








































Aisthesis      Volume 7,  201611

Shakespeare’s Use of Romantic Relationships:
Western Romanticism Causing Inaccurate Readings 
and Misinterpretations

by Leah Huls

Introduction
 A basic search of the web quickly provides endless 
articles and websites devoted to the idea that William 
Shakespeare wrote the greatest love stories of all time.  
For example, the web article “9 Famous Quotes on 
Love by William Shakespeare” tells the world that 
“The most well-known playwright in the world was 
a true romantic.”  Similarly, Romeo and Juliet is often 
pointed to as one of the truest, most selfless, and epic 
love stories ever created.  Despite its tragic ending, 
American society tends to succumb to its western 
ideals of romance and skips over the multiple red 
flags within the otherwise pure and heart-breaking 
story of two young, star-crossed lovers.  Examples of 
the world’s love-affair with Romeo and Juliet can be 
found in many places.  In “‘How Silver-Sweet Sound 
Lovers’ Tongues’: The music of love and death in 
Franco Zeffirelli’s Romeo and Juliet,” Samantha Yin 
focuses her entire performance review around the 
idea of how the music, based on love as defined in 
the twenty-first century United States, is what keeps 
the audience in tune with the emotions Shakespeare 
intended between the love-struck Romeo and Juliet.  
Brittany L. Wright and her colleagues, H. Colleen 
Sinclair and Kristina B. Hood, have a belief in this 
iconic love that is so resolute they conduct an entire 
research study on how the strength of a twenty-first 
century couple is affected when faced with the kinds 
of “social disapproval” about which Shakespeare 
wrote.
 Much Ado About Nothing is another of Shakes-
peare’s well-known plays, beloved for its light-
hearted, comedic romance.  Although the content 
and circumstances differ greatly from that of Romeo 
and Juliet, the couples in Much Ado About Nothing 
are similarly revered by their audiences for their 
relatable and heart-warming relationships.  For 
example, Dolora G. Cunningham writes of both 
the primary couple, Benedick and Beatrice, and 
secondary couple, Claudio and Hero, as men and 
women whose “movement from error and self-

concern toward love’s truth is initiated by forces 
outside themselves” which is “carried onward in 
spite of their pride in what they think they know and 
feel” (263).  Even though Thomas J. Scheff argues in 
his article, “Gender Wars: Emotions in “Much Ado 
about Nothing,”” that the relationships “take place 
within a framework of physical violence” and involve 
“emotional violence,” Scheff also works within the 
mindset that each couple contains a devout love by 
the end of the play (152).
 While it is widely believed Romeo and Juliet and 
Much Ado About Nothing show Shakespeare to be a 
romantic genius, a thorough investigation into the 
eventual marital unions within both plays suggests 
these beliefs to be falsely based.   Love, as it is known 
and defined by a twenty-first century American 
audience, is nowhere to be found within either of 
these plays.  Certainly, there are copious instances 
of infatuation or lustfulness between characters, but 
Shakespeare does not develop any of the three 
mentioned couples’ interests into a mutually held 
love.  Instead, it appears Shakespeare writes in the 
suggestive glances, loaded exchanges, and obsessions 
to further one of his other, ulterior literary aims. 
 This article argues Romeo and Juliet and Much 
Ado About Nothing show Shakespeare uses women 
and their various attributes as a means to an end 
for men, an end other than romantic love.  Drawing 
on specific relationships of characters in both main 
and supporting roles, this article questions whether 
Shakespeare’s plays contain elements of true love or 
the ulterior selfish motives of his male roles.  Through 
the analysis of the romantic relationships in Romeo 
and Juliet and Much Ado About Nothing, it becomes 
clear the main motive of each of Shakespeare’s male 
characters can be classified into one or both of the 
categories of physical enjoyment and easing societal 
pressures. 
 



