Changes in Romeo in William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet

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Changes in Romeo in William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet After an emotional fight at the start of the play, the mood is brought down by the introduction of a love sick Montague by the name of Romeo. Throughout 'Romeo and Juliet,' Romeo's character goes through a number of changes, he matures from a self-absorbed child into a mature young man thanks to the trial and tribulations he encounters and overcomes in the play. Romeo is a very romantic character, but at the beginning of the play, the extent of his love is that of a teenager. He is infatuated with Rosaline, and due to her lack of love back, he childishly becomes depressed, locking himself in his room to in some foolish effort to get Rosaline. "Shuts up his windows, locks fair daylight out, And makes himself an artificial night." (Act 1.1 130-131) Romeo is lovesick. He 'loves' Rosaline and as she has sworn to stay chaste and never marry, he is confused and can't come to terms with the fact he will never have Rosaline. Romeos use of oxymorons shows such confusion. "O brawling love, O loving hate." (Act 1.1 167) Act one shows how immature Romeo is. He is shown to be self-absorbed, childish and an over reactor. He cares about nothing but himself and how depressed he is. Another quality of Romeo's that becomes apparent in act one is how fickle Romeo is. Only in the first scene does Romeo show the magnitude of his love for Rosaline by being so depressed, yet by the fifth scene of the act, he has fallen in 'love' with another, being Juliet. On seeing Juliet for the first time, Romeo says: "Did my heart love till now? Forswear it, sight! ... ... middle of paper ... ...g into and damaging the vault. Romeo is determined to end his life with Juliet so much so, that he kills Paris, just so that he can proceed with his mission. It is at this point, when Romeo beholds Juliet's body, that we realise that Romeo is far from the fickle boy we met at the start of the play: he is know a mature mane who is in love. His love for Juliet is everlasting. "Death that hath sucked the honey of thy breath, Hath no power yet upon thy beauty." (Act 5.3 92-93) Thus, Romeo dies a totally different character from the lovesick teenager he is in act one. The ending is even more sad as, the fact of the matter is, Romeo won't have the chance to prove to the world what a responsible, loving character he has grown into over such a short period of time and noone will ever understand his true self.

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