June 10, 2013 8:45

Good times and bad times often feel like opposite sides of a whole, each contributing to the intensity and depth of the other. Cicero once said, "the greater the difficulty, the greater the glory." In other words, the amount of happiness we feel at overcoming adversity is related to the difficulty of the adversity itself. This true quote is validated by two works of literature, Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare and Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë. In Romeo and Juliet, the love of the two eponymous teenagers is sweetened by the conflict they must overcome in order to be together. In Jane Eyre, the fiercely moral and independent protagonist is rewarded with great love, but only once she has proven herself worthy. Shakespeare and Brontë use setting, characterization, conflict and symbolism to show that victory is sweetened by hardship.

The contrast between difficulties and their subsequent glories is expressed in myriad ways by Shakespeare in his play. From the onset, Shakespeare creates a setting rife with conflict to contrast with the transcendent love that emerges. Opening with two servants of the Capulets making lewd and lustful jokes and ending with a bloody brawl between the rival families, the first scene establishes how deeply the central conflict is woven into the fabric of Verona life. At the end of the first act, from this violent mire, rises the greatest love in literary history. While the servants of Capulet speak in prose, an indication of their lower class status, Romeo and Juliet's first meeting is expressed in a sonnet, the highest tier of literary expression. The paradox of the lust and violence of Verona society with the poetic beauty of Romeo and Juliet's first meeting emphasizes Cicero's truth that great difficulty leads to greater glory.

Shakespeare continues this theme using symbolism to illustrate the paradoxical relationship between hardship and subsequent victory. Romeo and Juliet's wedding night is preceded by enormous tragedy: Mercutio is killed by the fiery Tybalt, Juliet's cousin, and subsequently slain by her new husband, Romeo. We meet the young lovers again on the morning of their final parting as they playfully discuss which bird they are hearing. On one level, the birds themselves symbolize the soaring but fleeting nature of their young love. In addition, each lover identifies a different bird by its chirp, infusing their hearing with their individual hopes and fears. Romeo, knowing he is banished to Mantua and must leave before sunrise, hears a lark, the symbol of new day. Juliet, hoping for a few more minutes of wedded bliss, hears the nightingale, a bird which sings at night. In addition to being the last time they will see each other alive, this brief, delicate and loving exchange serves as a climactic moment in the story of the young lovers, showing the heights they have reached in contrast to the conflict they have endured to get there.

Brontë uses characterization, conflict and symbolism to show how the character of Jane Eyre goes from hardship to victory. Jane Eyre faces enormous personal struggle before triumphing in the end. Jane's long road of hardship leads from Gateshead Hall, where she is abused by her cousins and aunt, Mrs. Reed, to Lowood, where she suffers harsh conditions and religious hypocrisy, to Thornfield where she finds the comfort and satisfaction of a great love with her employer, Edward Fairfax Rochester. When Rochester proposes, it seems that Jane has finally arrived. However, in the scene where he confesses his love and proposes to Jane, Bronte uses symbolism, a tree split by lightning, to show that Jane's ultimate glory must be tempered by further hardship. Their wedding, interrupted by the brother of Bertha Mason, Rochester's wife hidden in the attic, forces Jane to escape into the harsh wilderness with no food or money to sustain her. Emotionally and physically ill, she sojourns at lonely Moor House, before being reunited with her true love Rochester. Indeed, Rochester himself must experience enormous hardship, a fire that destroys Thornfield, the death of his mad wife and his being maimed and blinded, before emerging victorious in the arms of his other half, Jane. Their love is that much stronger because of the challenges they have surmounted.

Cicero was what right when he said that "the greater the difficulty, the greater the glory." The great loves of Romeo and Juliet and Mr. Rochester and Jane Eyre prove that adversity, rather than poisoning, actually fortifies the sweetness of the relationship that overcomes it.