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Romeo and Juliet is set on a theme of love and hate and presents many different types of love. The love between the two eponymous characters, Romeo and Juliet, is set in the context of hate, so their love stands out as more pure, and infused with tragedy. The prologue at the beginning of the play describes Romeo and Juliet as 'A pair of star-crossed lovers' who 'take their life', so we know that fate is against them.
The first love presented is Romeo's fashionable love for Rosaline.
Later on, we see romantic love for Juliet.
Unromantic love is presented by Lady Capulet as she speaks to her daughter about marriage. The Nurse and Mercutio represent sexual love. Other loves presented include, spiritual love, passionate love and moderate love. Each of the characters have alternative views of love and they all contrast with each other - Romeo and Juliet's view of love is different to those of the other characters. Examining the different views of love in the play will answer the many questions of love that Shakespeare poses, for example, what is the power of love, and what is the value of love?
Romeo appears depressed and his mind seems troubled by something especially after he has been locking himself into his room, sitting in darkness and shutting himself off from the rest of the world.
He talks to Benvolio revealing he is in love with a girl called Rosaline who is the niece of Capulet, and does not love him back.
This unrequited love makes Romeo feel as if he is not himself and very depressed.
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This courtly love makes Romeo speak and behave differently as well. He uses elaborate images to convey his feelings and exaggerates his love for Rosaline.
He uses artificial language in front of his friends and family. These include oxymorons, which show that he has mixed emotions and fractured, confused thoughts. He has used many positive and negative phrases in his speech: 'O heavy lightness, serious vanity...Feather of lead, bright smoke, cold fire, sick health.' Everything that he does say seems very intellectual, but also sounds forced, as if it is rehearsed. More negative complex metaphors are used which convey monstrous images of love. He describes love as 'smoke made with the fumes of sighs,' and then 'a chocking gall.' He has thought his whole speech through, almost as if he has known what he is going to say next because he has spent so much time on his own, locked up in darkness inside his room. The love that he feels for Rosaline is partly melodramatic. His use of rhyming couplets makes his speech sound like a well-rehearsed poem.
The imagery he uses would make the audience wonder whether his feelings for Rosaline are actually genuine or not, or is he just in love with the idea of being in love? Benvolio is determined to show Romeo that Rosaline is not the only beautiful girl in Verona. The Capulet party was organized for Juliet to meet a wealthy man, Paris, who her parents want her to marry. This is where Romeo and Juliet first meet each other and fall in love. Here Benvolio shows Romeo that Rosaline is just an ordinary woman. Mercutio does not know about this incident and later mocks Romeo, making bawdy and rude jokes about his and Rosaline's relationship. He accuses Romeo of simple lust, 'O that she were An open-arse and thou a poperin pear.' Mercutio does not understand Romeo's feelings and is himself only concerned with the physicality of women regarding them as sexual objects.
At the Capulet party, Juliet appears as an angel, showing her to be very beautiful and pure. Rosaline is immediately displaced from Romeo's mind as he sees Juliet. The audience now know his feelings for Rosaline were exaggerated and not genuine at all.
The love he shows for Juliet is real love shown by the dramatic change in his language and behavior. His new language contains simplicity, as opposed to the forced intelligent phrases and oxymorons he used to get attention when Rosaline rejected him. His speech shows tenderness and honesty, "Did my heart love till now? For swear it sight, For I ne'er saw true beauty till thus night." This confirms that his love for Rosaline was false and that he was just in love with the idea of being in love. He uses light imagery to describe Juliet as pure and beautiful, and describes her as the "sun". Light imagery is traditionally used in a romantic way and Romeo uses it to describe Juliet's beauty. "Bright angel." His love has reached a genuine depth, and is more natural. The Balcony scene shows Romeo using heavenly imagery, to describe her, and his feelings for her. "Two of the fairest stars in all the heaven."
Romeo shares a sonnet with Juliet and they use religious imagery to describe each other and their feelings. Romeo uses the religious imagery to impress his love on Juliet, and says it would be a sin to touch her with his hand. "If I profane with my unworthiest hand, This holy shrine, the gentle sin is this." Their whole sonnet is set in formality as they constantly use religious and heavenly imagery to show their love is dignified. Their sonnet ends in a kiss. The imagery expresses the purity and sincerity of Romeo and Juliet's love.
