The different types of love demonstrated in Romeo and Juliet

Within the book Romeo and Juliet there are many different types of love demonstrated through the characters including many different contrasting loves such as romantic love and sexual love. There are also many sensible types of love such as practical love shown in this book and I think Shakespeare has shown a very practical understanding of love. There are two main issues that Shakespeare brings across in this book and these are that romantic love is the most powerful type of love which demonstrated through Romeo and Juliet and that love overcomes hate which is proven when the Capulets and Montagues come together.

In the book one of the first types of love shown is the love practiced by Romeo when he is trying to attract Rosaline. This love is known as fashionable love, unrequited love or courtly love because in the day men would try and court ladies which they knew they had no chance to go out with by using flowery language, " For beauty starved with her severity, Cuts beauty off from all prosperity.

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" This proves that that Romeo is quite experienced with trying to court Rosaline as he uses many lines of flowery language which is also known as Petrarchan verse. Romeo also expresses himself as he speaks in oxymorons such as, " heavy lightness" and "feathers of lead" which show that he is confused. These two methods of oxymorons and flowery language makes courtly love seem to be a good type of love but in reality it is sad and morose because it is unrequited by the lady.

Romeo demonstrates this as he stays up all nigh because he is depressed, " ay sad hours seem long."
The next type of love is the love that evolves when you find the person that you want to spend your life with. This type of love is known as romantic love and is what happens with Romeo and Juliet at first sight. Romeo says, "Did my heart love till now? Foreswear its sight, I ne'er saw true beauty till this night." This shows that Romeo never loved Rosaline as he forgets about her when he sees Juliet. He also uses bright and joyful language when he talks about Juliet, " Juliet is the sun". This exhibits that his love for Juliet contrasts his love for Rosaline, as his love for Rosaline is sad and morose whereas this is bright and joyful. Romeo also shows eternal love when he speaks about Juliet because he uses religious imagery in verse, " Heaven is where Juliet lives." This shows that his feelings for Juliet are sacred which is the biggest bond that a man and woman can have which is also shown when they marry. Juliet has the same sort of feelings for Romeo although her view of love is more strong and practical. This is illustrated when Romeo comes to visit Juliet after the Capulet banquet and he is using his flowery language as she says, "Yet if thou swearest, Thou mayst prove false; at lovers perjuries They say Jove laughs" which means that the King of gods laughs at flowery language and that she thinks it is false to use such speech. This shows that that his flowery language does not attract her and that she just wants him to be straight up. This also proves that she prefers romantic love to fashionable love, which is stronger and more practical. It shows that she is more sensible than Romeo even though she has no experience of love. Although Juliet is practical she is also delirious and blinded by love because she does not think of the consequences of her parents catching them and she is the person who suggests to have a marriage the day after they meet. The next type of love is all about sex. This is known as bawdy or sexual love. This type of love is demonstrated by the Nurse, Gregory, Sampson and Mercutio and is the first type of love that arises in the play when Gregory and Sampson are talking. They talk about women as sexual objects when they say that women are, " pretty pieces of flesh." and they joke about rape when they say they will fight the men and push the women to the wall and, "cut of their heads" which means to break their virginity. This shows that they do not take love seriously and use it as an excuse for sex. Mercutio also has the same view as he teases Romeo about love and calls the nurse " Old hare hoar." Shakespeare puts bawdy love in the book to contrast with Romeo and Juliet's love. Although the Nurse has a bawdy view of love which is shown when she says, "Women grow by men." and " have happy nights and happy days" which hints at having fun during the day and having sex at night, she also has a motherly love for Juliet. She spends a lot of time with Juliet and even breast-fed her as a child, " sucked wisdom from thy teat" She replaces the role of Lady Capulet and it is shown in this quote. The Nurse will do anything for Juliet because she even helps arrange her marriage with Romeo. Although the Nurse has a motherly love it is not strong because when Capulet gets angry with her she changes her mind about Juliet being with Romeo. When Capulet gets angry with the Nurse he also acts violently towards Lady Capulet, which shows that their marriage is not very affectionate. This may be the reason why he wanted Juliet to get married to Paris when she was a bit older. Although he says this, when Tybalt dies he says " let it be a Thursday, tell her, she will be married to this noble Earl." Juliet does not get a say in who she marries; Capulet just decides on his own who she will marry and this shows that he has an unromantic view of love. Love is like business to him because he believes it would be a good investment. The last type of love demonstrated in Romeo and Juliet is Friar Lawrence's moderate view of love, which is the opposite of Romeo and Juliet's immediate and passionate. He says to Romeo, "Wisely and slow they stumble that run fast." which proves the he believes in taking love slowly. He marries them since his reasoning is that it will bring their families together which is sensible and shows that he is religious, as he believes in peace. Shakespeare has a very sophisticated view of love and this is proven by the act that he uses many types of love in all of his plays very effectively. Within Romeo and Juliet he uses several types of love and there are two messages that he brings across. Firstly he brings across that romantic love is the most powerful when compared to all of the others because Romeo and Juliet's love is the most powerful love in the play and finally he brings across the point that love overcomes hate because the Capulets and Montagues break the feud between their families due to Romeo and Juliets' death. Romeo and Juliet Coursework- Examine the different types of Love in Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet.

