Love in Romeo and Juliet Essay

Essay on the theme of Love in "Romeo and Juliet"

Love This individual, power-bearing word implies many different descriptions of human life as we know it today. It signifies one of the possible meanings of life, and no other playwright could possibly define this prospect better than William Shakespeare. In his most tragic play Romeo and Juliet, he displays how the theme of love can change all aspects of a story by taking several forms and how it is also able to determine our understanding of a story. I will examine how this powerful, significant theme is introduced by taking a detailed spectacle into the techniques used, such as, characterisation, specific scenes and imagery.

Love is possibly, if not undoubtedly, the most important theme in Romeo and Juliet. It is practically the life-line of the plot and undertakes the role of being the whole purpose of the play, to illustrate how the love towards the wrong person can end in an absolute disaster. Love is the one emotion which affects almost all of the characters involved. There are many variations and forms of this so called love: Artificial love between Romeo and Rosaline, sexual love between the Nurse and Mercutio, love similar to a business transaction between Juliet and Paris and finally the true love between Romeo and Juliet.

Love is first introduced in the opening scene through the character of Romeo. This love is viewed as superficial and one-sided and definitely appears to have a negative effect on Romeos state of mind. This negative impact is revealed in O brawling love, O loving hate, O anything of nothing first create!, it is evident here that Romeo is too caught up in his love for a woman called Rosaline that he is extremely confused, this we can tell through the continued use of oxymoron. Also, we can note that Romeo is angry because of the exclamation mark at the end of the sentence. His sorrow is further emphasised in I have lost myself. This is not Romeo, hes some other where. Romeo at this point realises that Rosaline has changed him for the worse. He states I am not here which particularly highlights his depression and shows that he cant be himself without Rosaline. He assumes that he is somewhere else because he would typically be lively and sociable compared to being depressed and desperate. Romeo also believes that Rosaline will never love him; this is displayed in Shell not be hit with Cupids arrow. She hath Dians wit. This shows that because Rosaline has Dians wit she will never be able to love Romeo. Dians wit was something that some people were said to have if they chose to avoid love. Romeo tells of how he desperately wants out of this state when he says O teach me how I should forget to think. Romeo is pleading severely to rid of every thought of Rosaline.

Shakespeare explores a diverse genre of love through the characters of the Nurse and Mercutio. This kind of love can be viewed as simply sexual love. Mercutio understands this sort of love to only be associated with sexual attractiveness and activity. An example of this is Presses them and learns them first to bear, making them women of carriage. Mercutio here is talking of Queen Mab to Romeo and Benvolio, this shows that he sees no sense in talking of any other matters than sex. What he says roughly dictates that Queen Mab teaches females in their dreams how to carry a mans weight during sex. Another example of Mercutios sexually dominated mind is For the bawdy hand of the dial is now upon the prick of noon. Here he is speaking of the time, and by expressing that it has a bawdy hand he means that it is almost a sexually vulgar clock hand. The Nurse similarly does not understand true love; she believes marriage only exists to produce babies. An example of this is displayed when she states women grow by men. The Nurse states that women grow by men because she is speaking of female babies growing up to become women. This tells us that she believes in marriage to be a great part in this event when Lady Capulet is speaking of Juliet considering Count Paris to be her husband.

Shakespeare resumes the usage of love in the play by showing it as being equivalent to a business transaction. This effect is featured in the relationship between Juliet and Paris. It can be viewed as being a business transaction because firstly it is arranged, and then Juliet is forced to give her consent. The act of Capulet forcing Juliet into the marriage is particularly displayed in Act 3; Scene 5 when Capulet hears of Juliets failure to consent to marrying Paris. An example of this is To go with Paris to Saint Peters Church Or I will drag thee on a hurdle thither. Here Capulet is threatening Juliet to forcibly make her agree to marriage to Paris. The idea of Juliets own father stating that she would consent or he will drag thee on a hurdle thither further reinforces Capulets expectation of obedience. The fact that a hurdle was a frame on which prisoners were dragged to execution displays to the massive extent he feels that he is disobeyed and distrusted. The idea of the relationship between Paris and Juliet being arranged Act 3; Scene 4 where Capulet states a Thursday, tell her, she shall be married to this noble earl. Capulet assumes that Juliet will be content with his decision of arranging for her to marry Paris on the next Thursday. This also displays a complete different character from Capulet. Before this he was considerate and caring for Juliet, and wanted her to be in love before she would be married. Capulets decision however, is actually dependant solely on Romeos decision to act through anger and hate and anger to kill Tybalt. This is because he thinks that by marrying Juliet and Paris, Juliet will be her usual positive self instead of weeping over Tybalts death and (although Capulet doesnt know it) Romeos expulsion. Juliets discontent and emotions towards the haste of this marriage is revealed in He shall not make me there a joyful bride! I wonder at this haste, that I must wed ere he that should be husband comes to woo! Juliet appears to be shocked at how rapidly she is being made to get married. She is also stating that she understands that this marriage is unquestionably forced upon her. She also realises that this is negative romance and that not even being there to ask her himself, Paris is being the least romantic and loving partner that Juliet could be wedded to. This also shows that any form of love has been completely removed from the equation in this relationship.

Finally, love is viewed in its purest form - true love. This untainted form of love takes place in the relationship between Romeo and Juliet. In Act 4; Scene 3, we are able to find many pieces of evidence which display Juliet showing that she truly does love Romeo. One example of this is Romeo, Romeo, Romeo! Heres drink I drink to thee!. This is when Juliet is preparing to take the potion. This clearly shows her inner love and desire for Romeo. This is displayed by the fact that the very last thought running through Juliets head is about Romeo. By stating I drink to thee she is essentially saying that all her efforts concerning the plans with the potion are for her lust to be beside Romeo. The repetition of Romeos name implies that he is all Juliet can think about, he is her life.

The prospect of the pure love between Romeo and Juliet is probably most evident in the final scene of the play. One example of how true their love is, is Death, that had suckd the honey of thy breath, hath had no power upon thy beauty. Romeo here is showing that he loves Juliet so much that not even death can have an effect on her or her beauty. The phrase honey of thy breath is used to speak of Juliet as he used to speak to her when she was alive, showing that death can have no effect towards his undeniable love for Juliet. Another example of Romeos affection for Juliet is Heres to my love!. This is right before he drinks the drugs from the apothecary, and shows that Juliet was his last thought, and similar to Juliet, the potion was so he could be with her. Also, Juliets love is shown again in O happy dagger. This is relevant as it is Romeos dagger which she was holding. This is also use of personification, and the word happy suggests that if she uses the dagger, the she will be content as she will be next to Romeo in her resting place. This also displays how limitless their love for each other is because they will go all the way to death so they can be together.

Romeo and Juliet is undoubtedly the most intense and tragic play ever written by William Shakespeare. It develops the theme of love successfully in many characters, but most deeply throughout the characters of Romeo and Juliet. Their incontrovertible love for each other denies all questions of negative love between them. Their unadulterated love teaches one lesson which everybody should learn if they either read or visually view a replica of this gripping play: that in many circumstances, love can be limitless and completely take over someones life. Unfortunately though, in Romeo and Juliets cases, their fate in their relationship was to end wretchedly in death.