Shakespeare's love, lust, and seduction

I was looking at the library yesterday procrastinating from my Professional Writing portfolio (thankfully it is now turned in) and found myself wandering around the stacks looking at all of the fascinating books that in a lifetime I could never finish. I found one about gender in Shakespeare. It was interesting, but not as fabulous as I was hoping. I flipped through though and found some interesting passages about masculinity and femininity (see blog: Conquering the Masculine). The way that Shakespeare intertwines these elements of love versus lust in his works was beautiful and tragic. Venus and Adonis still sticks out in my mind- the goddess of love, being denied! And the innocent, chaste female chasing the dumb ass, arrogant, self absorbed male just to be embarrassed or rejected. Love is a many splendoured thing, but it is also tragic. Hence why we are attracted to it. Do we love that high and then the fall? Do they love the high of winning and continue on that high through conquering in destructive ways? It is interesting to see how the female characters learn and try to meet expectations that society places on them just to have it end in tragedy. Love, lust, and tragedy- a vicious triangle.