The Various Perceptions of Love in Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet
Romeo and Juliet is about two lovers who get caught up in a feud
between their separate families, the Montagues and the Capulets, and
their fight to let love conquer all.
The play was written by one of the best English writers, William
Shakespeare in about 1595. During the Elizabethan period, women were
seen as objects which could be passed from father to respectable
suitors for marriage. This aspect of life is a major part to the play.
Although the play is known for its love story, it is as much about
love as it is about hate between the two rival families. Therefore
there are many contrasts within the play, for instance Romeo uses
oxymorons which Juliet echoes later,
' Here's much to do with hate, but more with love.' Act 1 scene 1.
Within the play there are many different characters who have different
perceptions of love, which is what I will be analysing in this essay.
The first reference to love in the play occurs in the first scene when
the audience meet Sampson and Gregory who perceive woman in a crude,
vulgar and misogynistic way.
'Tis true and therefore woman being the weaker vessel are ever thrust
to the wall.' Act 1 scene 1
This shows their characters to have no respect for woman and the
audience can presume that they have never experienced true love, which
is a major contrast to Romeo and Juliet's love.
Another character who is extremely bawdy is the nurse,
'Thou wilt fall backward when thou hast more wilt.' Act 1 scene 3.
Although we learn that she is widowed, her marriage was based around
sex and not around love, therefore the n...
... middle of paper ...
... is.
When she says, 'Ay sir, but she will none, she gives you thanks. I
would the fool were married to her grave.' I would make the actress
look upon Juliet with disgust and would have her standing while Juliet
sits, so that the hierarchy is known. Throughout the scene, I would
direct both actresses not to touch each other or show any other
emotional contact. When Lady Capulet talks of how distressed Juliet
and herself are about Tybalts death I would place Juliet in her bed
with her mother sitting, looking uncomfortable on the end of the bed.
As you can see, Shakespeare brought many different contrasts of love
into the play and it would be very important for the audience to see
these distinctions.
In the above I have explained how I would stage two contrasting scenes
in William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet.
I want to argue that in the play, the themes of love and hate are closely linked to the. To show this, I have selected some of the most. important scenes in the play, which illustrate the idea that love and hate are closely bound together. The first example is the chorus. which is found at the beginning of the play, in the prologue.
This theme is not only represented in “Romeo and Juliet”, or other playwrights and stories that people read about online, but in their everyday life. Although Shakespeare makes the theme of love and hate dramatic and over the top in Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare delivers the message of how love and hate can overpower and consume us, and if we aren’t careful, it can easily blow up and destroy everything. As Kurt Tucholsky once said, “Those who hate most fervently must have once loved deeply; those who want to deny the world must have once embraced what they now set on fire.” The coexistence of love and hate was not something Romeo and Juliet could choose to embrace or avoid, it was simply
Love in William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet "Romeo and Juliet" is a love tragedy based on different kinds of loves. Romeo and Juliet become married in a forbidden relationship over the high tension brawl between their rival families which Shakespeare clearly shows in the play. Despite the family brawls, the pair decides to let their "perfect" love defeat all. Peoples ideas have changed in the space of 400 years, for example back then some loves featured in this play would produce different reactions to the audience, than today. Shakespeare opens the play with the chorus who speaks a sonnet, where love imagery is found; "Two Star-crossed lovers" =
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. first sight of the sand. Shakespeare starts the play with sexual innuendos, word plays, puns. references to male and female genitalia, aggression and sexuality.
Romeo is desperate to be in love, and is in fact in love with the idea
How Shakespeare Presents Love and the Problems of Love in Romeo and Juliet With particular focus on Act 1 Scene 5 and Act 2 Scene 2, show how. Shakespeare presents love and the problems of love in Romeo and Juliet. In the book Romeo and Juliet we look at the love and passion between Romeo of the Montague house and Juliet of the Capulet house as well. the feud between the two houses. Act 1 scene 1:
The Different Attitudes to Love and Marriage Presented in Romeo and Juliet In “Romeo and Juliet”, the characters of Juliet, the Nurse and the Capulets have different attitudes to love and marriage. The relationship between the characters reflects their attitudes for marriage. The Capulet’s have a distant relationship with their daughter Juliet, as was common in Shakespearean times. Juliet is much closer to the Nurse who knew her from birth and she is Juliet’s
Romeo and Juliet as a Play About Love Romeo and Juliet is a story about love, hate and death. It is a romantic play but also contains sexual and slightly comedic aspects. From all these themes there are two of them that carry more importance. than any other, love and hate. Romeo and Juliet was initiated as a play by Arthur Brooke, which was intended to tell children not to disobey their parents.
In this essay I am going to examine love and marriage and the way it
Throughout Romeo and Juliet, love and hate are combined. However, even though they are combined, love still remains the principal theme in the play. Although in the play, the theme of hatred can be just as important and sometimes it intensifies the theme of love. For example, Romeo and Juliet’s love wouldn’t have been so extreme and powerful unless there was the hatred between the Montague’s and Capulet’s. We observe this from the very beginning of the prologue.
to be a quite romantic person, as, to start with, he is in love with
Love is a very powerful force which some believe has the capability to overpower hate. Within the play, Romeo and Juliet, William Shakespeare displays various events in which the characters convey the message that love can conquer all. The characters in this play continue to forgive the ones they love, even under harsh circumstances. Additionally, Shakespeare effectively demonstrates how Romeo and Juliet’s love for one another overpowers significant emotional scenes within the play, including the feuding between their two families. Furthermore, by the end of the play the reader sees how love defeats the shock of death and how Romeo and Juliet’s love ends the ancient feud between the Capulets and Montagues. Using these three events, the reader sees Shakespeare’s message of how love can conquer all. In the desperate battle between love and hate, Shakespeare believes love to be the more powerful force in the tragedy of Romeo and Juliet.
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.
much she is in love with Romeo himself, instead of how in love she is
be in love. Mercutio treats love as a game; he thinks that if you are