Examples Of Unrequited Love In Romeo And Juliet

In the play Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare, a big theme is love and its effect on the characters. The play mostly takes place in a city named Verona. The story starts out with a street fight between Montague and Capulet. From then on, we learn about the lovesick Romeo and a Juliet getting pushed around by her family. With the guidance of his friends; Romeo goes to a party where he meets Juliet. They secretly marry soon after, and Romeo’s sneaking into the Capulet house leads to the death of Tybalt and his arrest. Afterwards, Juliet fakes her death, leading to Romeo’s suicide and eventually Juliet’s real death. The love between characters lead to many decisions. These decisions leave a devastating effect. Due to the immense love that characters have for one another, they are driven to make crucial decisions or take drastic actions.

For example, unrequited love is apparent when Romeo refuses to fight Tybalt back even though Tybalt feels the opposite. When Tybalt challenged Romeo to a duel, Romeo refused because he loved Tybalt like family. Tybalt did not feel the same way however. Romeo even let Mercutio risk his life to fight Tybalt rather than just defend himself. As a result, Mercutio was murdered and Romeo knew Tybalt was not playing around. In addition, Paris and Juliet show unrequited love in their arranged marriage. Paris and Juliet were supposed to marry on Thursday. However, Juliet does not love Paris. Despite this, Paris still very much wanted to marry her and it was a rather big decision that led to Juliet’s early demise. This is the very definition of unrequited love. In conclusion, unrequited love leads to many drastic decisions in the story of Romeo and