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Aisthesis      Volume 7,  201612

Twenty-First Century Love
 Before moving further into the analysis of Shakes-
peare’s use of love and romance, twenty-first century 
love needs to be given a definition.  As the measuring 
stick against which this article judges Shakespeare’s 
couples, the kind of love deemed healthy in the 
twenty-first century comes from a mutual attraction 
and affection from both parties.  While love it-
self might have been defined differently during 
Shakespeare’s life in the sixteenth century, the efforts 
of feminists, beginning in the late twentieth century 
and continuing into today, are continually changing 
the way women are looked at in relationships.  
Romantically, this change rolls over into a different 
power dynamic from the male-dominated unions 
from earlier centuries.  
 Women gain increasingly more power in every 
aspect of their lives as the Western society continues 
to be influenced by dedicated feminists.  For example, 
journalist Gloria Steinem is responsible for countless 
pieces of intensive journalism and the founding of or 
involvement with numerous foundations, all of which 
further women’s rights and education.  Steinem, and 
others like her, support the empowerment of women, 
in whatever form that may take (“Gloria”).  Because 
of this move for equality, status no longer holds 
significant weight when a man and a woman decide 
to join together in marriage.  While Shakespeare’s 
female characters would not have been able to boost 
their status through marriage, twenty-first century 
women also give the idea of raising their status 
through marriage little thought as today’s women do 
not need a man to climb the social ladder.  With the 
move for empowered women filling today’s western 
society, twenty-first century love holds no place for 
status climbing.  
 For example, when the all-female Wellesley Col-
lege opened its doors in the late nineteenth century, 
it began a tradition which “proclaimed that whoever 
won the Hoop Roll would be the first to get married” 
(“Anyone”).  Moving into the late twentieth century, 
the college changed the winner’s fate to “she was the 
first to be CEO,” as women took control of their own 
futures in the workplace (“Anyone”).  Reaching the 
twenty-first century, Western society is at its closest 
point to equality, and only moving closer, which 
leaves Wellesley College to now declare “the winner 
will be the first to achieve happiness and success, 

whatever that means to her” (“Anyone can run”).
 Additionally, the empowerment of women opens 
up the possibility for women to share in the ability 
to join with a man for physical enjoyment, thus 
enhancing the mutual attraction and love.  In 
Shakespeare’s plays, the men are driven by their lust 
for the female characters, but the women do not get 
to voice whether or not they reciprocate the desire.  
Women of previous centuries were looked at by their 
contemporaries as beings meant to be seen and 
enjoyed.  Views have changed each century, evolving 
into the female empowered twenty-first century, 
but this change came about slowly. Wellesley’s 
transformation over the past three centuries shows 
how women now have equal say in whether or not 
their union is wanted in regards to the physical 
aspects of marriage; therefore a healthy twenty-first 
century love involves mutual attraction. 
  
Americans Led Astray by a Shallow Interpretation of 
Shakespeare’s Love Stories
 William Shakespeare is a recognized name in 
the American vernacular.  To go one step further, it 
is a safe assumption that the majority, if not all, of 
Americans know something about Romeo and Juliet.  
Within a larger list of Shakespeare’s works, his next 
universally known play is probably Much Ado About 
Nothing, another apparent love story.  The couples 
within these two plays, Romeo and Juliet as well as 
Benedick and Beatrice, are exceedingly different, but 
they seem to contain several of the classic romance 
story elements.  These elements are only found, 
however, if Shakespeare’s work is glossed over for 
basic content.  
 One scholar who agrees that Shakespeare’s love 
stories are not meant to be idolized for their couples’ 
relationships is Ivo Kamps, who “aims to debunk 
the high school notion ‘that Romeo and Juliet are 
a match made in heaven and that the play is the 
greatest love story ever told’” (Schuyler 76).  Kamps 
“uses renaissance texts on pathologies that detail 
how love deceives the eyes, imbalances the humors, 
destroys the reason, and causes social isolation” 
(Schuyler 76).  While his analytical work looks at 
Shakespearean texts in a different manner than this 
article does, Kamps’ work also argues Shakespeare’s 
“elements of romance” should be analyzed deeply 
before assuming they can compare easily to a typical 



