The different views of love in ‘Romeo and Juliet’ Essay Example
The different views of love in ‘Romeo and Juliet’ Essay Example

The different views of love in ‘Romeo and Juliet’ Essay Example

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  • Pages: 11 (2887 words)
  • Published: October 23, 2017
  • Type: Case Study
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Shakespeare's play Romeo and Juliet is generally thought to be a play solely about romantic love. This is partly true; the bulk of the play appears, on the surface, to be about the romantic love that exists between Romeo and Juliet. However, when studying the play closely it becomes clear that there are many different types of love that exist, between all of the characters. Romeo and Juliet is not just about romantic love, but about love in a richer sense. When the play was written at the end of the 16th century, Shakespeare's audience would have had very different ideas about love and marriage to the ones we hold today.

The Elizabethans believed that love was not an essential part of marriage. Almost all marriages between the nobility were arranged, and were to the advantage of the

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families, although not necessarily to that of the children. Girls were married off very young, as soon as they were of childbearing age. Love was something that came after marriage, not before. Love is not the only driving element in Romeo and Juliet: hate and conflict also play a big part in the play. This underlying struggle between love and hate is particularly noticeable in the Prologue, which speaks of both love and conflict.

It tells us that Romeo and Juliet's love is 'death-mark'd' and talks of them as 'star-cross'd lovers'. The contrast of words such as 'strife', 'foes' and 'mutiny' with the words 'love' and 'fair', show that the play is about the battle between love and hate; the battle of the love of Romeo and Juliet against the hate of their families. The play begins with hat

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and conflict, with a 'civil brawl' between the Capulets and the Montagues (Act 1, Scene 1), which serves to display the hatred that these two families feel for each other.

Through the prologue and the first scene, Shakespeare tells us that those in love in the play are going to struggle considerably against hate. When we first meet Romeo (Act 1, Scene 1) he is suffering from courtly love (not to be confused with romantic love) for Rosaline, a Capulet and Juliet's cousin. Courtly love is like a religion of love: Romeo is in love with the idea of being in love rather than Rosaline herself. At the time that Romeo and Juliet was written, the audience would have understood exactly what courtly love was, and would have recognised that Romeo was displaying all of the typical 'symptoms'.

Before Romeo actually enters the scene we hear about him through the words of other characters. We learn that recently he has been taking to his chamber and locking 'fair daylight out', creating for himself 'an artificial night'. He has only been seen wandering by himself at dawn 'with tears augmenting the fresh morning dew' and 'adding to clouds more clouds with his deep sighs'. This follows the conventions of courtly love, and when we later meet Romeo the signs become clearer. During his speech in the middle of Act 1, Scene 1, he uses language that relates to blindness and obscurity, such as 'muffled', 'without eyes' and 'fume'.

This is Shakespeare's way of showing that Romeo is confused and uncertain about his love for Rosaline. This also contrasts with how he speaks about Juliet later on, when he describes

her as 'the sun' and links her to beauty and brightness. Romeo's confusion is highlighted in his consistent use of oxymorons when talking about his love for Rosaline: 'Feather of lead', 'bright smoke', 'cold fire', 'sick health', 'still-waking sleep', and through his constant changing of subject. His over-use of punctuation and "flowery language" make the speech more dramatic and suggest that his love for Rosaline is exaggerated and artificial.

Mercutio describes Rosaline as having 'scarlet lip' and 'quivering thighs', helping the audience to understand that Romeo doesn't really love Rosaline but she is more just a fantasy of his, that he only cares about her body and not her character, and emphasises the fact that this is just courtly love, not true love. Shakespeare put an example of courtly love into the play to show that when Romeo and Juliet fall in love it is real and powerful. It provides a good contrast between how Romeo behaves when he thinks he is in love, and how he behaves when he is actually in love.

Romantic love is the most obvious form of love in Romeo and Juliet: at first glance, the entire play appears to be about the romantic relationship between Romeo and Juliet. When Romeo first sees Juliet, he is evidently struck by her beauty. She shines out to him like 'a rich jewel in an Ethiop's ear' or a 'snowy dove trooping with crows'. This contrast between light and dark in his language could show, moreover, a contrast between how he feels about Juliet and how he feels about Rosaline. He compares Juliet to light, whiteness and purity, whereas the imagery he uses when talking

about Rosaline revolves around darkness.

Romeo and Juliet see their love as a kind of religion; when they first meet (Act 1, Scene 5) Romeo says that Juliet's hand is a 'holy shrine' and his lips 'blushing pilgrims', and as they talk they continue this extended metaphor, talking of 'saints' and 'holy palmers'. Before Romeo kisses Juliet, he says 'my prayers' effect I take'. This imagery shows that they worship one another, that their love is above that of most others, that it is perfect and holy. Their first exchange is in the form of a Shakespearian sonnet, a traditional format for love poems.

