The passage from ShakespeareÆs Romeo and Juliet and Oliver SacksÆ The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat are quite different on the surface and in content. However, they are quite similar in meaning. In this passage from Shakespeare, Juliet ponders the deeper feeling of a human being other than the arbitrary label that is oneÆs individual name. In this passage from Sacks, P attempts to compensate for his lost senses, typically how we perceive the world, showing that the real things that make us human are not sensory but internal. As such, both of these passages demonstrate that there is something deeper to human feeling and meaning than names or sensory input.
Juliet is lamenting in this passage that so much stock is put in arbitrary ônamingö of individuals. She maintains ôThou art thyself, though not a Montagueö (Shakespeare 1). She maintains that if Romeo were some other name, her family would not represent his enemies. She compares RomeoÆs name to a rose, which ôwould smell as sweetö if it had any other name (Shakespeare 1). She therefore maintains that if Romeo were not called Romeo, he would still ôRetain that dear perfection which he owes / Without that titleö (Shakespeare 1). She makes a request of Romeo to ôdoff they name,ö because his name is ôno part of theeö and he will be enriched more by taking Juliet, something real and meaningful, in place of merely his ônameö (Shakespeare 1).
In the passage from Sacks; we see that Dr. P is trying to explore the richness of the world around him in light of his failing ability to use his senses. He is presented with a glove and provides somewhat mechanical or abstract definitions of it; ôA continuous surfaceàinfolded on itselfàIt appears to haveàfive outpouchings, if this is the wordö (Sacks 1). We see that Dr. P is unable to use his faltering neurological system to perceive the world as healthy individuals do. Instead
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