Shakespeare’s Use of Romantic Relationships 

Aisthesis      Volume 7,  201613

twenty-first century romance.
 Ian Munro is another scholar researching the 
Shakespearean relationships deemed “romantic” by its 
audiences.  He focuses on Much Ado About Nothing’s 
Benedick and Beatrice.  Coming together essentially 
out of a shared pride more than anything else, 
Benedick and Beatrice still end the play by willingly 
getting married.  This final act of marriage, although 
it stems from each character’s vanity, tends to leave 
the audience with the impression Benedick and 
Beatrice did eventually each feel a level of true love.  
Recognizing audiences’ and critics’ repeated folly 
of definitively claiming the relationship contains a 
pure love, Munro points to several specific instances 
within Much Ado About Nothing that illustrate how 
the “sexual and textual relations . . . threaten to 
dismantle the courtly pretensions of both Benedick 
and the play itself ” (92).  In other words, Munro 
is forcing his readers to confront uncomfortable 
elements (e.g. the countless innuendos between all 
of the characters) of the play rather than sliding 
comfortably past them. 
 
The Most Excellent and Lamentable Tragedy of Romeo 
and Juliet
 Despite the many American romantics professing 
the perfection of Romeo and Juliet’s relationship, 
Shakespeare’s Romeo can also be seen as extremely 
selfish.  This perspective reveals Romeo’s desire for 
the relationship as a practical move because the 
relationship benefits him far more than Juliet.  As 
Romeo courts Juliet, he reveals his primary driving 
force: a union with someone of her beauty who will 
elevate his own status in the eyes of both himself and 
others.  The time period of Romeo and Juliet was one 
in which society looked past the plethora of common, 
plain-featured women to view a community’s few 
attractive women as the more exotic and suitable 
options for high status men.  
 Because of this, the hands of a community’s 
beautiful women were only granted to the most 
respectable, often rich men.  With this in mind, 
Romeo’s ability to wed someone as beautiful as 
Juliet will instantly grant him status. Because of the 
patriarchal culture in which Romeo and Juliet live, 
Juliet does not gain the same respect from this union.  
Therefore, from the beginning of the relationship, 
the balance of give-and-take between the two is 

already off, thus jeopardizing the idea that Romeo 
and Juliet is a true love story.  Shakespearean Brian 
Gibbons offers a similar conclusion from his analysis 
into the result of each lover’s status after each of their 
deaths:  “Romeo will experience a metamorphosis 
into shining immortality, yet she seems to think 
of herself as mortally ephemeral—if she thinks of 
herself at all—in this moment of intense adoration 
of her lover” (Schuyler 69).  In other words, Gibbons 
produces a second example of how Romeo acts in a 
self-serving manner; his death allows his character 
to be remembered with a higher esteem than he had 
been able to hold during his life.  
 Juliet would not have given the idea of elevating 
her status through this noble death a second 
thought.  Within this male-favoring, sexist culture, 
it is far less memorable to be a woman dying for her 
lover.  Although it is difficult to provide examples of 
famous women dying for a noble cause, thus proving 
the point of them being forgettable, Shakespeare’s 
The Winter’s Tale provides examples of women 
whose lives seem to be little in comparison with a 
man of stature’s perception of his status. Thus, while 
Romeo could logically factor in a status boost into 
his decision to kill himself, Juliet has no chance to 
raise her status through death and therefore could 
not have used it to personally justify her suicide.  
 A third example of how Romeo’s inclination to 
enter a union with Juliet is self-serving can be found 
early in the play.  From his first glance, Romeo is 
drawn to Juliet, but this attraction is not an emotional 
connection, as it stems from his lust.  He first sees 
her after he and Benvolio sneak into the grand party 
hosted at the house of the Capulets.  Questioning 
a server about Juliet, Romeo asks “What lady’s that 
which doth enrich the hand / Of yonder knight?” 
(1.5.38-39).  As innocuous as this question may be 
on its own, connections can be drawn between it 
and the short, impassioned speech Romeo gives after 
the server’s response of not recognizing the mystery 
woman.  By using the word “enrich,” Romeo is 
showing that the first and primary thing he noticed 
about Juliet is her beauty which enhances whatever 
is near her.  
 Although the fact that he first notices her beauty 
can be viewed as a compliment to her, it becomes 
something far from positive when paired with 
Romeo’s following speech about her looks:



