The_Marriage_of_Heaven_and_Hell

The Marriage of Heaven and Hell In The Marriage of Heaven and Hell, the famous British poet William Blake wrote that “without contraries there is no progression - Attraction and repulsion, reason and imagination, and love and hate are all necessary for human existence” (Blake 122). As Blake noted, the world is full of opposites. But, more importantly, these opposites allow the people of the world to see themselves and their thoughts more clearly. For, as Blake asserts, without attraction, one cannot understand repulsion, and without imagination, one cannot understand reason. In Much Ado About Nothing (MAAN), William Shakespeare uses this idea of the power of opposites to show the differences in two types of love. Using the relationship, language, and actions of Hero and Claudio as a foil against those of Beatrice and Bene*censored*, Shakespeare has painted a world in which the ideas of courtly love only serve to illuminate those of true love. In an essay on Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, William Kittredge defined the idea of courtly love that is illustrated in MAAN. Kittredge said that courtly love must involve a love that is extremely idealized and superficial, with the vassal or servant-like suitor, love, claudio, beatrice, true, hero, courtly, shakespeare, play, through, relationship, woman, ideal, foil, blake, becomes, world, without, william, understanding, understand, power, perfect, opposites, one, much, made, maan, kittredge, idea, himself, false, example, even, better, become, about, young, war, very, valiant, using, unlike, though, thou, thinks, thee, superficial, suitor, shown