Love's Vocabulary By Diane Ackerman Analysis

What is love? According to “Oxford Languages,” love is defined as an intense feeling of deep affection. However in “Love’s Vocabulary,” by Diane Ackerman love can't be put into one definition, it means a lot of things and it varies from person to person, love is intangible. By looking at the literary works, Ethan Frome, The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet, and “Sonnet 71” we, similarly, can see how they all further support Ackerman’s point of view on love in the essay “Love’s Vocabulary,” by defining love as tragic, despairing, depressing, and arduous.

Firstly, Ethan Frome supports Ackerman’s point of view in the essay "Love’s Vocabulary" by defining love as despairing. In the novel Ethan Frome, it states, "But in a flash he remembered the alternative. She was right: This

Act 1 of the play, The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet expresses, "The fearful passage of their death-marked love and the continuance of their parents' rage, which, but their children's end, naught could remove (Prologue, Lines 9-12)." If we decipher these lines, we can understand that the story will end in tragedy and that the two lovers will die. This will happen, just like in Ethan Frome, due to the hatred between their two families. We can already get a picture of how love is being presented as tragic. Act I also contains foreshadowing: "I fear, too early; for my mind misgives some consequence, yet hanging in the stars, shall bitterly begin his fearful date (Scene 4, Lines 106-108)." We can connect this to the first piece of evidence because here Romeo foreshadows his death by stating that he feels like something bad will happen if he goes to the party. This connects to Ackerman’s point of view on love because we can see that Romeo and Juliet’s destiny is already predestined. This play defines love as tragic, which supports Ackerman’s point of view on