R&J and Ge Compare and Contrast

Dai 1 Kevin Dai Word Count: 1146 Compare and Contrast (Romeo and Pip) Love is a topic that innumerable authors delight in writing about. In each of their masterpieces, love is a driving force in he or she’s makeup. The main characters of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet and Dicken’s Great Expectations, Romeo and Pip, are no exception. Although Romeo and Pip live in very different environments, love affects their maturity, loyalty, and fluctuating mood. Love drastically changes both Pip and Romeo’s maturity throughout both works. In the beginning of the play, Romeo sorrowfully conveys that Rosaline “[lives uncharmed] [f]rom Love’s weak childish bow…”(Kinsella 777). Romeo, starting off deep in ecstacy, describes love as a “weak childish bow” to hint that he himself believes the love driving his sadness is immature. As for Pip, he admits that “when [he] loved Estella…, [he] loved her simply because [he] found her irresistible” (Dickens 181). Pip’s statement reveals that his love is a shallow lust and he immaturely desires Estella even though she promises pain, also supported by Maria Ioannou’s writing that Pip had a “boy's love by the erotic element”. When warned of death, Romeo cockily tells Juliet that “there lies more peril in [her] eye / [t]han twenty of [her kinsmen’s] swords” (Kinsella 799). Romeo believes love ascends life and death. His impulsive passion leads him to

Dai 2 forget family background and consequences. In Great Expectations, Pip confesses to Biddy that “[he] wanted to be a gentleman on [Estella’s] account” (Dickens 100). Pip shallowly believes that Estella only desires wealth in a man and he sacrifices his friendship and values to acquire Estella’s love. After his life and death experience, Romeo realizes that “[he] must be gone and live, or stay and die” (Kinsella 835). Romeo lets his future love guide him instead of permitting his initial drunk-off-of-love behavior to take it away for temporary pleasures, a sign of love-driven maturity. In

Cited: Kinsella, Kate. Prentice Hall Literature: Timeless Voices, Timeless Themes. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education, Inc. 2002. Print. Dickens, Charles. Great Expectations. Mineola, NY: Dover Publications, Inc. 2001. Print. LaFontaine, David. "Shakespeare in (same-sex) love." The Gay & Lesbian Review Worldwide 19.4 (2012): 19+. Literature Resource Center. Web. 27 Mar. 2013. Ioannou, Maria. " '[S]imply because I found her irresistible ': female erotic power and feminism in Great Expectations." Dickens Quarterly 29.2 (2012): 142+. Literature Resource Center. Web. 28 Mar. 2013.