Courtly Love in William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet

Courtly Love in William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet

In the Elizabethan era men would go to all extremes to show women how

much they loved them. This was called Courtly love. Around this time,

men were expected to declare their love for a woman like this, and the

women enjoyed the men telling them how beautiful they were. Men who

wished for a woman to love them back would carry on wooing their

mistresses until necessary or until their mistress's fell in love with

them. Although the thought of this sounds like a good idea for a

women, because receiving attention is a nice thing, but there were

rules and consequences. The men had to look for a lady of an

unattainable status, for example women who were already married or

they may have been of a higher class of people. The consequences of

courtly love came after the wooing stage. Men were sometimes ignored

by these women for days, even weeks! But if the man's love was genuine

then he would do whatever it takes to "win" the woman over. This

method of wooing would nearly always determine the fate of the couple,

i.e. if they had chemistry, and it would also establish if they would

marry or not. If the man gave up on these rules for whatever reason,

it was concluded that he did not truly love his woman, and he was

frowned upon.

The rules of courtly love were fairly simple. They consisted of the

ten rules in relation to wooing a women and marrying her. Men were to

fall in love with a woman of higher significance or with a woman who

was already married. The woman was to reject his advances to conserve

her honour and keep her good name. This coldness of the lady inflamed

the man's passio...

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... say, "It lightens."" Yet by the wedding night she Is making a

comparison to the luminescent quality of Romeo's love:

"…when I die

Take him and cut him out in little starts,

And he will make the face of heaven so fine

That all the world will be in love with night."

This is one of the rare occasions that Juliet mentions that fact how

much she is in love with Romeo himself, instead of how in love she is

in general. This quote truly sums up their love because she would need

to have ignored |Romeo instead of telling him how much she loves him.

In my opinion I believe that Romeo and Juliet were truly in love with

each other and not just using courtly love. I think this because of

the language they use when speaking to each other and the fact that

they sacrificed their lives to be with each other in heaven.