Love is arguably the most powerful emotion in every being. Since the beginning of time, our species' brains have been wired to find a mate for reproduction. Many go to great lengths for the attention and affection of someone. Personifying love thoroughly illustrates this intensity, demonstrating the acts it can drive people to commit. Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet is an excellent example of this. The play portrays the story of two teenagers who make irrational decisions and take risks in the name of love because that is how much the nature of love influences them. In Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare personifies love and explores its nature, demonstrating love’s difficulty to navigate, its power to defy obstacles, and its enchanting yet oppressive …show more content…
Before Romeo fell in love with Juliet, he had feelings for another woman, Rosaline. The difference with Rosaline, however, was that she did not love him. Romeo gets emotional several times in the text as he contemplates the rejection. In one scene, Romeo confides in Mercutio about his dilemma with Rosaline. Mercutio teases him for a while and then says, “If love be rough with you, be rough with love / Prick for pricking, and you beat love down” (1.4.27-28). Mercutio advises Romeo not to let love control him and turn him down. Instead, Mercutio says if love has done him wrong, do wrong to love back. Mercutio could suggest Romeo must quit chasing Rosaline because the love is unreciprocated. Rosaline rejecting Romeo is an example of “love being rough,” and he can “be rough with love” back by not caring about Rosaline anymore and accepting her rejection. In this context, Shakespeare personifies love as someone who causes emotional harm. Love, once again, is a feeling and cannot be physically aggressive with people. Shakespeare uses personification in this quote to help illustrate Mercutio's perspective. This differs from Romeo, who would defy every obstacle to …show more content…
While seeming beautiful and enchanting, love can have an ugly, oppressive side. Before meeting Juliet, Romeo's heartache over Rosaline was a recurring theme. Benvolio has a different approach to his advice compared to Mercutio. In the first scene of the novel, when Romeo brings up his heartache from Rosaline, Benvolio comforts him, saying, “Alas that love, so gentle in his view, should be so tyrannous and rough in proof” (1.1.174-175). He expresses that love can seem benign in theory, but be terrible in practice. This personifies love as a two-faced being, seeming like one thing but being the opposite. Mercutio and Benvolio both recognize that love can be rough and brutal in their quotes. The difference lies in how Benvolio and Mercutio choose to navigate the difficulties. Mercutio wants to be as combative as possible and address love head-on, leaving no room for hurt feelings and emotions. However, Benvolio is benign with his advice. Benvolio empathizes with Romeo’s struggles and validates what he feels. He gives beneficial advice, informing Romeo on how something as wholesome as love can turn into a damaging and heartbreaking
Romeo and Juliet show very vividly that love can be a dangerous influence. Romeo and Juliet are from rival families and have found love. They had put aside their families ancient hatred and fell in love in secrecy which obviously came with consequence. In Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare, the author communicates the message that love causes humans to make irrational decisions. We know this because of their decision to get married, Juliet's decision to fake her death, and Romeo and Juliets to end their lives,
Mercutio is an extremely cocky jokester who views the subject of love as a very physical matter. When the Montagues are on their way to the Capulet party, Mercutio mocks Romeo saying, "If love be rough with you, be rough with love. Prick love for pricking, and you beat love down" (I, iv, 27-28). Mercutio is trying to comfort his friend by proclaiming that Rosaline is just another love prick in his life, and Romeo will love again after this phase of heartbreak. Several lines past, Mercutio's Queen Mab speech about a fairy creeping on people's dreams stretches on and on (I, iv, 53-94). Romeo tries to calm his friend, and the kinsman of the Prince admits to talking of nothing; he is one "that loves to hear himself talk and will speak more in a minute than he will stand in a month" (II, iv, 137-139). His tangent proves that his witty, light-hearted remarks puncture yet highlight the passionate, love-seeking qualities of Romeo.
In the play Romeo and Juliet ,by Shakespeare we are constantly bombarded with different meanings of words, contrasts, and characters who are quite irrational. They wish things upon themselves, and when they happen, are astonished. This piece of literature is filled with situations where the character intends one thing to happen, but his results are completely different. Throughout the following paragraphs the reader is to decide if the examples shown display opposite results from the original plan.
“Romeo and Juliet” by William Shakespeare is a play about two lovers from different families that have an internal feud between them. It ends in both lovers, Romeo and Juliet, committing suicide as they could not openly live with each other. An important idea in this play is that of the impetuosity of youth and the rash decisions that young people may make. This idea is continuously brought up throughout the play and is explored through the concepts of overreacting and being blinded by anger, desperation in forbidden love and taking your life for love.
Romeo and Juliet is arguably the most famous story about love in literature. This is in part because of the tension caused by the look the different characters have towards what love means and its role in life. These views were very important for the progression of the story. Their different views collided and caused much grief and sorrow for the characters throughout play. Many important events that propelled the story forward would not have happened without the various feelings towards love the characters have and how they felt of and reacted to the other characters’ view on love.
