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The characterization of Romeo and Juliet
The characterization of Romeo and Juliet
The characterization of Romeo and Juliet
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Sexual imagery in Romeo and Juliet can be shown through Romeo, who openly craves sex. This would make the audience much more aware of the sexual connotations of the play. An example of Romeo craving sex is: “Romeo O, she is rich in beauty, only poor That, when she dies, with beauty dies her store Benvolio Then she hath sworn that she will still live chaste? Romeo She hath, and in that sparing makes huge waste; Cuts beauty off from all posterity.” In this quote, we are able to see that Romeo is upset that Rosaline, the woman he pines after at the beginning of the play, intends to remain chaste, and to never have sex. Romeo’s reaction to finding this out suggest that Romeo is not actually in love with Rosaline because of her personality, …show more content…
Instead, she spends most of the passage claiming that she cannot believe he has done something like this because of his good looks, showing the reader that she does not care for his personality and is instead only with him due to her arousing sexual desires. This shows how the sexual imagery has already become much more overt in the play itself, further developing the idea that Shakespeare wanted to ease the audience into the sexual nature of the play instead of putting it all in straight away. This kind of sexual imagery was strange for the time that the play was written as women were not seen to have sexual desires, especially not young girls, and this would have made the play controversial for the time as the audience would have felt uncomfortable that something so unheard of was happening. However, the idea itself is embedded as a subtext rather than an idea that is made evident throughout the scene, furthering the idea that the sexual imagery is more concealed than it would have been had the play been written in the modern …show more content…
Having been written 199 years after Romeo and Juliet, The Monk is much more open to sexual imagery, due to the openness brought about by literature before it. As well as this, in the mid-18th century most of England and Europe had undergone a cultural revolution, which made many people and readers think about sex in “ways that would make some contemporary readers blush” . This caused Lewis to write much more sexual imagery into The Monk, which would advance the overt nature of sexual imagery even further. However, though sexual imagery had become more overt, The Monk was still controversial for its
There is no doubt that Romeo rushes into love throughout the play. One example of this is when he falls in love with Rosaline. Although Rosaline is not a major role in the play, it shows the sorrow and uncertainty Romeo goes through after not being loved back. Marilyn Williamson said “During the time in which he was infatuated with Rosaline, he was. withdrawn into darkness” (6).
Lust or Love: An Essay Analyzing the Relationship of Romeo and Juliet in Romeo and Juliet
Romeo and Juliet’s true love is being mistaken for infatuation because they are in lust and are not emotionally stable enough to be in true love.
For I ne'er saw true beauty till this night." Here, Romeo is asking himself, did he really love Rosaline?
Romeo and Juliet, a play by William Shakespeare, is about the tragedy of two lovers. The two lovers are from families that hate each other. Romeo is a Montague, whilst Juliet is a Capulet. Romeo had loved another girl, only to find she was to become a nun. He then went to a party hosted by the Capulets, and fell in love with Juliet. He met up with her, as she also liked him, and they eventually got married. Their happiness did not last long, however, as Tybalt, a man from Juliet’s house, killed Mercutio, a relative to the prince and Romeo’s friend. Romeo then proceeded to kill Tybalt, which lead to his banishment. Juliet put herself in a death-like state to be with Romeo, who found out and actually killed himself. Juliet
Who would be willing to die for their loved ones? Romeo and Juliet would and did. Romeo and Juliet’s love and death brought two families together who could not even remember the origin of their hate. When the parents saw what their children's love for each other, they realized that their fighting had only led to suffering and insoluble conflict. Romeo and Juliet loved each other to an extent that they killed themselves rather than live apart. They did it with no hiatus. Juliet says before she kills herself, “O happy dagger, This is thy sheath. There rust and let me die.”( 5, 3, 182-183) demonstrating how she would rather die than not be with him.
