Literary Love

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Love - possibly the most powerful four-letter word known to man. A feeling and emotion so strong that it makes it nearly impossible to put its meaning into words. However, it is also one of the most explored subjects in the world of literature. Whether in a comedy or a tragedy, the theme of love is very often expressed. This theme can be expressed in many different ways, for example, positively causing everyone to live happily ever after in a fairytale type of world, negatively being the cause of death and anywhere in between. In Aristophanes Lysistrata and Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, the theme of love is present throughout moving the story along through many trials and tribulations; however, Lysistrata is more of a love of beliefs of freedom empowered by the drive for sexual desires where as A Midsummer Night's Dream is the search for true love between young couples.

In Aristophanes Lysistrata, the women of the country do not agree with the war that their husbands are off fighting. They are firm believers in peace and harmony and are fighting their own war for what they believe, "Ah'd climb up Mount Taygetos if Ah just had a chance of seeing peace from theah!" (I.i. ) Lampito declares to the other women who all agree. Therefore, they have taken an oath to not engage in sexual activities with their husbands until they agree to end the war. This is done out of love - love for their country and its peaceful nature, love for their husbands and not wanting to become widows losing them in war, love for their children with the hope their children will grow up with their fathers, and love for one another and the power that they all hold when bonded together by this strong sense of love for a common cause.

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...for what they believe in and go off to live their lives happily the way they want to rather than they way others want them lived for them. In both stories love creates passion, which leads to a rebellion, but all result in a peaceful happy ending.

Love comes in many different forms and for many different reasons. Not many people can explain love or even their love for something or someone. It is simply a powerful state that comes over oneself and cannot be helped. Love makes people do many things. Some makes people act foolish when in love, others act as strongly as the force itself. True love is a cause that should be fought for until the death. Lysistrata and A Midsummer Night's Dream are two examples of very different love stories but yet both with love as a central theme. Because as with true love, when writing about love, there are simply no rules

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