The pain of love is shown through unrequited love in Romeo and Juliet, The Farmer’s Bride and To His Coy Mistress. In Romeo and Juliet, Romeo suffers from unrequited love for Rosaline which is conveyed through oxymorons and paradoxes. In act 1: scene 1 Shakespeare writes “alas, that love, so gentle in his view, should be so tyrannous and rough in proof!” as Benvolio’s reply to Romeo’s sonnet. The line is a paradox with an idea of gentle vs rough, two words that should never go together. Benvolio is trying to tell Romeo that he is not in love with Rosaline because love would feel great. Furthermore, Romeo also
He consistently degrades women by making jokes about them and mocking people who view women as more than pieces of meat. Mercutio illustrates this when mocking Romeo for his love for Rosaline by saying, “If love be rough with you, be rough with love; Prick love for pricking and you beat love down,”(I.4.27-28). Romeo values love and women and believes that marriage is a partnership and is mutually beneficial, and that women are worth more than their bodies. Romeo shows this by saying, “My bounty is as boundless as the sea, my love is as deep; the more love I give to thee the more I have, for both are infinite,” (II.2.133-135). He shows a very deep understanding of how love is supposed to be and how women should be valued. Romeo knows that love goes both ways and is not only physical and that women are to be loved and treated as an
Romeo's perception of love as "rough" is generally due to his own response to the events in his life. Mercutio sees love as a "tender thing," and therefore offers this advice:
Love is a wonderful curse that forces us to do unexplainable things. Romeo and Juliet is a famous play written by William Shakespeare, who does an exceptional job in showing the readers what hate, mercy, death, courage, and most importantly, what love looks like. This play is about two star-crossed lovers who are both willing to sacrifice their lives just to be with one another. Unfortunately tragedy falls upon the unconditional love Romeo and Juliet have for each other, but along the way they experience immeasurable forgiveness and extraordinary bravery just to be with one another. Sadly enough, love is a cause of violence in the end.
He asks his cousin, Benvolio, for his advice and remorse. Therefore, when Romeo is with Benvolio in the first scene, he is in a deep agony from Rosaline’s love. He describes her love as “a choking gall” (1.1.185) that he can’t resist and brings a deep sadness in his heart. Showing the audience that he is in love with Rosaline, but she does not love him back and that is why he is sorrow. Also, Shakespeare is using an oxymoron to empathize how sweet, wonderful, and magnificent love is; however it’s showing how depressing, sorrow, and the agony that comes from it. Secondly, Rosaline doesn’t want to be loved and that emphasizes Romeo’s situation. Romeo tells Benvolio that she is “not [to] be hit with cupid 's bow [or]…hath Dian’s wit” (1.1.200) meaning that she refuses to be hit by Cupid’s love arrows and has Diana 's virginity. Making Romeo upset because he loves Rosaline, but she does not want to be love by Romeo. Also, to exaggerate her virginity and deflection of love, Shakespeare uses Greek mythology as metaphors that can empathizes his words’ meanings. In conclusion, Romeo’s depression comes from Rosaline’s virginity and not wanting to love
Throughout the tragedy of Romeo and Juliet, by William Shakespeare, various types of love are portrayed. According to some of the students of Shakespeare, Shakespeare himself had accumulated wisdom beyond his years in matters pertaining to love (Bloom 89). Undoubtedly, he draws upon this wealth of experience in allowing the audience to see various types of love personified. Shakespeare argues that there are several different types of love, the interchangeable love, the painful love and the love based on appearances, but only true love is worth having.
Have you ever been in love before? Many would say that love is hard to come by, and even harder to maintain, while some would say the opposite. In Shakespeare’s play, The Tragedy of Romeo & Juliet, he explores similar concepts related to love and infatuation. Although the reader never directly hears from Shakespeare, one could infer that his own thoughts are similarly mirrored in his characters, with the play serving as a warning tale of sorts, and the various roles echoing different dangers when it comes to love, which there are many. More specifically, Romeo Montague and his actions in the play are very intentional, as they help explain Shakespeare’s intentions and his own personal thoughts on the topic of love and its hazards, as well as its ups, too, which there are many.
William Shakespeare (1564-1616) was a Renaissance poet and playwright who wrote and published the original versions of 38 plays, 154 sonnets, two long narrative poems, and several other poems. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language, and often called England’s national poet. Several of his works became extremely well known, thoroughly studied, and enjoyed all over the world. One of Shakespeare’s most prominent plays is titled The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet. In this tragedy, the concept that is discussed and portrayed through the characters is love, as they are recognized as being “in love”. The general umbrella of love encompasses various kinds of love such as romantic love, the love of a parent for a child, love of one’s country, and several others. What is common to all love is this: Your own well-being is tied up with that of someone (or something) you love… When love is not present, changes in other people’s well being do not, in general, change your own… Being ‘in love’ infatuation is an intense state that displays similar features: … and finding everyone charming and nice, and thinking they all must sense one’s happiness. At first glance it seems as though Shakespeare advocates the hasty, hormone-driven passion portrayed by the protagonists, Romeo and Juliet; however, when viewed from a more modern, North-American perspective, it seems as though Shakespeare was not in fact endorsing it, but mocking the public’s superficial perception of love. Shakespeare’s criticism of the teens’ young and hasty love is portrayed in various instances of the play, including Romeo’s shallow, flip-flop love for Rosaline then Juliet, and his fights with Juliet’s family. Also, the conseque...
In the play “Romeo and Juliet”, Shakespeare shows that love has power to control one’s actions, feelings, and the relationship itself through the bond between a destined couple. The passion between the pair grew strong enough to have the capability to do these mighty things. The predestined newlyweds are brought down a rocky road of obstacles learning love’s strength and the meaning of love.
Love has been expressed since the beginning of time; since Adam and Eve. Each culture expresses its love in its own special way. Though out history, though, it’s aspect has always been the same. Love has been a major characteristic of literature also. One of the most famous works in literary history is, Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare. This story deals with the love of a man and a woman who’s families have been sworn enemies. There love surpassed the hatred in which the families endured for generations. In the end they both ended up killing their selves, for one could not live without the other. This story is a perfect example of true love.