In this essay, i will be analysing the play Julius Caesar, and two poems by Robert Browning; The laboratory, and Porphyria’s Lover. I will be trying to find the key parts where love and/or hate has paid a toll on the characters in the studied pieces of literature, and how it has changed the way they act.

Shakespeare represents love in Julius Caesar by creating a bond between Brutus and Caesar. This bond is sadly broken by Brutus making a conspiracy about Julius Caesar, and planning to kill him. Shakespeare has a theme of love throughout the play Julius Caesar, this is clear from the relationship that Caesar thinks he has with Brutus. Earlier in the play when Brutus is questioned by Cassius whether he wants Caesar to be crowned king, Brutus replies ‘I would not, Cassius, yet I love him well’. This is trying to say that although Brutus loves Caesar, he loves Rome more, and he doesn’t want Caesar to have absolute power over Rome. The reason for this is that he believes that if Caesar has all this power, it would change his ways and his Morales, this is clear in Brutus’s soliloquy when saying ‘he would be crown’d: How that may change his nature’. This is also saying that Caesar would no longer be the good Samaritan that he was before, and that the crown could change him for the worse. Shakespeare uses a metaphor to support this; ‘Crown him that, And then I grant we put a sting in him that at his will he may do danger with’, this suggests that Brutus is describing Caesar as a scorpion. As although a Scorpion is an elegant creature, when it is threatened, it can cause a lot of damage and pain. Shakespeare uses this soliloquy to prove the love that Brutus has for Caesar, as if Brutus did not love Caesar, he would not be talking about what is best for him, and how he did not want him to change. This love is also shown after Caesar’s assassination where Brutus justifies the act they have just done, by saying how they have acted more as friends than enemies, as they have shortened the time Caesar would have spent fearing death. Suggesting that Brutus was trying to ease his and the other conspirators guilt, and trying to convince them that they committed this act out of love, not hatred. Through this Shakespeare shows that even though you may love someone, sometimes love is not strong enough to overthrow the hatred, and that other things, like the greater good of Rome is more important.

Another way that Shakespeare presents love in Julius Caesar is through the characters and the bonds that they share with each other. The male bonds are a big deal to the characters in the play. This is often involving Brutus, as many of the characters show their love towards him, for example Caesars death, and again when Cassius asks Brutus why he’s been so distant lately. ‘You bear too stubborn and too strange a hand Over your friend that loves you.’, suggesting that the friendship between Brutus and Cassius has been effected by the way Brutus feels about Caesar, and how it troubles him that others and himself are plotting to other throw him. However during this conversation Brutus apologizes to Cassius for his recent behavior; ‘Than that poor Brutus, with himself at war, Forgets the shows of love to other men.’ suggesting that Brutus is troubled and is blinded by his love for Rome, that he can not see the love that is shown to him by his friends. Shakespeare is using the characters to show us how love can be blinding, and love can be affected by other thins like hate, and power.

Robert Browning presents love in his poem, The Laboratory, and also shows how love can lead you to a dark place, and make you do things that are out of character. This poem is about a crazed woman who allows love and jealousy to overthrow and control her, leading her to plot a series of murders. Browning has a clear structure to this poem, the effect of having a AABB rhyme scheme, and a four line stanza gives the poem a calm and controlled feel to it, which is opposite to the what is going on in the text of the poem and gives it a more creepy effect. The descriptions in this poem is different to Julius Caesar, as Browning uses more imagery and shows how love has driven this woman to madness. He clearly shows the effect of love by showing how the betrayal of her husband has led her to create a toxic poison, the way the woman is talking during this poem resembles an evil scientist, Browning does this with the use of imagery; ‘tying thy glass mask tightly’. This shows that the woman does not want to harm herself, and is also the first clear sign that she is creating something that will bring harm to either herself or others. Browning uses metaphors to show how the woman wants her husband to suffer, as she has suffered knowing that her husband had a lover. This is supported by ‘He is sure to remember her dying face!’ showing that she wants him to watch his lover die, and is acting to scar him mentally as he has scarred her. Robert Browning shows that this woman is so hurt that she wants to cause her husband pain, however she questions if killing him would hurt her; ‘can it ever hurt me?’. This shows that although he has hurt her, she still loves him and it would still hurt her if he was dead.

In the poem Porphyria’s lover, Robert Browning presents love in many different forms. The main way he shows love, is through the reason behind the murder. From the beginning of the poem, he shows Porphyria in a bright light coming in from a rough dark storm. As she enters the cottage, Porphyria instantly changes the atmosphere; Browning describes her as ‘cheerful’, changing the atmosphere from the cold storm by ‘shutting the cold out and the storm’. Browning shows Porphyria to be madly in love with the speaker, this is shown by her offering ‘her bare shoulder’, after making him aware that she is breaking rules by being there with him. The speaker then gets the impression that she will end up giving to the social pressures of them being together and wants to treasure the moment of her laying on his chest, her being madly in love with him. He decides he does not ever want her to leave him, so decides to strangle her with her long ‘yellow hair’. He then toys with her dead body, and questions how god has not found a way to punish him, so he must not be wrong for doing what he did. Browning uses imagery and symbolism to show love by constantly talking about Porphyria’s ‘Yellow hair’. He first mentions her hair when she enters from the storm, letting ‘her damp hair fall’. This suggests already that Porphyria should not be at the speakers cottage, and could be symbolism for a ‘fallen woman’. A fallen woman is a woman who has cheated on her husband. This is supported by the title as it shows that Porphyria is cheating on her husband, and it is her lover who is the speaker. It also supports the reason why the speaker killed her, as he did not want her to go back to her husband. Through this Browning suggests that love can lead people to do things that they have no control over, this can be linked to Julius Caesar and The Laboratory, where love has led both Brutus and the Wife to commit murder. In Caesar it was Brutus’s love for Rome that led him to commit murder, and in the Laboratory it was the wife’s love for her husband.

After analysing the three pieces of literature, it is clear that love has played a major part in the way the characters in the pieces of literature have acted. Robert Browning uses imagery in both his poems to present love as a main theme, he makes the reader imagine the feelings of the characters and shows how love can lead them to do terrible things. William Shakespeare presents love in a similar way to Browning by showing Brutus’s love for Rome, and how he killed one of his best friends Caesar, to protect Rome from him.  In Porphyria’s lover, the speaker kills his love, because he could not stand her to be with anybody else and does not feel that she will ever be his alone. In the laboratory Browning shows how the speaker is planning to commit a series of murders because of the pain caused b her husband when he left her for his lover. Like porphyria’s lover, if she could not have him to herself, then he could have nobody for himself.