them

interesting. They can be joyus, passionate and sorrowful at the same time, which makes the

readers want to find out what happens next.