Love at First Sight

Miranda’s new found love interest in Ferdinand shows how “love at first sight” hasn’t been the first time Shakespeare has used this theme, especially on a young, naive, and not even 16 year old teenager. The setting in far away and “exotic” scenery moves the audience from dreary England to a place where love seems more likely to blossom such as Italy, just like when Romeo first laid eyes on Juliet in Verona. Notice how many works by Shakespeare are away from where the works are being performed which seems to be a smart choice because problems, such as adultery or going against your parents’ will, and the characters such as, hot blooded foreigners in love who happen to be Catholic, are in no relation to English audience members.

I also have a bone to pick with Miranda’s behavior. Firstly, she’s been in isolation since she was three, which is no age to start to learn social skills, but then suddenly she’s a social butterfly with a new man she just met which Secondly has made it up to less than the fifth man she’s ever met in her life: who does she have to compare him to to justify that 1. she’s in love and 2. he’s even at all handsome. It’s pretty sad that, true this is during Shakespearean times where women are second class citizens, social pressures to get married are on her even if she’s the only girl around for miles.