Star-Crossed Lovers

About 420 years ago, Shakespeare wrote Romeo and Juliet. To this day, no other relationship in literature has been able to parallel that of Romeo and Juliet. The bond that these “star-crossed lovers” (Prologue line 6) engage in leads them on a whirlwind romance that ends in tragedy. Their time spent together may have been short, but every moment they spent together was in pure bliss of one another’s presence. It is through these few meetings where they express their love for one another that we come to find their relationship to be the most ideal love one could hope to model.

Their relationship is not one that is drawn out. The young lovers only meet four times- the party, post party balcony scene, when they are married, and when Romeo must leave Juliet for Mantua. However, their only speaking scenes are at the party and both times at her balcony.

So when the two do speak, their dialogue is filled with emotion and urgency to express them. It is their lack of time together that makes the time they do have more precious and meaningful. During their meetings is where we see their relationship build through conversation.

Romeo first encounters Juliet at her family’s party. He sees her from afar and claims she is the most beautiful thing his eyes have ever seen. He declares that she shines so bright that she is the one who teaches torches how to burn. He also claims her to stick out from all the other women who he compares to crows: “So shows a snowy dove trooping with the crows”. He continues to glorify her beauty by dismissing his previous notions of what he claimed to be beautiful. At this point, Romeo has fallen in love with her at first sight. He then pursues Juliet and begins a conversation with her:

If I profane with my u...

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...e never read that they have. This limited lack of physical intimacy emphasizes the way they speak to one another. Their words are passionate for the love they have for one another.

Their death then is marked by a passionate ideal relationship. Their feelings to be with one another were so strong and mutual that even death couldn’t stop them. While Romeo committed suicide believing that Juliet was dead, Juliet’s death was deliberate; it was done so to be with Romeo in death. If the two could not be together on Earth, then they would be together in death.

The relationship of Romeo and Juliet is idyllic because of the mutual passionate feelings they had for one another. Their few meetings were met with confessions of love and faithfulness. Even in death, they wanted to be together. This relationship has stood the test of time because their love transcended death.