If the King of Navarre asked the Princess of France to pop a back zit for him, do you think she would have done it?
After reading "Love's Labour's Lost", I've been thinking about the actual labor of love. I personally don't feel like the characters in the play really labored for love, or that they really loved each other at all. What they were was infatuated. My sister had a religion professor once tell her that,
"Infatuation is a guy who is as hot as Taylor Lautner, as smart as Albert Einstein, as funny as Jim Carrey, as noble as Winston Churchhill, and as athletic as Rocky Balboa. Love is a guy who is as noble as Jim Carrey, as smart as Rocky Balboa, as athletic as Albert Einstein, as funny as Winston Churchhill, looks nothing like Taylor Lautner, yet you adore him anyway."
What I really wanted to get at with this post it that love, being in love, staying love, showing your love, etc. is a lot of work, and it's a work that will never be over. It's more than writing love letters and swooning and sighing (although those things are nice). And playing tricks on someone just for spiteful fun, isn't the best way to nurture love for someone. I myself am by far no expert on love, only being married a little over three months, but you don't even have to be in love to see that the characters in "Love's Labour's Lost" aren't really in love.
After reading "Love's Labour's Lost", I've been thinking about the actual labor of love. I personally don't feel like the characters in the play really labored for love, or that they really loved each other at all. What they were was infatuated. My sister had a religion professor once tell her that, 
That is an awesome quote! I might have to steal it from you..
ReplyDeleteI agree totally with them being more infatuated than in love. And to answer your first question, no, I don't think she would. Ha.
But infatuation can lead to love, and the inexperienced might think that they are in love, when they are really not. So the lord's might have thought that they were really in love, just weren't.
Yes, I think what the characters in Love's Labor's Lost were experiencing was infatuation. And I think any parent of these crazy characters would have been very happy to see the Princess of France and her maidens leave for a year, instead of get married in the end like other romantic tales. Maybe after a year, they would either have grown into love, like you were saying, Martina, or discover that it was simply infatuation going on. It would be interesting to see a Love' Labor's Lost one year later epilogue or something.
ReplyDeleteThe thing that I find interesting is how insistently an infatuated person both acts to impress their lover and tell others how incredible that person is. It all seems much more like an act than a real, genuine concern and care. Is it only the passage of time that can cultivate the more mature kind of love?
ReplyDeleteHaha, Erik, knowing how long you were engaged makes me not able to take that comment seriously. Because I'm sure you really do love your wife, I'm going to say that time doesn't have too much to do with it. I think personality is a more deciding factor. Some people can handle love happening quickly, and others can't. I wonder if some of the lords would have been okay getting married to the ladies, and other's would not. They don't seem like complex enough characters to be able to tell... Maybe Berowne could handle it.
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ReplyDeleteI would still argue that mature love is never instantaneous. No matter how compatible personalities may be, there must exist a depth in relationships that only time provides: There are some things that only suffering and fighting together can bring, like that profound love, or, "true love". To be honest I do think that I am still very much infatuated with my wife, while now and again we start to get glimpses of that deeper, more mature kind. I appreciate the complement :-), but still think "personality" as a factor that leads to strong bond is not so important. I do think the "kind of person" you are will ultimately decide the ability to truly love... is that what you mean? Being an honest or responsible person could have helped their relationships, I think, more than the way their persona is different from others'.
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