Beloved depicts the horrors faced by slaves in the South before the Civil War. The novel shows the dehumanizing effect of slavery on the people who suffered under it, even decades after it was outlawed. After escaping from her owners, Sethe kills her baby daughter when a group of men appears to bring her and her family back to the plantation. Years later, the murdered daughter continues to haunt the family, as a ghost everyone calls Beloved.
The play Fool for Love delves into the conflict between Eddie and May, a pair of former lovers in the American West. The two have new partners, but Eddie still wants May to come back to him, as they have a long and complicated history together. Both share the same father, but didn't know it until after they became lovers. The play explores the dark depths of love, revealing it to be complicated, something that contains both negative and positive elements.
The stories in Gorilla, My Love, mostly come from the point of view of a young, female protagonist, though some are told by older women. Although each short story stands on its own, they share common themes, such as the innocence that goes along with being young, the effect of poverty on a person's life and the role feminism plays in minority communities. The stories examine how the character's station in life and how each character views themselves impacts their worldview as well as the decisions they make.
Love in the Time of Cholera is the story of Dr. Juvenal Urbino, Florentino Ariza, and Fermina Daza between 1880 and 1930. Florentino and Fermina have a long but chaste romance, though Fermina marries Juvenal, a doctor devoted to curing cholera, as a young woman and remains wed to him for decades. Juvenal's death gives Florentino and Fermina a second chance to rekindle their love in their old age. The novel deals with disease, romance, death, and aging.
Love's Labour's Lost is a comedic play following Ferdinand, King of Navarre, and his friends and attendants the Lords Biron, Longaville, and Dumaine as they attempt to forswear the company of women for three years. All immediately become infatuated with the Princess of Aquitaine and her Ladies in Waiting, leading to a variety of comedic situations and much frustration for all involved. The play makes frequent reference to period literature, making its humor somewhat inaccessible.