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Shakespeare portrays love in Romeo and Juliet in many ways. Their love is portrayed by images of light and dark and is juxtaposed against death, and he sets next to Romeo and Juliet the love associated with sight and appearances.
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In all, their love is of another world.
The love of Romeo and Juliet is portrayed as otherworldly and heavenly. They are "star-crossed lovers", with their destiny pre-determined; they and other humans have no control. Instead the control lies with fate and God.
The lovers are "fortune's fools". This dependency on fate and otherworldly powers lend their love a sense of being something heavenly, "hanging in the stars". With their love, they are able to rise above their world and everyone else. Their love is a means to escape the world of reality and to create their own world of darkness. This world of darkness is their consequential deaths, because their love is "death-marked". Their love is too passionate and powerful to remain in their world, ruled by family hate and violence.
Shakespeare describes love in terms of sight and appearances. Romeo and Juliet's love is blind, they first meet at a ball, where Romeo is "covered in an antic face" and Juliet's identity is unknown to him. Their first meeting is love at first sight. Romeo has "ne'er saw true beauty till this night" and this shows their love's dependency on sight. During their second meeting at the balcony, Juliet asks Romeo to "doff thy name", as names are also a type of disguise and mask.
Romeo in turn replies that he is hidden "from their sight", so that his appearance is seen only by Juliet, who has the "mask of night" on her face. Despite both of them admitting that they love each other, their love is heavily depended on their sight and the appearance of the other person. This theme is an important element of Shakespeare's portrayed love because the play itself is based on sight, appearances and masks like the family name.
In the play, a common theme is contrasting images of light and dark. Shakespeare uses these images of light and dark often in terms of light and day. Most of Romeo and Juliet's meetings happen at night. At the Capulets ball, Romeo's first description of Juliet is that "she doth teach the torches to burn bright". To Romeo, Juliet, the "fair sun" will be forever associated with light. But to Juliet, she links Romeo, "bescreened in night", with darkness and the moon. In the morning after their wedding night Romeo and Juliet argue whether it is light or dark. If it is dark, they are able to stay with each other for longer, but since it is the "lark, the herald of the morn; no nightingale", the light separates them. Light reveals and exposes, and before the light can expose the truths and realities of their relationship, they are forced to separate. Light and dark can never coexist, and symbolising their love as that show how it can never survive in reality.
Throughout Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare employs opposing factors. One of the most potent contrasts is how he sets love next to death. Their love has "sprung from my [their] only hate". This juxtaposition emphasises their love and how out of place it is in their society they live in. Both love and death are very strong themes all through the play and are linked. Juliet often refers to death, almost subconsciously. If she does not meet Romeo, she thinks that her "grave is like to be my [her] wedding bed". Juliet orders that when Romeo dies, he should be cut "out in little stars". These are not only foreshadowing the lovers imminent deaths, but the constant link between love and death in the play. They spend one night together, and the next morning Juliet comments how she imagines him "dead at the bottom of a tomb" and that he "lookst pale" Romeo replies that so does she.
Exactly a day later, they are lying together again, dead in the tomb. Their love is so passionate and intense, but "violent delights have violent ends". Instead of being that type of love that pushes and protects them from violence and death, their type of love pushes them towards it. The "violent ends" are the lovers' suicide, they must finally meet death to preserve their love. Shakespeare does not want to portray the sweet, gentle and almost childish love, like the love Romeo thought he had for Rosaline. Instead he wanted to portray Romeo and Juliet's love as powerful, violent, passionate, and as intense as death.
Because of the way in which Shakespeare employs images and common themes, the play records Romeo and Juliet's evolving love, from their metaphorical and heavenly meetings at the ball with "torches" to their literal and dramatic deaths in the darkness of the mausoleum. In the space of four days, Shakespeare has encompassed a lifetime.
