Language of love yesterday and today

In the present work I am going to compare Shakespeare’s language of love to with the way in which modern adolescents express their feelings. In order to do this, I have watched two short films where two teenagers have to communicate their sentiments.

In the fist clip a student, during a French exam, reflects on his relationship with his best fried. He immediately realises how difficult it is to express something personal, instead of doing grammar exercise or a math test. He decides to write about his real best friend and not to make one up. The student tells how he shares many activities with his friend, indeed they do everything together. His friend is passing a bad period, because his parents are divorcing. During the clip, the boy makes the audience understand that he is in love with him. On one hand he is afraid of rejection, but on the other he wants to be sincere with his friend. Above all the main obstacle is that they are both boys and he is worried about what people might say. He decides to write a letter confessing his love, instead of keeping it all inside.

In the second clip the protagonists are a boy and a girl. He looks interested in her and wants to get to know her. She is listening to music and this is the reason why they start to communicate writing post its. They do not look at each other because they are too shy. It seems like she is using the music as an excuse, because she is too timid. They go on writing notes until she asks him if he wants to listen to her special song. Her music is silent, indeed she cannot hear or speak. He tells her that he does not mind and she is still beautiful.

Comparing these two clips to Shakespeare’s language of love, it is easy to understand that the problems of expressing love have not changed since Shakespeare’s day. Indeed feelings are always the same in different historical periods. Just as Romeo was hesitant about confessing his love to Juliet, in the same way the two modern teenagers are dubious about expressing their sentiments. It goes without saying that every lover has the same uncertainty, because he is afraid of rejection..

In the first clip the student imagining his friend, desires the same parts of the body described by Shakespeare (eyes, cheek, lips). Although in the second clip the two teenagers stick their notes on the same parts of the body.

In conclusion it can be seen how Shakespeare’s language of love continues to be contemporary and to be relevant to profound emotions felt today.