Love in William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet

Love in William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet

“Here’s much to do with hate but more with love”, (act 1 scene1 line

169). Although this is only one line from the play it virtually

concludes the whole play and sums up the whole story. It shows that

the play is not solely about love but also a lot of hatred is involved

in the play. However, as the quotation suggest, the play is “more” to

do with the power of love. There are many different types of love

explored; you can see representations of bawdy love; sexual love;

romantic love; family love; brotherly love and motherly and fatherly

love. Out of all the different types of love explored in the play the

love between Romeo and Juliet is the only true love.

You can see love expressed in many different ways. Romeo has a very

affectionate type love for Juliet and is not scared to show his

feelings, he is very passionate. Mercutio does not take love seriously

at all; he has a very jokey attitude towards love and thinks it is

more about sex than feelings. The nurse shows a motherly love for

Juliet and Capulet shows a passionate fatherly love for his daughter

Juliet.

At the beginning of the play Romeo is in love with Rosaline, his only

true love, or so he thinks. Romeo later discovers that his love for

Rosaline is nothing but ‘puppy love’. The implication of Romeo’s

exaggerated artificial, contrived and elaborate language is that his

feelings for Rosaline do not run deep. Romeo is in love with the idea

of being in love.

Soon after meeting Juliet Romeo forgets all about Rosaline and

realises that Juliet is his one true love. Immediately Romeo is caught

in love’s spell, he now only has eyes for Juliet. Romeo’s love for

Juliet is a sensual and ‘cloudy’ one. He worships Juliet and is

forever telling her how much she means to him. He expresses his love

for her in poems. His poems for Juliet are full of real emotion, they