Different Views of Love Presented in the Play Romeo and Juliet
Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare's most famous play, is all about love.
Several different aspects of love are presented in the play, including
unrequited love, parental love, the love of friendship and romantic
love. In this essay, I shall be examining the views Shakespeare
expresses on these different forms of love.
Romeo experiences unrequited love in his dealings with Rosaline. This
form of love is not portrayed in the play as real love, the type
experienced by Romeo and Juliet, but as something completely
different. When we first hear of Romeo I the play, we are told by his
father that he has locked himself in his room and "Shuts up his
windows," and "locks fair daylight out". Later in the play, when Romeo
is talking to his friends Benvolio and Mercutio, he talks about his
love for Rosaline. He says, "Love is a smoke made with the fume of
sighs," that love is "A madness most discreet", and that "Under love's
heavy burden do I sink". These give the impression that Romeo is
feeling self-pity for himself because of Rosaline's rejection, but I
also think that it shows something else. I think that it shows that
Romeo is desperate to be in love, and is in fact in love with the idea
of being in love. All of these things show that unrequited love is
very different to conventional romantic love. The feelings of
self-pity as shown by Romeo move it away from the idea of love, and
into the realms of infatuation and lust. This is well put by Friar
Lawrence, who says, "young men's love lies not truly in their hearts,
but in their eyes".
Parental love is also presented in the play. This type of love is
shown to be caring and protective, just after the first confrontation
in the play. Lady Montague, Romeo's Mother, after hearing about the
fight, asks "O where is Romeo?" and "Saw you him today?" and says that
she was "right glad I am he was not at this fray.
There are many different types of love in this world, thus there are many different ways of expressing love. What revolves around that love, and the many different circumstances, trials, and tribulations that a love might face can greatly influence the outcomes of that love. These trials and tribulations can also be seen as different literary elements when used in plays. When looking at Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, he used many different themes and elements to provide complexity to the love story. Shakespeare cleverly takes the main theme of the play, love, and ties in other elements such as time, stage imagery, and language to pull the whole play together in a way that makes one think about the play on other levels.
' Here's much to do with hate, but more with love.' Act 1 scene 1.
play is also about hate as well as love. We are always reminded of the
... live life and be with her, or die and for them to be together.
Love in William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet "Romeo and Juliet" is a love tragedy based on different kinds of loves. Romeo and Juliet become married in a forbidden relationship over the high tension brawl between their rival families which Shakespeare clearly shows in the play. Despite the family brawls, the pair decides to let their "perfect" love defeat all. Peoples ideas have changed in the space of 400 years, for example back then some loves featured in this play would produce different reactions to the audience, than today. Shakespeare opens the play with the chorus who speaks a sonnet, where love imagery is found; "Two Star-crossed lovers" =
How Shakespeare Presents Love and the Problems of Love in Romeo and Juliet With particular focus on Act 1 Scene 5 and Act 2 Scene 2, show how. Shakespeare presents love and the problems of love in Romeo and Juliet. In the book Romeo and Juliet we look at the love and passion between Romeo of the Montague house and Juliet of the Capulet house as well. the feud between the two houses. Act 1 scene 1:
Romeo has a very extreme look towards love. To him love is almost exclusively about what is on the outside; not what they act like. His love is pithy; he was
the play is not solely about love but also a lot of hatred is involved
Attitudes Towards Love in Romeo and Juliet In the play Romeo and Juliet, love is a very important theme. The play is a tragedy set in the sixteenth century in “Fair Verona”. Love is a very important theme in the play and appears in many forms. Different people talk about love from very different points of view.
that Romeo is far from the fickle boy we met at the start of the play:
In Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, the views of love held by the character Romeo contrast sharply with the views of Mercutio. Romeo's character seems to suffer from a type of manic depression. He is in love with his sadness, quickly enraptured and easily crushed again on a passionate roller coaster of emotion. Mercutio, by contrast is much more practical and level headed. His perceptions are clear and quick, characterized by precise thought and careful evaluation. Romeo, true to his character begins his appearance in the play by wallowing in his depression over Rosaline who does not return his love:
In the first scene of Act one there is the servants Sampson and Gregory talking about sexual love. As they both talk about taking girls virginity. They both sound arrogant as they talk as if it is through experience. To them the thoughts of taking a girl’s virginity seems a joking matter.
Romeo and Juliet is a romantic love story about a young lad named Romeo who has fallen in love with Lady Juliet, but is unable to marry her because of a long-lasting family feud. The play ends in the death of both these characters and the reunion of the friendship between the families. Romeo is in love with Juliet, and this is a true, passionate love (unlike the love Paris has for her or the love Romeo had for Rosaline) that nothing can overcome, not even the hatred between their two families that is the reason for the death of their two children. Throughout the play, Shakespeare thoroughly explores the themes of both true love and false love and hatred. Without either of these themes, the play would loose its romantic touch and probably would not be as famous as it is today.
Romeo has a passion for love that is unbreakable, and he will do anything to get who he wants, no matter the consequences that might follow. An example of this is when Romeo goes to Juliet’s balcony and confesses his love for her, but what he does not understand is that “if they do see thee, they will murder thee” (Shakespeare II.ii.75). Romeo has trouble accepting the reality that it will not work out for him or her because of family differences. The intensity of love in both of these texts becomes a dangerous and violent thing.
(II.2.73) after Juliet asks if he is a Montague. He is willing to do anything for the girl he just met (again, touching on the theme of infatuation), and the fact that their two families don’t get along only makes the stakes higher for Romeo.