In Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew, is Petruchio's wooing of Katherine not an image of unrelenting love? He refuses to see the bad in her words and deeds and imagines in them great good. Even as she wishes his death, he speaks and acts as if she only loves and adores him. He will not hide from her what others say of her, but he will not join with them; rather, he repudiates what they say, even as we see how true it all is.
Yet, he is as rough with her as she is with him. He confronts her with force for force, but it is so deftly handled as only to serve to undermine further all her attempts to rebuff him. When she slaps him, he does not act shocked, but merely threatens to respond in kind; yet he never does, for she is so shocked by his response that it provokes not more violence, but a further war of words, where he is ever able to hold his own, partly because nothing she says fazes him.
Is this not the power of love? Not only have many men no doubt won a woman's heart in this way, but it is also how God wins us. Slowly, steadily, he shows us love—sometimes very tough love—until we come to love him.
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