Romeo and Juliet were not victims of fate: as many people believe, but instead were two lovers that made terrible choices. When I was a little kid; I often times heard the love between a boy and a girl referred to as Romeo and Juliet. I would always think to myself that I wanted to be just like them some day. However as I grew up and actually read the story and was old enough to interpret the events that actually occurred: I begin to realize that this story wasn’t quite the love story that I thought it was; in fact it was more of a tragedy. I also begin to realize that the couple that I once idolized; were in fact rather foolish. They made a series of bad choices that were impulsive and not well thought out. Although many people would argue that fate brought them to their demise; I disagree; as the definition of fate is the development of events outside a person’s control, regarded as determined by a supernatural power. I believe that many of the decisions that they made were within their control; and that those choices ultimately were the cause of their untimely deaths. From the very beginning of the play Romeo is seen making very bad choices, he was heartbroken over Rosaline who did not love him back and he decided to attend a ball hosted by the feuding family the Capulet’s- despite the fact that he was not invited: just to see her. This was certainly a huge risk because if someone would have noticed him under his disguise it could have had huge consequences. At the ball he unexpectedly meets Juliet. He immediately falls in love with her. In this scene, it is clear that he acts rather impulsively. He attended the ball claiming to be in love with Rosaline; however by the time he leaves he is professing his love for Juliet. It is at this point that he questions whether or not he even loved Rosaline in the first place stating “Did my heart love till now? forswear it, sight! For I ne'er saw true beauty till this night." (1.5.53)
When Juliet and Romeo meet up again, they make plans to wed. They decide that their love is so strong that they must be destined to be together. Romeo goes right away to seek the advice of Friar Laurence and to ask him to marry him and Juliet. They did not tell their families or anyone else about this. The Friar tries to warn Romeo to use caution in moving so fast into love with Juliet; as he reminded him that he was just in love with Rosaline by
stating “Holy Saint Francis, what a change is here! Is Rosaline, whom thou didst love so dear, So soon forsaken? (2.3. 65-67). However, with Romeo’s persistence he decided to marry them anyway. In fact Romeo sneaks away and spends the night with Juliet for their wedding night. The two lovers at this point show that they have similar character traits: Juliet is also like Romeo in that she is impulsive and a risk taker: She weds Romeo without her parent’s permission; knowing that she is to be wed to Paris soon and she allows Romeo to come up to her bedroom to spend their wedding night: ignoring the danger of possibly being caught by her parents. Romeo encounters a situation in which he finds himself in the middle of a fight between his best friend Mercutio and Tybalt. He knows that he can’t fight Tybalt because he is wed to Juliet at this point; making the two of them family members. Mercutio and Tybalt begin to fight; and Romeo steps in between them to stop it. However, Tybalt stabs Mercutio under Romeo’s arm. Romeo then attacks Tybalt and kills him. Romeo in this scene indicates that he is a victim of fate by stating “O, I am Fortune’s fool!” (3.1.133) However, this was no fate. Romeo was clearly acting out of rage because of his best friend’s death and made the choice to take the life of Tybalt; Juliet’s cousin in revenge.
Juliet upon learning what happened to her husband immediately rushes to Friar Laurence asking for his help; insisting she would rather die than marry Paris. “O, bid me leap, rather than marry Paris.” (4.1.77) Friar Laurence assisted her by giving her a potion that would make her appear dead for a short time. "No warmth, no breath shall testify thou livest; The roses in thy lips and cheeks shall fade to wanny ashes.” (4.1.98-100) He is to get the message to Romeo in Mantua. Juliet in the meantime makes the choice to follow through with the plan, thus faking her own death. Her family is devastated to find her dead. At this point in the story, you can see just how cunning of a character Juliet can be. She has deceived her parents on many times and at this point is even willing to cause them great grief and sorrow in order to be with Romeo. Romeo away in Mantua; never got the message about Juliet’s planned death; because the Friar that was to deliver the message was stricken with illness for a few days. By the time he learned of her death he rushed to her side to see if it was true. Upon finding
Juliet’s lifeless body; he made the abrupt decision to kill his self. Juliet awakens shortly after to find Romeo dead and immediately decides to take her life in her own hands to be with him. “O happy dagger, / This is thy sheath,” (5.3.171) and she stabs herself to death. In conclusion; the couple both make a lot of quick decisions and clearly have bad judgment. They felt very strongly that they were destined to be together and they were willing to go to any extreme lengths, even death to be with each other. However, fate did not play a part in this story. I truly believe if they had made better decisions and not acted impulsively this would not be the tragic love story that we all know and love today.
How is love portrayed in Romeo and Juliet?. (2016, Jun 21). Retrieved from https://studymoose.com/how-is-love-portrayed-in-romeo-and-juliet-essay
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