Although they have only just met, their love is already very strong: this is the true meaning of love at first sight. Their love is so powerful that only four days later (Act 5, Scene 3) Romeo kills himself when he thinks that Juliet is dead and Juliet kills herself when she finds that Romeo is dead. Neither of them can bear to live without the other, proof of the depth of their love for each other. Verona is a place full of sexual love. The play opens with two Capulet servants, Sampson and Gregory, joking about taking the 'maidenheads' (virginity) of Montague girls.

Mercutio is a very sexual character: he teases Romeo by saying that he wishes that Rosaline was like a 'medlar', a type of fruit that was often referred to as an 'open arse' by some people at that time. Again, an Elizabethan audience would have understood this highly sexual pun, whereas we today would probably have no idea. Mercutio only thinks of love as being sexual, and this is evident

in his many bawdy jokes and comments throughout the play. Juliet's Nurse also makes many bawdy comments about Juliet's wedding night, telling her to 'seek happy nights to happy days. She also says that 'women grow by men', meaning that they become pregnant.

While Juliet's mother is more concerned with the social advantages of Juliet's prospective marriage to Paris, the Nurse only thinks of the sexual side, revealing her own, very sexual, nature. These views on sexual love are very different to those conveyed by Romeo and Juliet. Juliet is very eager to have sex with Romeo; a few hours after they are married she makes a very fast-paced speech (Act 3, Scene 2) in which she speaks of her longing for 'love-performing night' to arrive.

She remarks that she has 'bought the mansion of a love, but not yet possess'd it'. The speech is very passionate but not at all bawdy. Sexual love between Romeo and Juliet is just another side of their existing love, part of their love in a richer sense. Shakespeare included the sexual element between Romeo and Juliet because it shows their natural progression from one part of love to the next. At the time the play was written it would have been believed that Romeo and Juliet were not actually married until they had physically consummated their marriage.

This could be another reason why Shakespeare included sexual love in the play. There are many examples of friendship -or platonic love- in Romeo and Juliet. The main friendships exist between Romeo, Benvolio and Mercutio. Benvolio in particular is a very good friend to Romeo: he is worried about him when he is moping

about Rosaline (Act 1, Scene 1), and after Romeo kills Tybalt (Act 3, Scene 1) Benvolio knows that he is in danger and so tells him to 'away, be gone', in order to possibly save his friend's life.

These are the actions of a true friend. Mercutio is a different type of friend to Romeo, constantly teasing him, and always on the lookout for conflict and trouble. It is Mercutio's hot-headedness that provides the spark for Romeo's banishment. However, Romeo obviously cares for him, because when Tybalt kills Mercutio, Romeo immediately kills Tybalt. This is ironic because earlier in the scene Romeo is considering his new found fraternal love for Tybalt: as he is now married to Juliet, he and Tybalt are kinsmen.

Romeo is reluctant to fight with Tybalt at the beginning of the scene, but as soon as Mercutio is killed, Romeo forgets about the brotherly love he is supposed to have for Tybalt. It can be implied that Shakespeare is making a statement about the damage that forced love can do. It is because Romeo forces himself to love Tybalt that both Tybalt and Mercutio die, and that he himself is exiled. Romeo and Juliet also have two other very good friends who help them to make their marriage possible, Friar Lawrence and Juliet's Nurse.

Friar Lawrence helps Romeo because he hopes that the marriage will turn the 'households' rancour to pure love'. Juliet's Nurse helps her because Juliet is like her own daughter and she wants to make her happy. Both of these characters want to do the best thing for their young friends, but what they do is, in hindsight, perhaps not the

right thing. The bonds of platonic love are indeed typical of love in a richer sense; friendship is not romantic, but a necessary part of life and love.

The Montagues and the Capulets are 'both alike in dignity', meaning that they have approximately the same wealth and social standing. Material possessions are very important to both families, and their material love seems more important to them than most other types of love. At the end of the play when both the lovers are found dead, Capulet offers Montague peace and friendship, but Montague says that he can offer more, and says that he 'will raise (Juliet's) statue in pure gold', so that it will be the most valuable in the city.

Capulet agrees to this, and says that he will do the same for Romeo. This exchange shows that both men value their material possessions above different kinds of love, particularly healing love and platonic love. The Capulets also believe that wealth is the sign of a good man, especially when considering a match for their daughter. Capulet is enraged when Juliet refuses to marry Paris, a man 'of fair demesnes' (property) and 'nobly lin'd'. He thinks that Juliet is mad not to want to marry a man of such wealth and status, and this is where we see the true extent of his material love.

