How Does Lyly Present Love In Phillida

Literature has always been enraptured with love and describing its effects on people. In the theater, playwright John Lyly uses his play Galathea to paint his own picture and definition of love that is complex and ever-changing; through his characters Galathea, Phillida, and the goddess Diana’s nymphs, Lyly shows that love comes in different forms. Sometimes love is pure and innocent, while other times it is undesirable and invasive, consuming one’s thoughts. Through these dynamic relationships, Lyly emphasizes love’s divinity and power, and his use of eye imagery shows that love is a powerful, unseen force that can change people for the better or for the worse. To prove that love is a divine force, Lyly sets the play in ancient Greece, …show more content…
Many of the characters state that they first feel love through their sight; Telusa says she falls in love with Galathea “by the eyes, my wanton eyes, which conceived the picture of his face and hanged it on the very strings of my heart” (3.1.467-8). Galathea describes Phillida’s love as “engraven in my heart with her eyes” (5.3.1081). This repeated image of the eye finding love and engraving it into the heart shows that the eyes find the genuine connections the heart seeks out. Once love is found, it stays in the heart forever and changes the person who feels it. Cupid also recognizes the role the eyes play in discovering love when he states, “Love-knots are tied with eyes and cannot be done by hands” (4.2.769). The idea of love at first sight becomes a powerful and divine force; at the end of the play, Cupid states, “I bear now mine arrows in my eyes,” showing that love exists between people rather than being a tangible item (5.3.1058). Love is spiritual rather than physical; instead of needing a physical object such as Cupid’s arrows to cause or feel love, only the eyes and a genuine connection are needed to create true