“O, Romeo, Romeo! wherefore art thou Romeo?”: Is love the same as it was over 400 years ago?

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I have fallen in love before with a very good friend of mine. We spent so much of our time together. We were completely infatuated with each other. What would our relationship have been like 400 years ago? Would we have ever even met? I like to think that we would have, but what if we had not? Relationships between a man and woman have changed so much over the past centuries. The problem is that they have not changed for the better; they have changed for the worse.

Love began millions upon millions of years ago. Although the very beginning of relationships began way before Greek and Romanic love, this was the major turning point in relationships between men and women. Greek love began the lusting after another person. The men were more into how women appeared, and how much dowry would be awarded with the woman they married (Brewer et al.). These two groups of people turned the idea of love as something to be treasured, into a lustful, only full of pleasure part of life. Prostitution was becoming very “popular” during that of the Romanic love era. So many men and women got into relationships outside of their marriages, also known as affairs (Brewer et al.). This was showing that no true love was in these relationships. Even though it is known that most people did have these affairs and began thinking this way, not everyone did.

Ancient Greek and Roman customs were very brutal toward the women in their societies. Ancient Greek and Roman lifestyles were very much the same as they were different. The Ancient Greeks controlled their wives and daughters. The women remained in the home at all hours of the day. Their fathers and husbands were always gone during the day (“Manners &”). Women were to come out of their homes only with th...

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"Roman Weddings." Favorite Traditions. 2011. Web. 16 Mar. 2011. .

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Shakespeare, William. The Complete Works Of William Shakespeare. Maynard: Borders, 1911. Print.

Sheen, Fulton J. The Divine Romance,. New York: Century, 1930. Print.

Stefoff, Rebecca. Marriage. New York: Marshall Cavendish Benchmark, 2007. Print.

Von Hildebrand, Alice. By Love Refined: Letters to a Young Bride. Manchester: Sophia Institute, 1989. Print.

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