Contrasting Views Of Love In Shakespeare's Romeo And Juliet

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Romeo and Juliet is a play that explains the strong love between two teenagers that soon results in their demise. This play is categorized as one of Shakespeare’s tragedy plays. Yet, many people prefer categorize this play as a romance or play about love. What does this really mean you might be asking. I think that a play about love means that this play is attempting to explain what love is and why it makes people do the things they do. I believe this because throughout the first act it discusses Romeo’s past love and how it affected him. It also describes the love that begins to develop between Romeo and Juliet just through a single conversation and a kiss. However, there are many different views on love throughout just the first act. The first contrasting views of love are how Romeo views love versus how Benvolio views love. The first difference between these two is that Romeo values love higher than Benvolio. An example of this is when Benvolio is trying to convince Romeo to forget Rosaline by saying “By giving liberty unto thine eyes; Examine other beauties”. Romeo however shows he values his love for Rosaline because he says “Show me a mistress that is passing fair, …show more content…

An example of this is when Lord Capulet is discussing Juliet’s marriage and says “But woo her, gentle Paris, get her heart; My will to her consent is but a part. An she agree, within her scope of choice”. This shows that Lord Capuet believes that Juliet should have a choice in who she loves, which shows that he highly values the choice of love. Lady Capulet’s view is quite different. Her view is demonstrated when she says “Well, think of marriage now. Younger than you Here in Verona, ladies of esteem Are made already mothers. By my count, I was your mother much upon these years”. This shows that Lady Capulet doesn't really care as much about Juliet finding true love as much as being

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