Debate: Better to have loved and lost than to never have loved at all - Using Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet

Love, Better Not <Tab/>Everyone can agree that love is wonderful, but is it worth everything? Should one sacrifice their all for love? Scholars conclude that the central theme of Romeo and Juliet is love. Love drives the play, as the prologue introduces the audience to "a pair of star-crossed lovers." (Prologue, l.6) The definition of love is established as: eros, a union that brings self-fulfilment; philia, brotherly and sisterly love; …

…all the negative effects and dishonesty; and agape is negated because of both Romeo and Juliet's myopic views. From Romeo and Juliet's willingness to experience suicide to the deaths of five characters, love seems to promote violence. Though it was better off for Romeo and Juliet not to love, "love in Romeo and Juliet is nevertheless a brutal, yet powerful emotion that captures individuals and catapults them against their world, and, at times, against themselves."