How Is Love Presented In Romeo And Juliet

Compare the ways the pain of love is presented in Romeo and Juliet and a selection of poems.

Love is something that everyone desires. It could be the love a parent has for a child or the love a person has for themselves. There is also love where two people have feelings for each other. However, no matter what type of love you have, it's highly likely that once in your lifetime, you might feel the pain of love. I will be exploring the pain of love in Romeo and Juliet and a selection of poems.

Shakespeare presents the pain of love in Romeo and Juliet as a powerful and overwhelming issue. In act 1 scene 1, the pain of love is presented through the use of oxymoron and imagery of death when Romeo tries to understand his feeling towards Rosaline.

"Let the aeroplanes circle moaning overhead" shows the speaker’s pain. "He was my north, my south, my east and west" is a metaphor which describes the speaker’s relationship with the man, as the man was his direction in life, and now that he is gone the speaker is lost without him. ‘The stars are not wanted now; put out every one’ the speaker in the poem wants the stars in the sky to disappear as the stars symbolise destiny the phrase has been over exaggerated using a hyperbole. In Romeo and Juliet, the pain of love was shown in a similar way when Juliet dies. Romeo is shown struggling to break at liberty of what his destiny reveals as his hopes and dreams. ‘Then I defy you stars’ is Romeo's rebellious challenge when he hears of Juliet's death as the stars symbolise destiny and you can’t go against destiny but Romeo doesn’t agree with this he believes he can choose his own fate. So when Romeo says ‘then I defy you stars’ he is trying to say he chooses his own fate. This shows the pain of love could either make you lose hope or it could make you rebellious. Furthermore, the fact that in the prologue Shakespeare introduces them as “star crossed lovers who take their lives” shows that he feels that it is

The speaker in when we two parted says "in secret we met in silence I grieve" The speaker grieves the same way he met his lover as he grieves in silence nobody knows that he is grieving so he is doing it in secret. The speaker is heartbroken about that the woman he loves. This is comparable to Romeo and Juliet as they also met in secret. In Act 3 Scene 5 Romeo and Juliet say goodbye to each other "and trust me, love in my eyes so do try sorrow drinks our blood" show that even through Romeo and Juliet won't be able to see each other they still love each other this builds benevolence from the audience as the pain of love is being presented through separation. In ‘when we two parted' nobody knew about the speakers relationship so they can't release their emotions I know this because the speaker says "in silence I grieve." ‘Pale grew thy cheek and cold, colder thy kiss’ the words pale, cold and colder creates the impression that the person the speaker loves has died comparable to Romeo and Juliet when Paris says ‘keep this holy kiss’ a holy kiss in the new testament was a sign of greeting whereas in the ‘cold colder thy kiss’ was a kiss of farewell. The ‘Thy vows are all broken,’ wedding vows are sacred breaking them can destroy relationships. In Romeo and Juliet Act 2 Scene 2 Romeo and Juliet exchange vows Romeo says “have night’s cloak to hide me from their eyes, and