Essay: Shakespeare’s concept of a limitless love that conquers death

Love and death are integral parts of human life because they are both common, yet complicated. While everyone falls in love and ultimately dies, there are stark differences in the way people feel, perceive or experience and hence, describe, love and death. William Shakespeare, the greatest English poet of all times, sums up his positive perspective on love and death in the well known “Sonnet 116” whereas Christina Rossetti, a reputable poet herself, explores the similar elements in a different manner, in one of her best works, “Remember”. Remember is a poem of love, loss and longing narrated by one lover to another. Sonnet 116, on the other hand, is slightly different from the typical love poems because it is not a confession of feelings – it explores, instead, the crux and definition of true love. Both the poets are highly unique, in their own ways.
Hope and love often go hand in hand because hope is fundamental to all human actions and feelings. Sonnet 116 takes a highly hopeful and optimistic approach to love: love, it claims is an unstoppable force of nature that’s not only constant but also persistent, during the times of tests and trials. Beginning the Sonnet 116 with an alliteration, “let me not to the marriage of two minds”, (Shakespeare, line1), Shakespeare describes the union of minds, instead of bodies or even hearts, whereby, according to him, love is truly just a relationship of mental compatibility and intellectual attraction. To him, love is high above the flamboyant displays of exaggerated emotions, expressed through overwhelming hormones and bodies. In this poem, he tries to define love, in its purest, most unadulterated form. Hence, he keeps lust out of it. Sonnet 116 goes on to describe the components that clash with love using a paradox “love is not love” and repetitions “that alters when it’s alteration finds”, “or bends with the remover to remove” (Shakespeare, line 2 to line 4). The repetition only makes him sound more convincing when he argues that love does not change under changing circumstances because commitment, constancy and consistency are its primary elements. Love is not dependent on anything. Love does not wait for anything. Love continues even when unreciprocated or betrayed because true love doesn’t seek revenge – love is free of evil and vengeance. Remember, on the other hand, adapts a pessimistic and gloomy approach to love, keeping the tone despairing and despondent. Repetition of the verb “remember” is found throughout the poem, enabling Rossetti to request, or rather, implore the mysterious person she is addressing to, who could be her friend, lover, husband or any other close relation, to remember her and their bond of love, for eternity. Using the imagery of hands “when you can no more hold me by the hand” (Rossetti, line 3), Rossetti anticipates a time when her hands will slip away from her lover’s. The symbolism of handholding is also suggestive of a possession or bond that shall ultimately be demolished, in the end. Observing this from a different angle, Remember can also be seen as condemning the submissive role expected of women in the Victorian era. Since the speaker is a female, we see her as the receiver of the dominant male actions who touches her, “hold me by the hand”, tells her, “you tell me”, plans her future for her, “our future that you plann’d”, advices her and even prays for her “late to counsel then to pray”(Rossetti, lines 3,6 and 8). In this light, it can be assumed that Rossetti’s feelings and thoughts come from a furious place and that she is exasperated and spiteful of the inequality that exits between the sexes. Primarily, though, the symbols mentioned above are the universal gestures of love and romance. Moving forward, the phrase “Nor I half turn to go yet turning day” (Rossetti, line 4) exquisitely sums up the affection and tenderness in their relationship and how Rossetti could always turn back, come back or look back, at her lover, in the good old times, just to catch another glimpse of him. That, however, will not be happening ever again after her inevitable demise. Contrarily, Shakespeare argues that love does not depend on the presence of the beloved: It flourishes even during his or her absence because love is everlasting, immortal and self sufficient. Rossetti, on the other hand, using volta “yet if you should forget me for a while”(Rossetti, line 9), embraces the notion that she may be forgotten after death, and hence, it would be better for her lover to forget her then, instead of lamenting her loss forever. This particular idea perfectly captures the heartbreakingly intense emotion that Rossetti feels; she loves him so deeply that even in her state of sorrow and death, she is more worried about her lover getting unhappy. Such is the level of Rossetti’s selflessness. Unlike Shakespeare, Rossetti’s attitude to love facilities the likelihood of forgetting, yet also measures the benefit of this for her lover.
