The Different Aspects of Love in Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet

The Different Aspects of Love in Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet

Shakespeare's 'Romeo and Juliet', contains different aspects of love

between Romeo and Juliet, such as bawdy love, infatuation and love at

first sight.

Shakespeare starts the play with sexual innuendos, word plays, puns,

references to male and female genitalia, aggression and sexual

activities. The men are making jokes and fantasies about young love.

They pull each other's leg and boast about their sexual fantasies.

Shakespeare uses crude language and characters into his play to get

the audience gripped to the play, to get them interested and wanting

them to know what is going to happen next.

Shakespeare uses infatuation as a form of young love in 'Romeo and

Juliet'. Romeo is seems to be infatuated by Rosaline; "out of favour

where I am in love" Romeo's infatuation is a parody of the courtly

love tradition in which the spurned male lover suffers at the hands of

an unobtainable, goddess-like woman. Rosaline is compared to the

classical goddess, Diana, who was a huntress and the protector of

women's virginities. Rosaline will not be hit with Cupid's arrows, she

will not surrender her virginity to Romeo or to any other man, and

"she hath Diana's wit; and in strong proof of chastity well armed"

Benvolio mentions that Romeo has been walking underneath a grove of

sycamore trees. He seeks the darkness because; psychologically he is

in darkness regarding true love. He is 'sick amore', literally lost in

an obsessive fantasy for Rosaline, someone he does not properly know.

Oxymorons are used to show his internal chaos and confusion, "Oh heavy

lightness, serious vanity"

His speech is artificial, overly poetic and lacking in spontaneous

emotion. It appears studied and bookish. It demonstrates that he has

not felt true love.

Infatuation is a key emotion that Shakespeare portrays in Romeo.

Romeo's infatuation with Rosaline is artificial and holds no true

love. Romeo tries to describe his love for Rosaline as unwanted by the

one he loves, "This love feel I, that feel love no love in this," To