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Aisthesis      Volume 7,  201614

O, she doth teach the torches to burn bright!
It seems she hangs upon the cheek of night
As a rich jewel in an Ethiope’s ear—
Beauty too rich for use, for earth too dear.  
(1.5.41-44)

Romeo’s strong statements about her intense, in-
comparable beauty and his naming of her as “a rich 
jewel” alert the audience that while his words praise 
Juliet, he is really more concerned about what he 
might gain from being with Juliet.  The importance 
he places on physical beauty over a woman’s mental 
status is revealed, as he is comfortable knowing only 
one thing about Juliet, that she is beautiful, before 
deciding he is in love with her.
 Additionally, Romeo’s use of the specific wording 
that Juliet “doth enrich the hand / Of yonder knight” 
shows how he views her as someone, or something, 
he must have beside him in order to enhance his 
own looks, presence, and status (1.5.38-39).  Romeo’s 
purposeful word choice in this statement reveals 
again that the important aspect of Juliet is how she 
will boost his social standing.  In the second portion 
of this line, “Of yonder knight,” Romeo shows he 
cannot finish this inquiry about the mysterious 
lady without pointing out how she is enhancing the 
presence of the man at her side (1.5.39).  Knowing 
nothing about her other than her beauty and its 
positive effects on those around her, Romeo’s interest 
in her can only come from his personal desire to 
make himself look better to the public’s eye.
 Another example of Romeo’s tendency to view 
Juliet as something valuable, yet less human than 
himself, is his appraisal of her “Beauty too rich for 
use, for earth too dear” (1.5.44).  His use of the 
words “rich” and “dear” point directly to something 
of monetary value.  By saying her amazing looks are 
“too rich for use,” Romeo is both showing the value 
he places on her appearance while also admitting she 
does nothing of importance except grace the world 
with her beauty (1.5.44).  Though disguised in the 
form of a compliment, Romeo is devaluing Juliet 
by his assertion that she is not in a position to do 
anything other than be appraised by others for her 
good looks.
 Yet another instance of Romeo proving himself 
to be unable to comprehend deep, emotional love 
connections occurs even before Romeo meets Juliet.  
At the beginning of the play, Romeo confesses to 

Benvolio, “In sadness, cousin, I do love a woman” 
(1.1.197).  Rosaline, the woman to which Romeo 
refers, is the object of Romeo’s affections despite her 
denial of him, and Romeo cries to Benvolio that he 
is “out of her favour where I am in love” (1.1.161).  
Benvolio attempts to cheer up the somber, depressed 
Romeo, but Romeo cannot stop himself from talking 
about his inability to woo her.  Even after Benvolio’s 
efforts to the contrary, Romeo ends their conversation 
maintaining that “thou canst not teach me to forget” 
(1.1.230).
 Despite his woes of this woman, Rosaline, and his 
declaration that she would always be on his mind, it 
takes only four scenes of the play for him to entirely 
forget about Rosaline and focus all of his attention 
on Juliet.  He forgets her so much that he denies 
his previous love for her when he asks himself after 
seeing Juliet, “Did my heart love till now? Forswear 
it, sight, / For I ne’er saw true beauty till this night” 
(1.5.49-50).  This turnaround from his melancholy 
state at an unrequited love to the infatuation with an 
even more impressive beauty shows his immaturity 
in regards to love.  If he knew what romantic love 
truly meant, he would not be so quick to throw the 
term around in regards to each attractive woman he 
encounters.  
 This new love also benefits Romeo while it in 
no way helps Juliet.  As Romeo’s sighting of Juliet 
immediately makes him forget about Rosaline, it is 
likely the ensuing relationship with Juliet is driven 
in part by his need for someone to heal his hurt ego 
from Rosaline’s earlier rejection. Romeo is bringing 
with him with what he interprets as a broken heart, 
and Juliet brings only her innocent, unlearned heart 
to give her Romeo.  