The Different Types of Love in Romeo & Juliet

There are many types of love that are portrayed in Shakespeare's play "Romeo ; Juliet". One of them being sincere, dignified love that both the main characters, Romeo and Juliet, have for each other. Although it seems that Romeo and Juliet do love each other with true, whole-hearted love, it does seem that they want to rush things in their relationship, for instance they fall in love, get married and die together within six days! Then again maybe they want to rush things because they do indeed share unfeigned love for each other and don't want to be away from each other for even a single minute.

"If thou dost love, pronounce it faithfully;

Or if thou think'st I am too quickly won,

I'll frown and be perverse, and say thee nay,

So thou wilt woo, but else not for the world" .

During the sonnet in Act 1 Scene 5, Romeo and Juliet exchange their feelings for each other as if Romeo was a pilgrim and Juliet was an angel. The sharing of lines shows how close they are to each other, and it seems as if no one else in the room exists. The sonnet ends in their first kiss.

"My lips, two blushing pilgrims, ready stand

To smooth that rough touch with a tender kiss."

"O then, dear saint, let lips do what hands do:

They pray, grant thou, lest faith turn to dispair."

Even when Romeo sees Juliet lying dead in the tomb in Act 5 Scene 3, it seems as if Romeo is prepared to die as he looks over his wife's lifeless body.

"Call this a light'ning? O my love, my wife,

Death, that hath suck'd the honey of thy breath,

Hath had no power yet upon thy beauty".

Another type of love in "Romeo ; Juliet" is the lustful desire that Romeo had for Rosaline at the very beginning of the play. During his first appearance in the play, Romeo is love-sick, acting very oddly throughout. He acts as if he's extremely miserable, but whether or not he enjoys it or not is another question. Love makes him equally happy and it does sad. He expresses his feelings of the two conflicting states in a number of paradoxes/oxymorons.

"Feather of lead, bright smoke, cold fire, sick health".

From what we've gathered from Romeo, the only reason he's interested in Rosaline is because he thinks he'll be able to use her for his own sexual delectation, although this is not reciprocated.

The nurse is also another character who shows another sort of love in the play, although it is totally unique and different to any other character in the play. She sees love more like a joke, adding witty sexual innuendos whenever she can during the play, especially towards Juliet when she's talking with her about Romeo.

"I am none of his flirt-gills, I am none of his skains-mates,

And thou must stand by too and suffer every knave to use me at his pleasure!".

Towards the end of the play, when Romeo has been banished from Verona, the Nurse questions whether Romeo and Juliet will ever be with each other again, and requests that Juliet marries Paris instead. This shows that the Nurse doesn't believe in true, meticulous, sincere love, only in lust and deceptiveness. She lacks morality, and I think she's the kind of woman who never really had a single man at any one time. She was always up for a "quick fix" when was younger.

Finally, another character in Romeo & Juliet who shows different kinds of love and emotion is Juliet's father, Lord Capulet. At the beginning of the play he shows his loving and concerned side, insisting that Juliet marry his dear friend, Paris in two summers' time.

"She hath not seen the change of fourteen years;

Let two more summers wither in their pride".

Lord Capulet then changes from a loving, caring father to a "dictator" so to speak, as he says to Juliet that she is his property. He then becomes angry as Juliet disobeys him by refusing to marry Paris, because she is in deep love with Romeo. During the end of the play he shows an amount of sadness after his beloved daughter, Juliet, commits suicide.

"O heavens! O wife, look how our daughter bleeds!

This dagger hath mistane, for lo his house

Is empty on the back of Montague,

And it mis-sheathed in my daughter's bosom!"

In conclusion there are many different kinds of love shown in "Romeo & Juliet". Each characters wording expresses what kind of love they portray, in effect this can then judge and decide what kind of character they really are on the inside.