Strife and Love

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were because of the two families’s rivalry and scorn, but their love had brought the families together in the end. In short, their love was essential important for this outcome to be even possible;, without their deaths, the hatred between the families would have not been resolved, meaning the paradox of love vs. hate is once again present:, with hate creating love, and love mending fixing hate, and creating new love. Considering all of the evidence provided, the love vs. hate paradox is portrayed almost anywhere in the end of the play, the deaths of the lovers and the peace between the families is all created and resolved from those two words, love and hate.

Finally, in Shakespeare’sFor the last topic, shifting to another work of Shakespeare is necessary, t The Taming of the Shrew, however more specifically, the relationship of two characters within the play, Katherine and Petruchio, and how the odd romance between these two individuals represents the paradox. When Petruchio first meets Kate, he had been warned about her fiery and angry personality, and decides to take an amusing route in order to deal with Kate. As he prepares to face her, he devises his plan, “I’ll attend her here and woo her with some spirit when she comes. Say that she rail; why then I’ll tell her plain she sings sweetly as a nightingale,”(2.1.168-171). Quite obviously, the latter is using sweet, kind words to counter Kate’s abrasive insults, as though he is trying to woo and anger her at the same time, which of course ends with him getting slapped by Kate. Connecting this whimsical scene to the paradox is fairly simple, Petruchio uses his unusual way of complementing Kateher to try outsmart her, while she in return, is well aware of his attempt of trying aggravate her, and continues to try harshfully slander him, love fighting hate, both equal in strength, firing back and forth. Later on, after their forced marriage, or rather Kate’s forced marriage, Petruchio once again formulates a plan, and this time his plan is toa plan to tame Kate, and cure her of her bitter nature. In Act 4, Scene 1, he tells the audience his plan, after acting unusually for the beginning part of the scene, “This is a way to kill a wife with kindness, and thus I’ll curb her mad and headstrong humor. He that knows better hot to tame a shrew, now let him speak; ‘tis charity to show,”(4.1.185-187). Once again, Petruchio is stating that in order to tame Kate, he needs to “give her a taste of her own medicine”, or act in an aggressive manner and see how she reacts to the situation. Relating to the paradox with this is also quite straightforward, Petruchio manipulatively uses the is using his tactics of being angry and threatening in order to tame Kate, almost like hate, but is also an act of his love for her, seeing that he wants to help her change her attitude in order for her to fit society’s standards. In the end hate is used as love, a paradox that sounds quite confusing if not explained. With the relationship of Kate and Petruchio, the idea of love vs. hate is shown quite clearly, as the two characters’ hate transforms transcends into love, and in the end, the two fall in love, although not plainly stated.

As Martin Luther King Jr. once stated, “Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.” The meaning of love and hate are two completely different things, and yet one needs the other to have order like yin and yang. The two create an strong paradox, because in many caseswith love is only possible with hate;, without hate, the stories of Romeo and Juliet, and The Taming of the Shrew, would not exist. Shakespeare weaved created two tales of romance and drama to describe this paradox, using all sorts of literary devices. TTo sum it up, the paradox of love vs. hate is proven to be an “undeniable fact of life”, having a strong influence on both literature and the real world, as love is not possible without hate, and hate is not possible without love.