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3 expressions of Love

Humanities is a field that deals with studying various aspects such as philosophy, history,

literature, music, religion, and language, among others, intending to help us reflect where we are

from and illuminate where we are headed. Love is a common theme in different branches of

humanities because it is evident among all the humanities highlighted above. The only thing that

may differ is how love is depicted, expressed in different humanities. The subject of love was

chosen for this study because love is the primary factor that binds together all of humankind. It

traverses all physical borders, thus ensuring peaceful co-existence among humanities. This paper

will elaborate on how love is depicted in the Birth of Venus, Sonnet 47, and Romeo and Juliet.

Love is depicted through literature in Shakespeare's Sonnet 147. Shakespeare is a poet,

playwright, and actor who greatly influenced literature in the 16th century in England. This period

is also considered the renaissance period when art, literature, economics, and politics were

undergoing tremendous changes. He, therefore, helped revolutionize theatre and literature

through most of his renowned works like Romeo and Juliet, Othello, and Hamlet, among others.

Sonnet 147 is a poem in Shakespeare's Sonnet series employed by Shakespeare to explore

subjects such as infidelity, lust, homoeroticism, and misology. In Sonnet 147, Shakespeare
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employs metaphors to compare love to an illness that has affected the speaker who still desires

for that love, which makes him ill (Grime).

The speaker elaborates that his love is similar to a sickness that has deprived him of the

ability to exercise rational thoughts and behaviors, thereby making his lower nature take control

of him. The speaker openly elaborates that he longs for the woman sexually. Despite being aware

that such desire is unhealthy for him, he still feels the need to pursue this desire which he calls a

"sickly appetite" (Grime). The speaker further illustrates that even though his desire is

dangerous, he stills feeds from this unhealthy appetite which has reduced him to a degraded state

because his reason has abandoned him. Sonnet 47 perfectly elaborates how love can ruin an

individual’s life by consuming all the senses capable of reason and making an individual

miserable (Grime). Through this poem, Shakespeare elaborated how individuals may not act or

think rationally due to being involved in a toxic and damaging relationship. Thus, love can be

equated to a cancerous disease that slowly damages you from the inside.

The theme of Love is also depicted in visual arts through Botticelli's Birth of Venus

painting in 1485. Botticelli made the painting during the Renaissance era when Europe was

undergoing artistic, cultural, economic, and political rebirth after the end of the Middle Age

(Takac). Botticelli drew his inspiration to venture into art form Masaccio and the tapestries of the

Pollaiuolo brothers. His paintings were both secular and religious, and they majorly portrayed

women as incredibly beautiful creatures. The painting, which is a depiction of a mythical figure

Venus, a goddess of beauty emerging from a shell, is a symbolic representation of how the

civilization during the renaissance era was reborn as well as the social, cultural, and political

shifts that took place after the end of the Middle Age (Takac).
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Venus and the shell she is standing on are the main focus of the photo. She is aware of

her nakedness, and she appears to be one of the most beautiful women in art history. Venus'

posture, where she is depicted covering her breast with her right hand and using her left hand to

cover her groin, is a symbolic posture used during this period to depict beautiful women who

were a symbolism of love (Takac). Additionally, Venus is posing nude in the photo. This

symbolizes her purity and innocence, a version of a "Celestial Venus" who symbolized a love

that existed in the external and divine. According to Plato, Venus symbolizes love because she is

an earthly goddess who inspired physical love among humans and a heavenly goddess who

inspired intellectual love (Takac). The Birth of Venus has effectively expressed love because

Venus has been used as the ideal female representation of beauty and inspires love among

individuals both physically and intellectually.

Love can further be depicted through films such as Romeo and Juliet, based on William

Shakespeare's literature The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet. The play is set during the Middle age

when the Virgin Mary was idolized by many women and men alike. Thus, women were not

treated as sex objects during this period but were instead venerated (Romeo and Juliet).

Additionally, William Shakespeare, from whom the original play is borrowed, wrote the play at a

time when chivalry was a prevalent culture because the knights did everything to ensure their fair

ladies were honored, and this included even having to lay down your life for your lady. The play,

therefore, helped paint out the concept of platonic love, which beautiful and spiritual.

The play begins when Romeo is in love with Rosaline, although the language used in the

opening scenes depicts a less mature love than Romeo’s love for Juliet later on. In the opening

scenes, Romeo also thinks that Love is an insidious disease that would only seek more sadness,

as evidenced through his comparison of love to smoke and fire as well as "sea," which he uses to
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symbolize his lovers' tears (Romeo and Juliet). Romeo and Juliet’s first meeting is also described

romantically. This is seen when Romeo describes Juliet's kiss as tender, which shows that Juliet

has pure intentions and true emotions. When Rome goes to find Juliet in the tomb and believes

that she is dead, he takes poison and dies, and shortly after, Juliet awakens only to kill herself to

enable her to be with her lover in the afterlife (Romeo and Juliet). Romeo and Juliet were used to

depicting Romantic and true love, as evident through Romeo and Juliet’s actions for each other

throughout the play.

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Work Cited

“Romeo and Juliet.” IMDb. IMDb.com (Mar 28, 1997) https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0117509/

Grime, Linda, S. "Shakespeare Sonnet 147: "My love is as a fever, longing still." Owl cation.

(May 10, 2021). https://owlcation.com/humanities/Shakespeare-Sonnet-147-My-love-is-

as-a-fever-longing-still

Takac, Balasz. “The Birth of Venus - Breaking Down the Meaning of Famous Botticelli

Painting. WIDEWALLS. (Dec 9, 2018). https://www.widewalls.ch/magazine/the-birth-of-

venus-botticelli-painting