Why Is Sight Important In Romeo And Juliet

In Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, it is evident that sight plays a key role in being the “matchmaker” that brings Romeo and Juliet together. The first time Romeo sees Juliet at the party he states that, [She is like] a rich jewel in an Ethiopia’s ear— Beauty too rich for use, for earth too dear. So shows a snowy dove trooping with crows As yonder lady o’er her fellow shows (I. v. 53-56)

Here it can be seen that Romeo’s attraction to Juliet is purely based off sight, as he only describes her physical attributes. This lustful attraction towards Juliet is based on the fact that she stands out among and outshines the other partygoers for being more beautiful. Romeo directly makes the connection between sight and love when he states, “Did

This quotation depicts the common theme among Shakespeare’s work that sight alters someone’s perception while they are in love. A few lines later the narrator questions, “If that be fair whereon my false eyes dote, / What means the world to say it is not so?” (5-6). Here the reader can see that because the narrator is in love with someone, he/she builds the person up to be better or more beautiful than he/she actually is. However, since the entire “world” can not be in love with this one person, not everyone believes this person to be as beautiful as the narrator believes, resulting in the narrator questioning if one can see truthfully while in love. Finally, when the narrator states in the last lines of the poem, “O cunning love! With tears thou keep’st me blind, / Lest eyes well seeing thy foul faults should find.” (13-14), it reinforces the theory that while in love, sight filters out the faults, as it does for Juliet in Romeo and Juliet. Here, the narrator explicitly states that his/her love keeps him blind from seeing his lover’s faults, that he would find if he were not to be in love. It is for this very reason that the saying, “love is blind”, came to