The Meaning Of True Love In Shakespeare's Sonnet 116

Love is one of the most debated topics in human history as to what the true definition means. The term’s meaning varies from person to person, each differing due to ones experiences toward love. In the story “The Love My Life” we see a couple who think they are the loves of each other’s lives. However if we compare their meaning of love to the interpretation of true love in “Shakespeare’s Sonnet #116” we start to conclude that maybe true love wasn’t the case at all. To illustrate the differences in these two works let the reader look to “Shakespeare’s Sonnet #166”. Shakespeare leads off with the statement “Love is not love, which alters when it alteration finds” (Lines 2-3 Sonnet #116). This means that love is not really love if it can change due to a situation. At first glance it seems that China is so very in love with Jeremy that “a hundred times a day she said it too: ‘I love you, I love you’ ” (345). She truly believes in the beginning of the story that their love cannot be altered or disturbed by any of life’s trials. However as the reader moves off to the central conflict of the story it can be seen that there is some conflict on how China feels now. Over the summer before their freshman year as college students, they mistakenly conceive a child during a camping trip. In the fall, he attends Brown, she Binghamton. However they are separated by more than miles: Jeremy wants her to get an abortion, and she is refusing to do so. This is a very big …show more content…
It swayed and changed with each and every turn only ending in ruin for the both of them. Shakespeare himself boasts that his words on love are true quoted here, “If this be error and upon me proved, I never writ, nor no man ever loved” (Lines 13-14 Sonnet #116). Jeremy and China did not prove Shakespeare’s words wrong therefore Shakespeare’s words still stand as everlasting