Juliet is like a possession to her father; although he at first seems to care for her, he then makes 'a desperate tender' of her love, as if he owned her emotions. She is nothing more to him than something to be bartered with to his advantage. Thankfully, this is, in most

parts of the world, no longer the case. Paris also refers to Juliet as a possession: when she insults her own face, he replies 'thy face is mine and thou hast slander'd it'. This is even before they are married. Romeo however, is thankful just to possess Juliet's love, and asks for nothing else from her.

He is certainly not struck with the greed that others in the play feel for material possessions. He says that gold is a 'worse poison to men's souls' than the poisons that the apothecary sells. He possesses many types of love, and no longer needs material love to keep himself satisfied. In that sense, he has seen love in a richer sense than just the love of possessions, which the two families seem to have missed. Family love plays a big role in the action throughout the play. The family bonds within the households cause the strife between the Montagues and the Capulets.

Both patriarchs of the families have been brought up to hate their counterparts, and the ties of parental duty have seen to it that this hatred is carried through the generations. Only Romeo and Juliet choose to wilfully disobey their parents and their upbringing in fraternising with the other household. The Montagues obviously care about Romeo: in Act 1, Scene 1 Lady Montague asks Benvolio where Romeo is, and says 'right glad I am he was not at this fray'. At the end of the play, after Romeo has been exiled, Montague says 'grief of my son's exile hath stopped (Lady Montague's) breath'.

This shows that the Montagues, particularly Lady Montague, are very fond of their son, more so

it seems than the Capulets are of their daughter. At first Lord Capulet seems to be very close to his daughter. He refers to her as 'the hopeful lady of my earth', and when asked by Paris for Juliet's hand in marriage he replies that she 'is yet a stranger in this world' and too soon marr'd are those so early made. ' This shows that he really cares about Juliet and because she is his only child he wants her to be happy and make a good marriage. Later on, Capulet wants Juliet to marry Paris because she 'will be rul'd by' him.

He holds parental authority over her, and treats her more like baggage to be sold to the highest bidder than a daughter. The Capulets' insistence that Juliet marry Paris is what causes her escape attempt, which ends in tragedy. Lord and Lady Capulet's relationship is not at all loving. Lord Capulet calls Lady Capulet 'wife' and orders her around, whereas Lady Capulet appears more respectful and calls her husband 'sir'. This was typical of most arranged marriages in Elizabethan times. The wife was respectful and obedient and the husband treated his wife as a possession.

Juliet's relationship with her mother is also somewhat lacking in affection. Juliet was brought up by her Nurse, who she shares a strong bond with; the Nurse calls her 'ladybird' and 'lamb' on more than one occasion, suggesting that these are terms of endearment, normally used by a mother for her child. Juliet is very formal with her mother, calling her 'madam', which suggests that they do not spend much time together. Lady Capulet is not very caring

towards her daughter, chiding her for crying too much over Tybalt and telling her to 'have done' with her grief.

When Juliet refuses to marry Paris Lady Capulet tells her to 'do as thou wilt, for I have done with thee'. The only thing she expected of Juliet was to make a good marriage, and now that she has refused to marry Paris, she wants nothing more to do with her. In the 'Mourning for Juliet' scene (Act 4, Scene 5), Lady Capulet's exaggerated language, 'accurs'd, unhappy, wretched, hateful day', shows that her love for Juliet, like Romeo's courtly love for Rosaline earlier in the play, is possibly artificial.

The Nurse, who is Juliet's friend and confidante, has the reaction of a mother: repetition of words ('O woe! O woeful, woeful, woeful day! ') and inability to make sense. When this is compared to Lady Capulet's exaggerated reaction, it is plain that Lady Capulet is overrating her love for Juliet, and is using her death as an opportunity to publicly flaunt the "love" she has for her daughter. At the end of the play, the Montagues and the Capulets agree to put aside their differences, and heal the rift between them.

They feel that this healing love is the least they can do for Romeo and Juliet, 'poor sacrifices of (their) enmity. ' Shakespeare included this in the play to show that this is the best kind of love. Healing love cannot cause any problems between people, it soothes all of the problems that have arisen, and puts everything to rest. Although all types of love can be very good, healing love is love in its richest sense,

spanning all divides, and creating peace and harmony.

Love is central to Romeo and Juliet: the whole play revolves around the many different types of love that exist. The play shows us that while all love can be good, it can also have devastating effects in the wrong circumstances. It is important to understand that the term love does not just apply to romantic love, but to all different kinds of love, and this is what Shakespeare is trying to convey through this play. Romeo and Juliet is essentially about love in a richer sense.

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