Much Ado About Nothing
 Just as with Romeo and Juliet, an analytical 
reading of Much Ado About Nothing proves Shakes-
peare constructed the couples of Benedick and 
Beatrice and of Claudio and Hero with men 
benefiting while the women do not.  Secondary 
characters Claudio and Hero are initially seen as 
a sweet, innocent couple who fell in love at first 
sight.  However, after a closer look into the text, one 
discovers the shallowness of Claudio’s self-labeled 
love for Hero.  After meeting Hero, Claudio’s first 
words to indicate his interest in her came from the 



Shakespeare’s Use of Romantic Relationships

Aisthesis      Volume 7,  201615

question “Benedick, didst thou note the daughter of 
Signor / Leonato?” (1.1.130-131).  This reaction to 
the encounter with Hero shows that Claudio, like the 
famous Romeo, already revealed himself to be a man 
driven by physical attraction.  Keeping in mind the 
resulting value Claudio places on physical beauty, a 
reader can better understand Claudio’s immediate 
desire to be married to Hero.  The specific wording, 
as well as the circumstances preceding his question, 
reminds the audience that his first words about his 
beloved concerned only her physical appearance.  
Additionally, declaring his love for Hero before ever 
speaking to her, Claudio shows the audience that he, 
again like Romeo, places more importance on the 
outward beauty of the woman than what may or may 
not be going on insider her head.  
 Benedick and Beatrice can, on the other hand, 
be explained a little differently by taking a look at 
the societal expectations placed on the play’s male 
characters.  Within Much Ado About Nothing, as in 
many of Shakespeare’s plays, exists the Elizabethan 
view that men of royalty should be married by a 
certain age, and the pressure of this social norm 
often spills over onto the noblemen of Shakespeare’s 
plays who keep company with royalty.  Shakespeare 
applied this pressure onto Much Ado About Nothing’s 
Benedick. 
 While the matter of whether Benedick and Beat-
rice enter their marriage with any level of romantic 
feelings will always be up for debate, it is clear the 
social pressure Benedick felt from his friends to get 
married gave him a significant push into the union.  
An ego driven man, Benedick is initially tricked into 
the relationship with Beatrice as a result of his friends 
talking negatively about his actions, actions that he 
takes because of his determination to stay single.  For 
example, as Claudio, Don Pedro, and Leonato discuss 
Beatrice’s fictional love for Benedick, Claudio is quick 
to point out that Benedick would not kindly treat the 
idea of someone being romantically involved with 
him: “He would make but a sport of it and/ torment 
the poor lady worse” (2.3.141-142).  
 Finally, after overhearing the entire staged con-
versation about Beatrice’s supposed love for him, 
Benedick is brought to action after hearing his friends 
discuss Beatrice’s fear that “she will die/ if he love her 
not, and she will die ere she make her love/ known” 
(2.3.156-158).  Using Beatrice’s supposed fear as the 

reason she will not declare her fictionalized love 
for Benedick, Don Pedro ends the conversation by 
saying of Benedick “I could wish he/ would modestly 
examine himself to see how much he is unwor-/thy 
so good a lady” (2.3.184-186).  Benedick’s reaction 
to his friends’ words is “Why, it must be requited.  
I hear how I am / censured” (2.3.199-200).  This 
thought shows how Benedick realizes that his be-
loved bachelorhood is beginning to cause serious 
issues for his social standing.  In order to remove 
these negative judgments of himself from the minds 
of his friends, and essentially all of society, Benedick 
comes to the decision to enter a marital union with 
Beatrice as he knows marriage will be eventually 
expected of him.

