Abstract:
This paper will explore the theme of love in the dramas of Shakespeare through an
examination of it in a comedy, Midsummer Night’s Dream and a tragedy, Antony and
Cleopatra. The theme of love discussed here will be that between men and women, also
referred to as heterosexual love. These include attraction, sex, possession, dispossession,
aggression, separation, sorrow, and eternal sensitivity of love. Love emphasizes the light
of the winners and darkness of the losers. Shakespeare illustrates the psychological states
of those who sacrifice their lives because of a dispossession of the object of their love.
Midsummer Night’s Dream explains the wonder and the gap between the love. It is
my view that Midsummer Night’s Dream describes the incidents of relationships and
powers rooted in the society. Antony-Cleopatra is one of the popular Shakespearean
love dramas. The drama, Antony-Cleopatra becomes a tragedy, because of its content of
the force possession of love by belonging to another to defeat the other, national power
and sexuality. Though the lovers, Antony and Cleopatra both unluckily sacrifice their
lives, their love becomes immortal. Here, I study about the eternality of Shakespeare’s
dramas, which presents love successfully. The facts he presents about love are even valid
for today. In my conclusion, I see the existence of Shakespeare’s concern of love even in
the modern society.