Act Two scene two shows the characters declaring their love for each other, with Romeo scaling the walls of the Capulet mansion and Juliet revealing her thoughts on the balcony. Over hearing this, Romeo swears his loyalty to Juliet. "lady by yonder blessed moon I vow." Romeo says he will be loyal to her by point of death. This shows he wants to be with her for the rest of his life and is committed to her already.
Juliet is told by her mother that Paris would like to marry her, during Act One scene 3. Juliet is very relaxed about the idea of marriage, and has never thought about it seriously before, being only thirteen, "It is an honor that I dream not of". She agrees to look at Paris at the party: "I'll look to like, if looking liking move". She has an open-minded view of love because she has such a casual response to Paris' proposal. Her view is young and undeveloped and therefore her response to her mother is that she will not go beyond the stage of liking Paris, "But no more will I endart mine eye, Than your consent gives strength to make it fly". She has not encountered the strength and beauty of true love, so her view is open-minded. Juliet meets Romeo and is immediately attracted to him. She is worried, though that she has been too quickly won over, and their love is too unadvised. Her feelings are overwhelming, absolute and irreversible, "or if though wilt not, be but swarm my love, And I'll no longer be a Capulet". She has a romantic awakening and wants to commit herself already; she is prepared to give up her name, as well as her identity, inheritance, family and status. Her willingness to sacrifice these things inputs her character with the strength of love. Her romantic view of love shows her with direct and honest approach to courtship:
In truth fair Montague I am too fond,
And therefore than mayst I think my haviour light.
But trust me gentleman, I'll prove more true
Than those that have more cunning to be strange.
This results in Juliet announcing her marriage - again dismissing traditional forms of courtship - when she says:
Three words, dear Romeo, and good night indeed,
If thy bent of love be honorable,
Thy purpose marriage, send me word tomorrow,
By one that I'll procure to come to thee.
She describes her love with natural imagery of flowers and buds, "This bud of loves by summer's ripening breath May prove a beauteous flower when next we meet". Her love for Romeo is innocent and, like Romeo's love for her, pure. She also describes her love as deep and ever-lasting, and uses this metaphor, "My bounty is as boundless as the sea, My love as deep; the more I give to thee", showing she is a strong character, as she is prepared to go against her whole family and marry into the family who are their foe.
Romeo and Juliet's love scenes are separated from the rest of the play, especially the hatred, between the two families. Their love is so pure that the hatred between them is overpowered. Their eternal love is motivated by trust and not lust. The love scenes, including the balcony scene, are set away from the context of hate to show their loyalty towards each other. The environment around their love is so beautiful, that they have not thought of the consequences of them being together at all. The audience know that their love is real, and the strength behind it is immense, but fear the tests their love is set against.
Juliet's mother and father, Lord and Lady Capulet, have a very unromantic and mercenary view of love and marriage. Lady Capulet, herself, was part of an arranged marriage to her husband, and therefore believes that her own daughter should go through this, and have children, despite being only thirteen years old. She doesn't' believe in people marrying because of their love for each other, but for financial reasons and to improve their social status, "So shall you share all that he doth possess, By having him making yourself no less". Se talks about what Paris has, money, and not what Juliet thinks about him, and how she feel, therefore her view is an unromantic one. During Act Three scene five, Lord and Lady Capulet, announce that Juliet is to marry Paris. As Lady Capulet tells Juliet, she does not understand why Juliet declines Paris's proposal, even though he is wealthy and has a high social position. The announcement itself, mounts more tension, and pressure on Juliet, and creates another complication, as she is already secretly married to Romeo. This scene is very ironic, as she has just consummated her marriage with Romeo. Lady Capulet says, "I would the fool were married to her grave." She is a callous mother, and does not want to listen to why Juliet does not want to get married. She disowns her, telling her "Here comes your father, tell him so yourself."
Capulet has a similar view of love: "Tell her, She shall be married to this noble earl." Capulet is forcing Juliet to marry Paris, and once she says no, he uses physical violence, to force her into it. His response is bad tempered one. He shouts at her an calls her names:
But fettle your fine joints 'gainst Thursday next,
To go with Paris to St. Peter's church,
Or I will drag thee on a hurdle thither.
Out you green-sickness carrion. Out you baggage.
You tallow face.
