Different Representations of Love in William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet

Different Representations of Love in William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet

There are lots of different representations of love in Romeo and

Juliet. I think that Shakespeare chose to have so many representations

of love against a background of hate to show the many types of love

and to show that in the end love conquers hate. He uses so many

different types of love to explore the nature of love. He contrasts

and compares the different types of love with each other and with hate

to help us identify the different types of love and to see how they

relate.

'Romeo and Juliet' is famous for Shakespeare's representation of the

romantic love felt between Romeo and Juliet. But there are other types

of love in the play such as the love between families or friends. The

play is also about hate as well as love. We are always reminded of the

hate between the two families and we see how this affects the town and

the people in it. This theme would be very poignant and interesting to

the people in Shakespeare's time because they were scared of civil

war. Nevertheless love is still a very strong theme in Romeo and

Juliet.

We see lots of different views and representations of love in this

play but the only true or real love shown in the play is the love

between Romeo and Juliet. I think Shakespeare chooses to do this to

show us the strength of their love.

The nurse as well as Gregory, Sampson and Mercutio talk a great deal

about sexual love and their views of the roles of men and women. In

the first scene between Gregory and Sampson, Sampson says he will cut

off the heads of the maids 'or their maidenheads' meaning their

virginity. And t...

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...rages the match with Paris this doesn't mean she

loves Juliet any less. And when Juliet is supposedly dead the nurse

seems distraught saying things like 'O lamentable day' and 'O woe!'

Overall there are many different types of love in the play. There is

love between friends, families and men and women, even if sometimes it

isn't true love. And even though this play is largely about hate I

think the theme of love overrides this because the love is stronger

than the hate and eventually helps them to overcome the hate. And also

the love is between many different people and in many different forms

and representations. This shows the power of real love, it dominates

all the other types of love and this is shown through Shakespeare's

use of comparing and contrasting the different types of love against a

background of hate.