The Ironic Paradox of Love!

Romeo and Juliet displays a clear but yet complicated views of love: Although love may seem powerless in this text, it actually is the driving force dictating the whole plot.

The foundation of Romeo and Juliet’s love is built upon quicksand, which is destined to fall and fail. Romeo, at the beginning when he has lost the love of Rosaline, shows how anguished he is and how deep he sinks into depression. He says to Mercutio, “I am too sore enpierced with his shaft, to soar with his light feathers, and so bound I cannot bound a pitch about dull woe. Under love’s heavy burden do I sink” (1. 4. 19). The extreme pain described by Romeo himself, however, is soothed in no time; no sooner does he sees Juliet than he forgets about the pain of losing Rosaline and madly falls in love again. Romeo altered from depression to elation in one day, from love at the first sight to making love in just one day, from love to marriage in one day. The question of how much Romeo knows about love can be legitimately raised by any reader. As for Juliet, she is not too far away. She constantly compares their love with “heaven,” to justify her desire, even she just met Romeo a few hours ago. She declares, “And he will make the face of heaven so fine/ That all the world will be in love with night/ And pay no worship to the garish sun” (3. 2. 25). But, how she could justify this kind of love in one day seems puzzling and incomprehensible. Furthermore, both of them are, despite their elegant and sophisticated speeches, so impulsive that they become problems devisors, not solvers. When they encounter reality, they choose committing suicide instead of legitimately solving them. All in all, they are just typical teenagers who mess up the concept of “love” and bu...

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...her Montague, give me thy hand. /This is my daughter’s jointure, for no more/ Can I demand”, he not only offers the peaceful solution but recognizes Romeo’s and Juliet’s marriage (5. 3. 306). From this perspective, a love that is fundamentally flimsy could in reality convey powerful effects.

In conclusion, it is an ironic paradox that love that seems totally powerless can become so dominant and dictates the plot of this tragedy of Shakespeare’s. Love, although delusional at all times, gives both Romeo and Juliet the strength and determination to move on even in the face of death. Love, which is powerful enough to cause dreadful death, also ironically brings peace and solution. Romeo and Juliet do have their character flaws, which are the origin of the tragedy, but their blind love does possess a power to decide the true character of the play Romeo and Juliet.