The long speech by Capulet, shows that he is hurt because "My care have been to have her match and" cannot believe she has rejected his choice of husband. If she refuses to marry Paris, she can "beg, starve, die in the street, For by my soul, I'll ne'er acknowledge thee". He rejects her just like she rejected Paris. Capulet's unromantic view of love thwarts the romance between Romeo and Juliet. This is because they love each other so much they are prepared to go to any length to be with each other.
Juliet's nanny, the Nurse, and Romeo's friend Mercutio, have a very different view of love compared to everyone else in the play. The Nurse tells many rude jokes and makes bawdy and sexual comments. The Nurse has raised Juliet ever since birth, and has a better relationship with her than her own mother. Her sexual punning reflects her own preoccupation with sex, as she believes women are fulfilled by men sexually and romantically and views love as more physical, than emotional. She even describes Romeo in a physical way, "Let me be satisfied, is 't good or bad". She complains about the amount of work she does, but claims she will get her own when Juliet does the work later that night, referring to sex, "But you shall bear the burden tonight". She advises Juliet to marry Paris, though, when she is told of the arranged marriage. This shows she has little regard for the meaning of real love and the loyalty given to it. She does not understand the true love that people feel for each other as she sees marriage as a matter of convenience. This is just like the Capulet's view of love and marriage. Her thoughts and views are inconstant and her only real view of love is that of the physical parts of love and marriage. She is driven by lust and not emotional love. Her bawdy comments and rude jokes often provide comic relief to the play.
Mercutio's view of love is the same as the Nurse's. He also represents the physical side of love and views women only as sexual objects. He mocks Romeo's love for Rosaline at the beginning of the play, and only views Rosaline physically, "By her fine foot, straight leg, and quivering thigh". His view of women as sexual objects makes him seek gratification from them. He uses clever punning and witty language to, bring comic relief to the play. "Young Abraham Cupid, he that shot so trim, When King Caphetua loved the beggar-maid". He uses crude language as well to describe his view of love, "If love be blind, love cannot hit the mark...O that she were An open-arse and thou a poperin pear."
The Nurse and Mercutio represent sexual love. This is another contrast with the love between Romeo and Julie, which is romantic. The spirituality and purity of their love is highlighted even further by deprecating mockery and bawdy jokes, not always directed at them, by characters like the Nurse and Mercutio, whose view of love is contrasted with that of Romeo and Juliet.
Friar Lawrence is the local priest and Rome's good friend. He is involved in the deaths of Romeo and Juliet, as he is the one who came up with the misguided plan. Friar Lawrence represents moderate love. This love is of caution and he views this as everlasting love. At the beginning of the play he scolds Romeo for being too fickle too fast and giving up Rosaline too quickly. He worries that the same could happen to Juliet. Despite this he agrees to marry the two lovers in secret, as he believes it could end the feud between their two families: "For this alliance may so happy prove To turn your Households' rancour to pure love." When he does come to marry them though, he worries that their love may be too hasty and too passionate:
These violent delights have violent ends,
And in their triumph die, like fire and powder.
The Friar is the one who advises them to "love moderately".
The Friar comes up with the plan to keep Romeo and Juliet together and make Juliet not go thorough with the arranged marriage to Paris. However, we know the risky and complicated plan would not go according to the plan and therefore the Friar prepares us for tragedy.
William Shakespeare views love as triumphant. He attempts to show us that love is stronger than hate, and has the power to overcome hate. We see this during Act Five scene three, when the Montague's and Capulet's forgive each other and their hate turns into love. The love between Romeo and Juliet has the power to conquer hate, despite the consequences and sacrifices. The Friar and the prince, despite their enormous powers, have already failed to put an end to the feuding. Love still triumphs amidst adversity, shown by the deaths of Romeo and Juliet, when their father's shake hand and realize the "Poor sacrifices of our enmity". The play is ended not with despair but with peace in Verona.
If the play had actually ended with death and not reconciliation, love would seem weak and shattered by the tragedy. It would have showed that nothing was gained and love was ruined in vain. However, the play ended in reconciliation, showing that love will not be lost for no reason, but brings more love with it despite sacrifices.
Romeo and Juliet is set on a theme of love. (2020, Jun 02). Retrieved from https://studymoose.com/romeo-juliet-set-theme-love-new-essay
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