Attitudes Towards Love in Romeo and Juliet
In the play Romeo and Juliet, love is a very important theme. The play
is a tragedy set in the sixteenth century in “fair Verona”. Love is a
very important theme in the play and appears in many forms. Different
people talk about love from very different points of view. Sampson
and Gregory are two Capulet servants who are both very crude and
bestial in their attitudes towards love. Lord and lady Capulet see
love merely as the securing and retaining of wealth. Romeo on the
other hand is always searching for love, never knowing if it is real
love for sure. He soon realises when he meets Juliet and his mind is
made up for certain. The love between the “two star crossed lovers”
(Romeo and Juliet) is deep and passionate and more powerful than
hatred or even death.
In the opening of the play we meet Sampson and Gregory. Sampson’s
language is often very crude and bestial. Sampson feels that women
are the “weaker vessels” according to his opinion. Gregory on the
other hand feels that it is his job to confront the Montagues as “The
quarrel is between our masters, and us their men”. Gregory is also
very crude in his language and feels he should “take the maiden heads”
(a reference to virginity) of the maids of the house of Montague. The
nurse also has a very crude and bestial tone in her attitude towards
love. Telling Juliet that “she will get but a little rest” in the
county Paris company on their wedding night.
When Romeo meets up with his friends after the ball, they make fun of
him. Mercutio in particular makes crude comments about where he has
been thinking he’s been lusting over Rossaline. Love for Mercutio is
the same as physical lust. He and the other characters cannot
understand that love can be pure and passionate language such as
‘wrench’ and ‘whore’ show this.
On the other hand Romeo’s early sadness is a kind of intellectual
The play also highlights the position of women in Elizabethan times. At the beginning of Act One we are introduced to Sampson and Gregory who are servants of the Capulet's and they are in the market place of Verona. They are messing around joking to each other and in the process puns are used such as collier, choler and collar. In the time this play was shown, this would have being considered very funny to the audience.
Romeo and Juliet is a play about two young lovers, whose love was destined for destruction from the beginning because of the hatred between the two families, Montagues and Capulets. Shakespeare juxtaposes the themes of love and hatred. He continuously puts them side by side, and even though they are opposites, when seen together you realise that they are driven from the same thing; passion. Shakespeare uses many different language and dramatic techniques to convey this idea.
play is also about hate as well as love. We are always reminded of the
Love in William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet "Romeo and Juliet" is a love tragedy based on different kinds of loves. Romeo and Juliet become married in a forbidden relationship over the high tension brawl between their rival families which Shakespeare clearly shows in the play. Despite the family brawls, the pair decides to let their "perfect" love defeat all. Peoples ideas have changed in the space of 400 years, for example back then some loves featured in this play would produce different reactions to the audience, than today. Shakespeare opens the play with the chorus who speaks a sonnet, where love imagery is found; "Two Star-crossed lovers" =
Mercutio is a very loyal friend to Romeo because he helps him with all of the problems he has. For instance, when Romeo thinks there is no more hope left for him to find another love, Mercutio comes to the rescue and invites themselves to the ball where Romeo meets his new love. Another time in the book, Mercutio takes his life for Romeo in the fight between him and Tybalt.
Romeo is desperate to be in love, and is in fact in love with the idea
In the beginning of the play we are introduced to two characters, Sampson and Gregory. Itching for a fight, they believe they have as much responsibility to defend the name Capulet as their masters do. "The quarrel is between our masters and us their men." They encounter some Montagues and decide to taunt them. They have intentions of just having a little fun and maybe a chance to play with their swords. Almost like a child anticipating the amusement he will have with his new Christmas toys. Instead, they provoke the Capulets enough that the squabble turns into a grand battlefield, the axis power against the allies. You can tell that they are surprised when Benvolio comes to break them up. When he does the reader is given a sense of the "bewilderment" felt in the atmosphere. When Tybalt enters though, he disgraces the name Montague and challenges Benvolio. This in turn ignites another one of the many disputes between the families. The two primary men should have figured what was going to happen. After all, they are feuding families, what else would you do? In the end, the final verdict on their harassment to the public peace plays a strong role in the play to come. The prince sentenced death to anyone who dare disturb ...
to be a quite romantic person, as, to start with, he is in love with
the play is not solely about love but also a lot of hatred is involved
In Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, the views of love held by the character Romeo contrast sharply with the views of Mercutio. Romeo's character seems to suffer from a type of manic depression. He is in love with his sadness, quickly enraptured and easily crushed again on a passionate roller coaster of emotion. Mercutio, by contrast is much more practical and level headed. His perceptions are clear and quick, characterized by precise thought and careful evaluation. Romeo, true to his character begins his appearance in the play by wallowing in his depression over Rosaline who does not return his love:
In the tremendous play of ‘Romeo & Juliet’, Shakespeare’s ways engages the audience straight away. The astounding methods he uses hooks the audience into the play and allows them to read on, wondering what will happen. The tragic love story of Romeo & Juliet, as mentioned in the prologue, sets a variety of themes throughout Act 1 Scene 5. Many of the recognisable themes are: youth and age, revenge, forbidden love, fate, action and hate. The main idea of the play is a feud that had been going on between two families, The ‘Montagues and Capulets’, the son of the Montagues and the daughter of the Capulets fall in love and the story tells us how tragic, death, happiness and revenge find them throughout the play.
Sampson and Gregory are itching for a fight as they both believe that they have just as much right to defend the name ‘capulet’ as any other member of the family. So there is also this love for the name and for the fight as though they are children awaiting presents.
Throughout the tragedy of Romeo and Juliet, by William Shakespeare, various types of love are portrayed. According to some of the students of Shakespeare, Shakespeare himself had accumulated wisdom beyond his years in matters pertaining to love (Bloom 89). Undoubtedly, he draws upon this wealth of experience in allowing the audience to see various types of love personified. Shakespeare argues that there are several different types of love, the interchangeable love, the painful love and the love based on appearances, but only true love is worth having.
Romeo and Juliet, the tragic play by William Shakespeare, centers around the love story between Romeo, the young heir of the Montagues, and Juliet, the daughter of the house of Capulet. This story starts off with two opposing families of royalty, the Montagues and the Capulets. These families have a deep seeded hatred for one another that traces way back into their family’s history. Shakespeare takes his audience though a heart churning tale of two star crossed lovers. From the start Romeo and Juliet’s love seemed to be an uphill battle that they would never win even with help. The relationship of Romeo and Juliet is a tragic love story of two star crossed lovers trying to find a way to love each other.
Have you ever been in love before? Many would say that love is hard to come by, and even harder to maintain, while some would say the opposite. In Shakespeare’s play, The Tragedy of Romeo & Juliet, he explores similar concepts related to love and infatuation. Although the reader never directly hears from Shakespeare, one could infer that his own thoughts are similarly mirrored in his characters, with the play serving as a warning tale of sorts, and the various roles echoing different dangers when it comes to love, which there are many. More specifically, Romeo Montague and his actions in the play are very intentional, as they help explain Shakespeare’s intentions and his own personal thoughts on the topic of love and its hazards, as well as its ups, too, which there are many.