==CHINA==

Love, such a beautiful name, it is the most mysterious, pure, and sacred passion of human beings. It is so complicated that no one can give it a precise definition what love is. No one can see it and no one can touch it, but people can feel it. It is a kind of unvoiced communication through people's hearts. Throughout the world, many people have written about love and many people have read about it. The world famous author, Balzac, said,"People finally invented love and made it the most elegant religion of human beings in the world."1 In every corner of the world, in every age, and in every society, love is always there. No phenomena and elements in nature can damage it. It is an immortal affectionate devotion. The world's greatest English dramatist and poet Shakespeare, also known as a famous romanticist, wrote a lot about love. Through his works, we can see how people love each other and at the same time make a comparison of love with nowadays.
In Shakespeare's age, love was regarded as the most pure and sacred emotion in the world. Nothing can surpass it. As Shakespeare had ever said,"Love is a star, all missing ships can be guided by it even though they know nothing about astronomy."2 So we can easily find that," in both Shakespeare's romantic comedies and tragedies, love and friendship become a regular hinge between society and individuals and a sort of moral power that the maintenance of social order may rely on."3 If we want to clarify how people love in his time, let's take some of his works for example, Romeo and Juliet in Romeo And Juliet, Othello and Desdemona in Othello and Beartric and Benedick in Much Ado About Nothing. In these three dramas, only the last one had a happy ending. Nevertheless, they still had something in common also. For example, "all the heroines in these plays are the new women of Renaissance, active, vivacious, capable, clever and serious-minded, who would only frees herself from the usual feudal fetters for women but even outshines many men in many ways, including their lovers and husbands."4 Beartric, in Much Ado About Nothing, with her ironical tone and witty and eloquent speeches with Benedick made their shrewd dialogue scintillant. Through this special and affectionate communication, they fell in love deeply. Play Romeo And Juliet is "one of Shakespeare's best known tragedies. It was rendered with such power and beauty via the enormously successful character-portraits of hero and the heroine, so successful that the name of Romeo has since been identified with the acme of a dashing young lover and Juliet has become a synonym for a heroine of great beauty, strong will and true passion."5 Their love was sweet and inexhaustible so as to get to a certain extent of harmony. They trusted each other from the very beginning to the end. Love was their whole lives. Juliet, as well as Romeo, dedicated her whole life to Romeo, regardless of any consequence, danger and expense. Lastly they died one after another, but they proved their love which is unbeatable and ever lasting. Stated just as what Juliet had ever said, "If he has been married, grave will be the marital bed of mine."6
As well as Romeo And Juliet, Othello is another of Shakespeare's great tragedies. "Othello and Desdemona are two great lovers who love and marry each other in defiance of the seemingly insuperable racial barriers." Desdemona, as well as Juliet devoted her whole life to her husband, Othelle. Even in the very moment when Othello tried to strangle her, she still made no attempt at all to resist and still called him "my Kind Lord".7 After Othello found his deadly fault , he desperately killed himself to testify his pure and loyal love for Desdemona. "Their love revived in their death."8
In Shakespeare's plays it seems that all the heros and heroines are strong-minded. They devoted their lives to their love, regardless of any pain, barriers and even death. In their mind love is the most important support. They are born for love and die for love too. Their love is insuperable and simple, covered with a colour of romance.
But nowadays love is quite different form that of Shakespeare's age. Of course, modern love is still sacred and pure, but the connotation of it is changed. It is not that simple any more. Although many authors still give a high prize for modern love and regard it as the lofty emotion in the world, actually they are all wrong. If we are clear enough, we will easily find a vogue among the youth that "We don't care whether our love will be enduring as the universe, but we know we have possessed it once." From it, we will see obviously how weak modern love it. Furthermore, such frail love makes our modern marriage be easily damaged. So many people have been divorced nowadays. The statistics in China shows that "from 1980's, the rate of divorce in the urban area has increased dramatically. In 1981 the rate of divorce was 2.1%. But in 1991, it increased intensifyingly during the last ten years to a percentage of 16.5%. And in 1992 it reached a rate of 17.7%. But in some coastal city, the rate has reached 20%."9 "But the rate of divorce can not precisely summarize and reflect the reality. Another statistic shows that "one people out of three has thought of divorce when he has had trouble with his spouse."10 From it, we can see that marriage nowadays is not a security box any more. People can easily break it. I am always wondering whether people still cherish the memory of those ages when people treasured their love as the "most sacred passion and faith" and "stick to each other till their hair turns white".11 I think the biggest reason is that all the conditions are changed. The basis of love is not simple but includes various elements, for example, "a certain social economy standing" and "social objective circumstance".12 Especially one's economic standing, it seems more and more important. Although we always tell people love is the most essential element in marriage and it can't be bought, but at the same time more and more people have fallen into the trap of money. They leave their true lovers and marry a rich man or woman because their rich spouse can buy them everything to satisfy their lust, and then they will say," Oh,Darling, I love you very much." Oh, what a pity. That's the love on the basis of those colourful papers and shining stones.
From above, we can easily find that, with the passing of time, the love in Shakespeare's age, in comparison with nowadays, is quite different. One is more romantic and the other is more realistic. From my own opinion, I appreciate the early one more than the latest one. I think that sort of love is the genuine love. Love itself is a romantic dream without any conditions, excuses, and any evil thoughts. It's a mental communication and a moral obligation. It is a emotion of dedication because of the lovers' pure, sacred and insuperable passion, but not a need for money and power.