In the play. Romeo is just getting over Rosaline "rejecting" him (Act I, Scene 1, Line 155). This means that he could have just been very upset. Resulting in him just grabbing the first thing he could find which just happened to be Juliet. If he had never even met Rosaline. He probably would have never met Juliet either. Although in the movie version of this part, all that the viewer knows is that
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
Friar Laurence tells Romeo that he is acting too fast when Romeo asks for Friar Laurence to marry them. Friar Laurence then asks Romeo, “Is Rosaline, that thou love so dear,/So soon forsaken?” (2.3.67-68). Friar Laurence is wondering if Rosaline, who Romeo was madly in love with a day ago, and was the reason for Romeo’s sorrow and lack of sleep, is now out of his life. He is pointing out, that Romeo has moved on from Rosaline, whom he loved to dearly to Juliet, who he only met a day ago. Due to him being so passionate, he caused Juliet to fall head over heels for him, making her willing to rather kill herself than be apart from him. Rosaline and Juliet are both described as beautiful in the play. In Act II prologue, the chorus reveals that Romeo is very passionate when they read, “Now Romeo is belov’d and loves again,/Alike bewitched by the charm of looks” (2.1.5-6). Here, the Chorus tells how Romeo loved Rosaline because she was beautiful, but moved onto Juliet because she was prettier. Romeo falls for Rosaline and Juliet both for their looks, before getting to know them. As Romeo fell so hard in love for Juliet the moment he saw her, he is shown to be too passionate, therefore explaining how because of this trait, he was the main cause of the star crossed lovers
Romeo and Juliet is known as one of the greatest love stories, but it has its fair share of tragedy as well. The story riddles with themes throughout. Love is the first theme and there is no greater love than the love Romeo and Juliet share. Shakespeare offers his audiences just as much hate as love in Romeo and Juliet. The families of both Romeo and Juliet involve themselves in centuries of feuding. The ongoing feud between the Montagues and Capulets drives Romeo and Juliet into a life of secrecy, which ultimately causes their deaths. Youth is another theme and ties directly to how young both Romeo and Juliet are both in their age and their relationship. The story of Romeo and Juliet uses sex as a theme as well although not in the intimate details of more modern stories. The two lovers concerns are not with the wishes of their warring families, they just want to be together “Deny thy father and refuse thy name / Or, if thou wilt not, be but sworn by my love / And I’ll no longer be a Capulet” (2.2.34-36). Love is the first theme Shakespeare displays in this play.
Romeo has an obsessive personality. The morning before he meets Juliet, he is obsessing on Rosaline. To see Rosaline, Romeo snuck into a Capulet’s party; once there, he meets Juliet and instantly he forgets his obsession of Rosaline, thinking Juliet is the most beautiful creature on earth. Friar Lawrence even acknowledges this when he states, “Young men’s love then lies / Not truly in their hearts but in their eyes” (II iii 67-68). Romeo’s affection is easily swayed from Rosaline to Juliet.
Romeo and Juliet is one of the most famous love tales, but what if the play is not actually a tale of love, but of total obsession and infatuation. Romeo has an immature concept of love and is rather obsessive. Romeo is not the only person in the play who is obsessed though. Many people throughout the play notice his immaturities about love. Very rarely was true love actually shown in the play. attention. Romeo childishly cries to his friend, Benvolio because Rosaline will not love him back and says " She hath forsworn to love, and in that vow/ Do I live dead that live to tell it now" (I i 219-220). Romeo is stating that he's ready to die for loving Rosaline. This is exactly the same attitude Romeo had towards Juliet a little later in the play. During Scene I, Act ii, Romeo's friend, Benvolio tries to get him to go to the Capulet's party to help him get over Rosaline and meet other women Romeo gets very angry and emotional when he suggests this. “Now Romeo is beloved and loves again, / Alike bewitched by the charm of looks” (II 5-6). The chorus expresses Romeo’s juvenile way...
Later on in this same scene, it is revealed that Rosaline is taking a vow of chastity, and after that, it could be inferred that Romeo does not know Rosaline well at all. He is simply interested in the concept of her, rather than being in true love with her. After he pursues Rosaline, and quickly gets over her at the masquerade party, Romeo moves on to Juliet, the two immediately “fall in love”, even though they are meeting for the first time. Romeo experiences the same thrill, speaking of Juliet in poems and flowery adjectives, for example, saying that “..It is the East, and Juliet is the sun.” (II.2.69) There are many other incidents where he speaks similarly about the two women, even though they are different.
A Psychological Analysis of Romeo and Juliet Romeo and Juliet was obviously not written to fit the psychoanalytic model, as the theories of Freud were not developed for centuries after Shakespeare. Shakespeare wrote about Renaissance England, a culture so heavily steeped in Christianity, that it would have blushed at the instinctual and sexual thrust of Freud’s theory. However, in order to keep literature alive and relevant, a culture must continually reinterpret the themes and ideas of past works. While contextual readings assure cultural precision, often these readings guarantee the death of a particular work. Homer’s Iliad, a monument among classical works, is currently not as renowned as Romeo and Juliet because it is so heavily dependent on its cultural context.
When Romeo meets Juliet, he claimed to be immediately in love. Although he has been sulking over Rosaline, when he met Juliet, he states, “Did my heart love till now? forswear it sight! For I ne’er saw true beauty till this night” (Act 1.5 Lines 51-52). The entire time as he envisions love with Rosaline, it was all incoherent. Romeo’s impulsive attitude causes him to fall head over heels with Juliet, which begins the drama in this play.