Kelsey Weber

May 19, 2007

Humanities 10XB
Honors Final

The Concept of Being Human

Imagine submerging yourself into a completely different time period such as the

1920’s or 1970’s. The environment of a country and the atmosphere existing differ from

decade to decade. The 1920’s reeked of jazz and liquor while the 1970’s preached for

peace and anti-war. However, in any time period the intuition that humans act upon

remains the same. Humans are fueled by a core desire or want and their actions

subconsciously relate back to this “want” since it is the core of all human actions. The

idea of “want” can be applied in a positive or negative way and this is how the concept of

being “human” is sometimes misinterpreted. The concept and the core values of being

human have not changed but the conditions to which they are applied to progress instead.

William Shakespeare lived during an era where the desire to know and discover fueled

the progression of society. Shakespeare’s writing was influenced by the ideals discovered

in the Renaissance and that have become beginning skeletal outlines for principles in

society, such as his morals stated in “Romeo and Juliet”. The idea of a dominant male,

Romeo, wooing a recessive female, Juliet, have defined the norm for gender roles in

society when speaking about the desire for love. However, some people question if the

norms in society are changing based on time and environment or because of the way in

which humans have developed their ability to reason and progress. Fast forward to the

time of World War One where Ernest Hemingway’s “A Farewell to Arms” details a

relationship amidst the chaos of warfare. The bare reasoning for relationships is due to

human characteristic’s to want something. Catherine and Henry’s unusual relationship

exhibits the want to not be alone during wartime and their seemingly forced emotional

relationship begins to become genuine and emotionally real. The central relationships

expressed by Shakespeare in “Romeo and Juliet” and Hemingway in “Farewell to Arms”

articulates the relative reasoning by which to define the core concept of being “human”.

This idea of defining the origin for human behavior is determined by human’s universal

ability to want and desire. This ecumenical understanding is detailed through

Shakespeare and Hemingway from their descriptions of different character interactions

and intentions behind their behavior that outline similar human principles that do not alter

but alternatively differ because of the conditions the axiom is applied to.

Shakespeare outlines the concept of want in “Romeo and Juliet” by using the

specific situations created by social conflict. By exemplifying a conflict between two

families, Shakespeare creates a dilemma for the protagonists in the story, Romeo and

Juliet. After recognizing their want and the obstacle of social conflict preventing the

obtainment of satisfaction, Romeo and Juliet seek other ways to complete their desires.

This want for satisfaction is shown to be answered by their want for love. Juliet’s desire

for love fuels her to disobey her families ideals but ensure her own emotions shown here,

“My only love sprung from my only hate/Too early seen unknown, and known too

late!/Prodigious birth of love it is to me/That I must love a loathed enemy/ (1.5.153-5). In

the first line, Juliet proclaims her love for Romeo, a personal emotion that deems

satisfaction in her eyes because she continues on to explain the denying consequences

that are evidently preventing her achievement of love. By using the word “prodigious”,

Shakespeare describes the intensity of Juliet’s emotions and by using “birth” it shows the

beginning and origin of her emotions. Her emotions are fueled by the attractive idea of
satisfaction found through love and by which her personal desires are condemned by her

family’s desires and opinions of the Montague family. Her final line “That I must love a

loathed enemy” proclaims her refusal to obey her family’s desire and to pursue her own

instead. By using the phrase “That I must” shows a strong desire to ensure her pursuit for

love is achieved since “must” denotes a strong sense of passion. She describes her love as

forced because she desires it so much that it’s immune to her recessive nature towards her

family. Juliet’s counterpart, Romeo, also disobeys his families ideals in order to ensure

his want is achieved shown here, “And I’ll still stay, to have thee still forget/Forgetting

any other home but this/ (2.3.188-7). While confessing love to one another, Romeo and

Juliet exhibit a clear objective during the scene which is to obtain the others love despite

both their family’s disapproval. Romeo states, “Forgetting any other home but this”

which demonstrates his defying behavior towards his family due to his own desires and

idea of satisfaction against his families judgment. By using the word “still” in describing

his future actions to cause a future reaction of Juliet’s shows Romeo’s logical approach to

obtaining his desire, which is to love Juliet without prevention. Their families conflicting

feud prevents this achievement of love and this is how Shakespeare portray show humans

core concept of desire is evident in human behavior to seek and obtain satisfaction.

Shakespeare details how the core concept to want is demonstrated during the Renaissance

but how the conditions of social conflict create an obstacle for the achievement of a

certain desire. Shakespeare’s message parallels Hemingway’s message is similar where

he describes the core of human concept as want through relationships in another time era.

Ernest Hemingway’s “A Farewell to Arms” displays the concept of want by

manipulation of personal conflict. World War one introduced several new ideas,, like the
severity of warfare and the ramifications that came along with it. He criticizes the

glorification of war and the events of the war through his two main characters Henry and