Conclusion: The significance of these distinctions  
 Fairly successful in his own time, Shakespeare’s 
popularity has continued to grow in the centuries 
since his death.  Shakespeare continues to keep 
the interest of his audiences with new, complicated 
characters and plots for those willing to engage in 
deeper thinking.  His genius shines through his 
ability to make these innovative literary moves 
while simultaneously staying true to a few main 
themes which were central to the societal beliefs 
of his contemporaries.  One key theme which can 
be found in his greatest works is how women and 
marriage were viewed by high status men.  Living in 
and writing about patriarchal societies, Shakespeare 
possessed a view of women and marriage that men 
should only enter into the union with a woman who 
will help them achieve a certain goal.  For some of 
these men, physical enjoyment is their main criterion 
when choosing a wife, so the men wait to marry 
until they have found a woman aesthetically pleasing 
to them.  Other male characters are driven to wed 
because they know it is the expectation of society that 
they join a worthy woman in matrimony, and if they 
do not, they will have a lower social standing.  By 
identifying which category, or categories, the men in 
any of Shakespeare’s plays fall into, the nature of the 
romantic relationships becomes easier to identify.
  To ignore the male characters’ selfish motives 
detailed in this article would be detrimental to 
the current and future audiences of Shakespeare’s 
work.  Beliefs bred by Western romanticism and 
ideals naturally cause a skewed interpretation of 



Shakespeare’s Use of Romantic Relationships

Aisthesis      Volume 7,  201616

Shakespeare’s romances Romeo and Juliet and Much 
Ado About Nothing and frame the relationships as 
something for which to strive. If this faulty inter-
pretation persists, twenty-first century relationships 
will continue to end in heartbreak and unhappiness 
and leave both people emotionally scarred.  Those 
who encounter Shakespearean works, as time 
has proven that most Americans will, are at the risk 
of developing a distorted idea of what a healthy, 
balanced relationship looks like.  In basing their 
quest for love off of Romeo and Juliet’s so-called 
unfailing love or the backwards and round-about way 
in which Benedick and Beatrice were pressured into 
matrimony, a twenty-first century couple will quickly 
encounter confusion and emotional suffering as they 
realize they are not in a healthy relationship.  It is 
for the emotional well-being of every individual that 
these clarifications of Shakespeare’s male characters’ 
motives are to be made.  If left to continue the 
current shallow and inherently incorrect readings 
of the relationships between Romeo and Juliet and 
Beatrice and Benedick, the American society will 
undoubtedly crumble as it attempts to emulate the 
“great,” yet unstable, relationships provided to them 
by the renowned William Shakespeare.

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“9 Famous Quotes on Love by William Shakespeare.”  
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“Anyone can run 26.2 miles for the Boston 
Marathon—but only Wellesley seniors may 
scramble down Tupelo Lane with their hoops 
every May.”  Wellesley College.  Wellesley College, 
n.d.  Web.  24 Nov. 2015.

Cunningham, Delora G. “Wonder and Love in the 
Romantic Comedies.” Shakespeare Quarterly 
35.3 (1984): 262-6. ProQuest. Web. 12 Oct. 2015.

“Gloria Steinem: Writer, lecturer, political activist, 
and feminist organizer.”  Gloria Steinem.  Office 
of Gloria Steinem, n.d.  Web.  24 Nov. 2015.

Lin, Samantha. “’How Silver-Sweet Sound Lovers’ 
Tongues’: The Music of Love and Death in 
Franco Zeffirelli’s Romeo and Juliet.” Soundtrack 
7.1 (2014): 39-46. ProQuest. Web. 8 Oct. 2015.

Munro, Ian. “Shakespeare’s Jestbook: Wit, Print, 
Performance.” ELH 71.1 (2004): 89-113. 
ProQuest. Web. 30 Sept. 2015.

Scheff, Thomas J.  “Gender Wars: Emotions in ‘Much 
Ado about Nothing.’”  Sociological Perspectives 
36.2 (Summer, 1993):149-166. Web. 16 Oct. 
2015.

Schuyler, Carole. “A. C. Bradley’s Concept Of The 
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Shakespeare, William. The Norton Shakespeare, Based 
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Wright, Brittany L., H. C. Sinclair, and Kristina B. 
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