It is deeply ironic that "love", held so highly in our society, is a very general term with no well-defined specific terms. For example, there are not even explicit terms to describe the specific types of love felt between, say, a family member and a romantic interest, which are clearly distinct and almost completely universal. We naturally seek a universal definition of love, a complete truth. I daresay I doubt one exists. This terminological ambiguity has undoubtedly caused many conflicts; history has no shortage of examples. Further irony arises from the fact that, despite being central to life, both physically and mentally, we still seem to struggle with this concept a lot; mathematics made much better use of its ubiquity among ancient civilizations. As a result, love is one of the most common, if not the most common, themes in literature and the other arts. Here we will look at a specific example. In Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare illustrates romantic love, infatuation, and familial love and how all three contradict each other by promoting different courses of action. First, Shakespeare describes infatuation in his play. Keep in mind that infatuation is distinct from romantic love because infatuation lacks certain qualities, such as the conscious will to maintain said love. We are referring to Romeo's feelings for Rosaline before the party. Romeo says: She is too fair, too wise, wisely too beautiful, to deserve bliss by making me despair. He denied love, and in that vow I live dead who lives to say it now. (1.1.221-5) From this quote, Romeo's feelings towards Rosaline are extremely evident: Romeo “loves” Rosaline, in common terms. However, this affection does not contain the usual elements that...... middle of paper ......3-4). There is no denying that this decision is obviously far from optimal. And so the point is proven: the two types of love therefore produced a much more counterintuitive result than expected. Indeed, this contradiction is one of the central themes of this work. In Romeo and Juliet, there are multiple types of love, and they all contradict each other, motivating the characters to perform actions that they otherwise would not perform under the influence of just one. . In particular, Shakespeare illustrates both infatuation and familial love. Furthermore, all three types of love contradict each other: romantic love allows for the instant destruction of infatuation. Likewise, familial love and romantic love, when both present, cause Juliet much agony. Indeed, this work demonstrates well why love can be so powerful and yet so disastrous.