Depiction of Courtly Love in Shakespeare, Marlowe, Donne, and Jonson

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her father's wishes. Juliet did not just go against her father's wishes, however. She plotted in secret to marry someone born into a family with which her family was feuding. In short, Juliet defies that standards of courtly love that society placed upon women in her day. She refuses to marry a man she did not love and she certainly does not let her father influence her decision. While it may be true that she marries Romeo in secret, Juliet asserts herself in a courageous way.
In addition, Shakespeare's play, As You Like It, satirizes many of the conventional ideas associated with courtly love. The Garden of Arden gives Shakespeare a setting in which these unconventional practices can take place. While the pastoral setting echoes reality, it also becomes a place where things are far from normal. In this fictitious world, fiction is reality. Rosalind is a character that is portrayed in stark contrast to traditional roles of women. She is a strong woman that has no ...

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regarding love. In a fictional world, it was easier to mock traditional notions associated to courtly love because it was fiction. This is especially true of Rosalind and Juliet because they were women stepping out of their conventional roles. While each had very different outcomes, they were true to themselves regardless of what others thought of them.
Christopher Marlowe offers a somewhat traditional view of courtly love in his poem, "The Passionate Shepherd to His Love." In this poem, the speaker is wooing his love with romantic notions. For example, the poet promises to make his love "beds of roses" (Marlowe 9) that are "embroidered all with leaves of myrtle" (12). ...

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