This is the very ecstasy of love, Whose violent property fordoes itself And leads the will to desperate undertakings As oft as any passion under heaven That does afflict our natures.

November 17, 2013September 29, 2020erainbowd

Reaching back into my memory. I tried to find a moment where the ecstasy of love had violent property in my own loving.
There was one desperate night full of desperate undertakings – one I am trying not to turn to, to remember.

I thought I could avoid it, then I remembered hearing this very line in a powerfully potent way just days after the event. The actor playing Ophelia had been sent home and we all heard the play differently with her replacement. The story is bound to rise up in these lines in little bits, if not in its totality – but the headline was:

Ophelia, heartbroken from an affair with Claudius and body wracked from an abortion, goes mad when Gertrude hooks up with Claudius.
Violent Properties: fire, glass, pills, locks, hotlines, police
Desperate Undertakings: The same.