Infatuation… Warmth… Happiness… Those are the words people think of when they hear the word love. People seem to feel that love only has positive traits because the negative ones are often overlooked people find themselves exhausting significant amounts of energy on one person, creating unhealthy side effects. Love is a very strong force that can scientifically change the levels of chemicals in your body which can cause irrational actions and amplified feelings.
In Act II, Scene II of The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet, the son of the Montague family, Romeo, immediately falls in love with the daughter of the Capulets, Juliet, shortly after meeting her at a party. When leaving the party, Romeo sneaks up onto Juliet’s balcony to hear her saying that she would “deny [her] father and refuse [the] name” of being a Capulet to be with Romeo (Shakespeare, 2.2.38). She says this because Romeo’s family and Juliet’s family have had a long history of rivalry but Juliet fell so deeply in love with Romeo that she was willing to abandon her family name so that she could be with a boy she just met at a party. Later in the story, Romeo and Juliet confess their love for each other. Romeo explains that he has a “night’s cloak to hide [him] from [her kinsmen’s] sight” and that he would not care if he died when Juliet expresses her concern for his life (Shakespeare, 2.2.81). Romeo felt that he would do anything for Juliet because he was so in love with her, and this made his actions of climbing into the castle of his family rivals and not caring about his death irrational.
In “Why We Love: The Nature and Chemistry of Romantic Love,” Helen Fisher uses scientific research to explain the great phenomenon of love. Fisher explains that when humans are particularly attracted to each other, or they have fallen in love, levels of dopamine and norepinephrine are elevated. When dopamine levels are elevated in the brain, it “produce[s]
In “Why We Love: The Nature and Chemistry of Romantic Love,” Helen Fisher uses scientific research to explain the great phenomenon of love. Fisher explains that when humans are particularly attracted to each other, or they have fallen in love, levels of dopamine and norepinephrine are elevated. When dopamine levels are elevated in the brain, it “produce[s] extremely focused attention, as well as unwavering motivation and goal-driven behaviors” which can be translated to the central characteristics of romantic love (Fisher, 428). Things such as dwelling on the beloved and having that person be the only thing they can think about are examples of these characteristics. The elevation of another chemical, norepinephrine, can have side effects that are some basic characteristics of romantic love. Fisher states that “exhilaration, excessive energy, sleeplessness, and the loss of appetite” are all produced when the levels of norepinephrine in your body are increased (Fisher, 430). This can explain the excessive energy used to think about a significant other when someone is in love, causing unusual changes in hygiene.
In “The Raven,” the speaker is reading a book when all of a sudden he hears a knock at his door. He opens the door, seeing nothing but darkness “[a]nd the only word there spoken [is] the whispered word, ’Lenore?’” when he says it (Poe, 423). This tells us that he is expecting someone named Lenore, a past lover of his that is no longer with him, making him only think about her. When no one responds and Lenore does not show up, he walks back into his home until he hears another knock. The speaker opens the door again and sees “a stately Raven” on the chamber door and speaks to the bird (Poe, 423). This demonstrates that the speaker is delusional because he is hearing sounds inside his head and talking to a bird, hoping that one day Lenore would show up at his door.
In the end, people usually overlook the negative traits of “falling in love” and usually get caught up in the fantasy that they are living when in love. When someone is deeply in love, chemicals in their body make it so that their significant other is the only thing that they can think about, making them unable to sleep or think properly. This obsessiveness can cause amplified feelings which can lead to irrational actions.