Love is a theme that is present in a number of Shakespeare's plays; including Romeo and Juliet, Othello, and Hamlet. In each of these plays, boundaries are set on love between characters because of status; in the case of Romeo and Juliet, their families are enemies, in Othello, Roderigo could never get attention from Desdemona because she doesn't even know he exists due to the fact that she is the wife of the Venitian general, and in Hamlet, Ophelia and Hamlet, are separated by Lord Polonius' commands to Ophelia. All of these examples of love end in the same way; death.
Due to Shakespeare's common ending to love, Shakespeare may be implying something about who people should love and whether we should act on that love. Romeo's love for Juliet, whom he thinks is dead because of the potion she was under, drives him to suicide. As Juliet awakens to a dead Romeo, she also commits suicide. Their love ended prematurely with death. In Roderigo's pursuit for Desdemona's love, he meets with death. Othello can even be related to this theme of love prematurely ending in death because perhaps being of a totally different race from Desdemona was considered a flaw in their love by Shakespeare.
In modern times, love seems to be much more free than it was during Shakespeare's time. In the examples above, there is a major problem in who each character chooses to love, which ends in death; whether it be family relations, social class, or race. Love that crosses those lines never seems to live, but is always cut short in Shakespeare's plays.
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