The master poet William Shakespeare once penned, “Who could refrain that had a heart to love and in that heart courage to make love known?” Humans may be the highest member of the evolutionary chain with the reasoning capacity to decipher the mysteries of the universe and yet these beings are moved beyond logic by emotions which seem beyond their control. No explanation by neuroscientists, biologists, sociologists, and psychologists has been able to explain the phenomenon of love in a satisfactory manner. Yet the passion which our society of today heralds in anthems such as, “all you need is love” has not always been in vogue. Philosophers and poets throughout the centuries have wrestled with the emotion and society has changed its views on love like the rolling of the tide. At various points in history, philosophers urged mankind to govern himself with pure reason and not to be ruled by his emotions. Yet, there is something which seems odd to humanity about this proposition so attempts to stifle human expression have always ultimately failed. But perhaps these attempts are not without merit, emotions of jealousy and “love” have led to many wars. But as Forster observes, “a shamefaced world of precautions and barriers which may avert evil, but which do not seem to bring good, if we may judge from those who have used them both” (76). His work begs the question of what path truly is most noble: the safe following of convention or “to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune” by following passion?
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