There are many different kinds of love in Romeo and Juliet. Write as much as you can about the different view of love which Shakespeare gives us.
In the play there are examples of many different kinds of love. There is the romantic love between Romeo and Juliet. There is the rude love that Mercutio talks about and the bawdy, comical love that the nurse jokes about. There is the arranged love between Paris and Juliet. Romeo experienced love at first sight for Roseline, but this infatuation didn’t last. The love between parent and child is a lot stronger and more caring between Romeo and his parents than it seems to be between Juliet and Lord and Lady Capulet.
Romeo’s parents Lord and Lady Montague care about Romeo very much. They worry about him and when he is lovesick over Roseline. His mother says to Benvolio “O where is Romeo? Saw you him today? Right glad I am he was not at this fray”.
Juliet’s parents Lord and Lady Capulet do not show that sort of concern. Juliet is mainly looked after by the nurse and her parents do not have much time for her, but expect her to be obedient. For instance when Juliet refuses to marry Paris her father insults her calling her “Mistress minion” which means he is calling her a whore. He says he will drag her there himself
and tells her to get out of his sight by saying “Out you green-sickness carrion” and “Out you baggage”. He even threatens to hit her when he shouts “My fingers itch”. Lady Capulet hardly stands up for her daughter, only telling Lord Capulet……………………
Mercutio’s view of love is rude, coarse and bawdy. He is into one-night stands and has never had a real girlfriend. He jokes about sex, for example when he probably lifts the nurse’s skirt up saying, “Here’s goodly gear, a sail!” Mercutio is fascinated by sexual innuendo “A slip can you not conceive?” He jokes even when he is dying “Ask for me tomorrow, you will find me a grave man.”
The nurse sees love as a physical thing that can be fun. She loves talking of her deceased husband and daughter. Susan her daughter was the same age as Juliet and that’s probably one of the reasons why the nurse loves Juliet so much.
The Nurse also loves a gossip and a joke; she is often very funny. Her advice to Juliet is bawdy but good nature. She tells Juliet to “seek happy nights to happy days”. She describes Paris as “A man of wax”.
She really loves Juliet as if she were her own daughter, unlike Lady Capulet. “Thou wast the prettiest babe that e’er I nursed”.
She is sympathetic to Romeo and Juliet when they want to spend the night together, although she does warn Romeo not to play with Juliet’s feelings “ If ye should lead her in a fool’s paradise, as they say it were a very gross kind of behaviour”.
The nurse offers Juliet a lot of care and comfort, which is a way of showing just how much she loves her.
The first kind of love that Romeo experiences in the play is infatuation. Romeo is infatuated with Roseline, but Roseline will not love Romeo as “She that sworn that she will live chaste”, which means she is going to stay a virgin, as she is a nun. At this point in the play, Romeo is very depressed, love sick and moody. This soon ends when he goes to the Capulet party to see Roseline. This is where he first sees Juliet and immediately forgets all about Roseline.
The love between Romeo and Juliet is the strongest love in the play. It is certainly true love. When they first meet at the party in the Capulet mansion Romeo exclaims”Oh she doth teach the torches to burn bright” He is overcome with Juliet’s beauty.
It is in the balcony scene that we first see that the love between Romeo and Juliet is mutual. After the balcony scene they can hardly bear to leave each other. Juliet says, “Parting is such sweet sorrow. That I shall say goodnight till it be morrow!”
Romeo makes a huge sacrifice for Juliet when he allows himself to be beaten by Tybalt and tries to be friends with him. “I do protest I n ever injured thee but love thee better than thou canst desire”.
When Romeo kills Tybalt Juliet still sides with him and does not hold it against him. “Shall I speak ill of him that is my husband?”
When Romeo is banished from Verona to Mantura for killing Tybalt he is devastated, he even thinks death would be no worse than banishment because he won’t get to be with Juliet.. “ Ha banishment? Be merciful, say death.”
Romeo does not go to Mantura until after he has spent the night with Juliet. In the morning Juliet is desperate for Romeo to stay with her. “It is not yet day, it was the nightingale and not the lark.”
When Juliet finds out that she will be forced to marry Paris she is so desperate that she decides to fake her own death by taking poison to make her sleep. The plan goes wrong and Romeo does not realise that she is not really dead, he decides to commit suicide so he can be with her. “Well Juliet, I will lie with thee tonight”. When Juliet wakes to find him dead beside her she stabs herself with his dagger “O happy dagger! This is thy sheath: there rust and let me die”
In the end we know that it was true love as they were willing to die for each other.
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Aug 20th, 2000
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