Examining the concept of time, despite acknowledging it as a cruel threat that tries its best to erase the stain of love, both poets react to time dissimilarity. Shakespeare describes love as a powerful force that not only stands up to time but also wins the battle against death, emerging out victories in the end. In Sonnet 116, Shakespeare personifies time, “Love’s not Time’s fool” (Shakespeare, line 9), describing the everlasting and unrelenting nature of love under the threats such as time, declaring that true love is not altered by it. Using imagery to represent youth “rosy lips and cheeks” (Shakespeare, line 9), Sonnet 116 tries to prove that love overshadows superficial elements such as physical characteristics, be them the color of skin, condition of body, youth or old age. According to him, true love transcends physical changes caused by age, time or illness; it defies time and everything in its power, including death. Here the love is like wine: the taste enhances with time. Death comes when the time is over but Shakespeare believes otherwise. Death, Shakespeare argues, cannot part true lovers because their union lasts even after they are gone. It is in their representation of time’s relationship to love that the two poems differ most evidently. Even though the word “death” never appears in this poem, “Remember” is certainly a poem that mainly deals with the component of death. Rossetti acknowledges that time may ultimately crush her lover’s memory of her. In the first line of Remember, she implores the beloved to remember her after she is “gone away”. It must be noticed that even though she uses the repetition of the verb “remember” throughout the poem, this develops from a kind request, “remember me” to an ultimate acceptance of the likelihood of failure ‘better by far you should forget…than to remember” because she ends up taking a more defeated road, believing her lover will not be able to remember her all his life, after her death (Rossetti, lines 1 and 13). Moreover, it is to be noticed that the word “remember” appears five times in this poem. In the first instance, it appears in the beginning of the line “remember me”, then, in second place “only remember’’, later, at third place “and afterwards remember” and lastly, the word “remember’’ appears at the end of the line “that you should remember’’(Rossetti, lines 1,7,10 and 14). This is in reference to the decaying of the memory and the distance that is growing between her and her lover, throwing light and emphasis upon the walls of demise, defeat and dejection that stand between them. In her usage of repetition in “day by day” (Rossetti, line 5) she discusses the intimate and highly sensitive routine of their relationship that shall be brutally destroyed by her death. Similar usage can be found in Sonnet 116 also. However, instead of giving away a feeling of frail routine, Shakespeare suggests the strong bond of love that exists strenuously amongst lovers. In her poem, Rossetti uses the euphemism “silent land” and “far away” for demise and afterlife, referring to it as a place where she could neither be seen nor heard (Rossetti, line 2). Death, for Rossetti, is the finishing point as it is an inevitable part of human life and relationships. “Silence” has both positive and negative connotations because on one hand, it points towards peace, calmness and slumber, as is also suggested in the final book of the New Testament; there is a revelation which describes heaven as a place of rest for all who enter (Revelation,14:13). It could also refer to a place where there can be no more intimacy, talking of future or holding hands, as gestures of love. Overall, Remember by Christina Rossetti offers the initially mentioned fatalistic and glum approach to love and death. She recollects that in their older meetings, there was an unwillingness to be away from her lover but moving away from each other is now a requisite that they both must deal with. Alternatively, the notion of “staying” can be looked as a reference to staying and enduring the memory of the beloved. Rossetti’s usage of the euphemism “darkness” (Rossetti, line 11) points towards a strong sense of the memory of her fading away after her death, becoming increasingly obscure and unknown. Darkness could also point towards the dark and depressing emotional state of her aching heart ; it could refer to time, as well – a dark time. Yet another euphemism used in the poem “corruption”, points towards both her decaying corpse and also the eventual fading away of the memory of her. Looking at this idea differently, “corruption” was a also a word used in the Bible referring to the physical deterioration of death as well as moral decline (Acts 13:36-37, Isaiah 38:17), whilst “darkness” was linked to hell (Matthew, 8:12). Lets not forget that since the mortality rate in Victorian Britain was considerably high, Rossetti herself might have seen and experienced the death of a loved one, leading to this pragmatic and solemn perspective towards death. Interestingly, some might also look at these symbols as the end of the relationship and not of life, but either ways, her attitude towards life, relationships, love and death remains similar: mournful and low spirited. Shakespeare, however, believes that love can endure obstacles, be them death or anything else. Both the poets have stark differences in their views on death and how it affects relationships.
Love often gives people a sense of direction, guiding them through the course of life. In Sonnet 116, the metaphors “it is an ever fixed mark” and “that looks on tempests and is never shaken” delineate the unrelenting nature of true love (Shakespeare, line 5 and 6). Shakespeare uses these metaphors and extended metaphors that brilliantly evaluate the strength and force of love because, powerful and dynamic, this kind of love defeats storms and does not loose hope in the face of adversities or challenges. He tries to highlight the fact that nature often tries to destroy love but love even fights the nature. Moving on, Shakespeare uses another metaphor for love “a star to every wondering ship” (Shakespeare, line 7), contrasting it with the north star, which is a guide for sailors who go astray. Just as a north star guides the “wondering” sailors through the complications at sea, true love guides lovers through the complications of life. In the final lines of Sonnet 116, Shakespeare makes a very daring and dramatic claim about the veracity of his bold statements using a hyperbole, which may also be seen as a paradox “If this be error and upon me proved, I never writ, nor no man ever loved,” (Shakespeare, line 13 and 14). Shakespeare puts his own credibility as a poet on stake by asserting that if proved wrong , he will never write again. Such is his faith on love, himself and his poetry. He further declares that if he is ever established wrong in his definitions of love, then no man or women have ever loved. In other words, if his claim is not right, the rest are all wrong. He is confident and fearless in his stance, compelling the reader to trust him completely. Rossetti’s sensitive, careful and cautious tone is missing from Shakespeare’s more ardent poem, overflowing with rhetorical flourishes (‘Oh no!’). Rossetti, in Remember, is not as daring in her claims. Her presentation of the noun “vestige” (Rossetti, line12) is a very significant one because it touches upon whatever will be left of her after her death, alluding to her thoughts that her lover shall recall after when she is no more. These thoughts will linger in his mind, become a part of his memory and haunt his existence for eternity. She seems conscious about being forgotten, which is why, considers these thoughts to be the only source by which she’ll live, long after she is gone, in her lover’s world. People die, but love doesn’t, which is why the memories of love stay in the heart forever, leading people through life and its harsh realities.
Concluding the ideas presented above, Shakespeare uses a variety of literary devices to support his concept of a limitless love that conquers death. Rossetti, however, keeping a position of defeat in the face of death, brings a sense of uncertainty and mystery into her final lines, interrogating her own earlier stance of the of the importance and effectiveness of memory. Thus, Shakespeare and Rossetti present different attitudes to love and death. Where Shakespeare speaks optimistically about love’s permanence, power and persistence, Rossetti resides on, and eventually comes to admit, its possible fall and instability.