Catherine. Henry’s indifferent attitude and reasoning for participating in fighting in the

war begins to alter when his personal desire to prevent solitude is countered by

Catherine’s reciprocating desire. Catherine proposes a relationship with Henry because of

loose reasoning that relates back to the war. The two manipulate their own personal

conflict and reasoning by recognizing their desires and the specific direction they need to

take to ensure achievement. Henry’s initial response to his feelings towards Catherine

contradict his behavior in pursuing her shown here,

“Often a man wishes to be alone and a girl wishes to be alone

too and if they love each other they are jealous of that in each
other, but I can truly say we never felt that. We could feel alone
when we were together, alone against the others…But we were
never lonely and never afraid when we were together” (249).
Henry laments his thoughts about his love for Catherine and he answers them by

explaining it relates to the result their relationship brings. He uses the word “We” several

times which describes Henry and Catherine as a unit, which references his point about

being lonely and fear. Catherine and Henry counter each other and maintain a relationship

by manipulating their individual feelings and creating new reciprocating emotions to

survive the conditions of warfare. He uses “lonely” and “afraid” in the same sentence but

describes his bond with Catherine as prevention to feeling lonely or afraid by saying “But

we were never lonely and never afraid”. Using “we” and then “never” shows the results

of their relationship. Henry recognizes the perks of loving Catherine and manipulates

himself to feel for her in order to survive the mental intensity during the war. Catherine

shows the basis for her relationship with Henry when escaping their hotel shown here
“All you have is me and I go away’ ‘That’s true.’… ‘I know it must be a dreadful feeling

to have nothing at all suddenly’ ‘My life used to be full of everything.’ I said, ‘Now if

you aren’t with me I haven’t a thing in the world’” (257). Catherine demonstrates the idea

of solitude here talking to Henry and she says “It must be a dreadful feeling to have

nothing at all”, which exudes her personal opinion about being alone as well as her

understanding of her position in helping Henry by loving him. By saying “dreadful

feeling”, she is describing the human concept of want, which is satisfaction through

emotions by desire which is what Catherine and Henry base their love off of. Each helps

the other by offering emotional protection to escape the vulnerability of the war. They

gain satisfaction by this protection but they do so based off of the core concept of being

“human”, which is to want or desire something.

Shakespeare and Hemingway both portray the core concept of being “human” as

desire that is affected by social or personal conflict but they also parallel each other by

displaying a desire for physicality in a relationship and the satisfaction that results. When

Romeo and Juliet first meet there a sense of physical attraction and this relates to their

desire for one another. The physical aspect of their relationship plays an important role in

achieving their desires because it accompanies and boosts their emotional bonding. When

Romeo first sees Juliet he kisses her and speaks after saying, “Thus from my lips, by

thine, my sin is purged.” Juliet responds, “Then have my lips the sin

they have took”, Romeo replies back asking, “Sin from thy lips? O trespass sweetly

urged/ Give me my sin again” (1.5.117-20). Romeo kissing Juliet then saying his sin is

transferred to her is flirting with her in a physical way that encourages Juliet to

reciprocate the feelings. By meeting and introducing himself with an immediate physical
act, and as a reader knowing the progression of their relationship later on in the book,

shows there is a significant in his passionate pursuit for Juliet. When Romeo says, “O

trespass sweetly urged” he stimulates a reciprocal physical behavior from Juliet. Juliet

then kisses Romeo but this time the kiss is from both side consensual, showing the

beginning steps of their relationship from a physical aspect that comes from Romeo’s

desire for Juliet and Juliet’s new interest in Romeo. Hemingway also shows the

importance of physicality in human’s desire and in a relationship through Henry and

Catherine. Catherine and Henry’s relationship is very physical and they show affectionate

frequently, especially when they first meet, shown here, “’You’ve got to stay,’ I said. ‘Oh,

you’re wonderful.’ I was crazy about her. I could not believe she was really there and

held her tight to me” (92). Henry speaks about his attraction to Catherine when first

meeting her as merely physical and “held her tight to me” shows the significance of their

physicality. This first instance of affection fuels their relationship which progresses to a

point where they create an emotional relation where as a result Catherine becomes

pregnant. Henry’s desire for Catherine begins initially by his selfish want for her comfort

which he gets from her physical touch and turns Henry’s selfish desire into a combined

emotional desire with Catherine. As the two grow, they create an emotional side that

matches their physical side. Shakespeare and Hemingway’s description of the core

concept of being human as the ability to want is ubiquitous but the way in which the

relationships contrast is the conditions that this conceptualization of desire is applied to.

The message suggested by Shakespeare and Hemingway about the question of

human existence can be observed in their writing. The themes and morals asserted in their

literature declare an intrinsic truth about the root of human’s concept and ultimately the
reasoning for their actions. Shakespeare and Hemingway identify the complicated

question of “Why?” and answer simple by the process of funneling down to the idea of

motive and desire. Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet” describes the want for love and the

way in which a personal aspiration denotes a sense of satisfaction which is defiant of

social conflict. Hemingway’s “A Farewell to Arms” details how the want for comfort and

the want to prevent solitude that includes fear, is defiant of personal conflict and the basis

is a manipulation of personal mentality to achieve a coveted sense of satisfaction. The

base reasoning behind all human behavior, which depends specifically on the situation or

scenario submerged in, connects to the idea of want and satisfaction. The reasoning

behind why behavior specifically depends on the environment or situation because the

achievement of satisfaction can sometimes be impossible or difficult to acquire. It’s

possible that the popular rock band The Rolling Stones were right when they said, “I can’t

get no satisfaction, cause’ I try and I try and I try and I try but I can’t get no...”

Satisfaction is only achieved by identifying a personal desire but universally, the ability

to desire is the base definition to describe the concept of being “human”.

Sources:

1. Shakespeare, William. “Romeo and Juliet”. New York: The Folger Shakespeare

Library, 1992.

2. Hemingway, Ernest. “A Farewell to Arms”. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1957.