Bilal Mohammad Qureshi Crystal Dalgleish Lit Writ Period 1 12 May 2014 Infantile love in Romeo and Juliet As Erich Fromm said, “immature love says: 'I love you because I need you.' Mature love says 'I need you because I love you.” Fromm is showing love means to commit oneself without guarantee, to give oneself completely in the hope that our love will produce love in the loved person. Love is an act of faith, and whoever is of little faith is also of little love. Romeo and Juliet, written by Shakespeare, tells of a pair of star-crossed lovers who face obstacles the tragic consequences which cause their love and passion to be short-lived. In their appalling consequences, Shakespeare portrays how immature love can engulf young lovers, resulting in decision-making. This love is shown through the actions of Romeo, Juliet, and Mercutio. Romeo experiences that he is a slave to love, who bends people "to his will”. He also feels that love has a contradictory nature; it is composed of complete opposites. Firstly, Benvolio has been appointed by Lord Montague to find out the source of Romeo's melancholy. As Romeo and Benvolio are discussing love, Romeo explains, “Love is a smoke raised with the fume of sighs…” (1.1.197). Romeo elucidates how depressed he feels because Rosaline refuses to marry Romeo. This sadness has made him doubt the reality of the world, and, especially of love. Romeo is crying and depressed because his love for Rosaline is not returned. Romeo takes love extremely serious and he is willing to die for true love. When Romeo and his friends are heading to the Capulet party, Romeo asks Mercutio how to handle love when it hurts. Romeo asserts to Mercutio, “Is love a tender thing? It is too rough, too rude, too boisterous, ... ... middle of paper ... ...blindfold. Romeo has to know what he wants and what the consequences are before you can never truly love that person. Romeo does not see where love is bringing him and the difficulties or dangers that love may hide. Mercutio treats love as foolishness; love to him is all about sex. Mercutio seems to hate love; to speak out against love. Throughout the play, Romeo's feelings for Juliet are based on an immature concept of love. Romeo and Juliet believe that the love they have is a deep, lasting, and true love. However, Romeo's actions speak otherwise through Rosaline, Mercutio, and Juliet. Shakespeare bases the book on how two people fall in love and are meant to be together but really is a tale of misguided, immature youth who fall victim to their own childishness. Work Cited Shakespeare, William. Romeo and Juliet. New York: Simon and Schuster. 1992. Print.
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:
“Don’t waste your love on someone who doesn’t value it.” In the play Romeo and Juliet, William Shakespeare exposes the life of two young lovers in the Renaissance period fighting for something they cannot live without; each other. Although fate takes its toll, the everlasting feud between two families, conditional love by parents, and the irresponsibility’s of father and mother like figure are the main causes in the death of Romeo and Juliet. The idea of love is something that is valued in this play from many different aspects of characters, lines, and scenes. Shakespeare leaves the minds of readers soaring over not why it happened, but who was at fault.
He says, “Is love a tender thing? Is it too rough, too rude, too boisterous, and it pricks like thorn” (10). Romeo is asking if love was really tender, because he thinks it’s rude and rough. Now, Romeo still loves Rosaline and it’s killing him that he can’t have her. He’s hurt and is asking Mercutio these questions because he doesn’t believe what other people believe about love. If love is too rough and too rude, you can beat it down, well, that’s an example of
In Act I of Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare demonstrates different forms of love that characters face. From the beginning, Romeo struggles to find true love and what love really is. As for Juliet, she also struggles on what love is, but also finding her own voice. And when finally finding true love they discover that they have fallen in love their own enemy. They both realize that the idea of love can be amazing, but also a painful experience. Shakespeare demonstrates love versus evil and the forms love takes that is acknowledged as an universal issue that connects different types of audiences. Audiences are captured by relating on love and the emotions that are displayed. From Romeo and Rosaline’s unrequited love, Paris and Juliet’s false love, and Romeo and Juliet’s ill-fated love, create the forms of love that establishes love as a leading theme in Act I.
Unaware of what happened at Capulet’s party, Mercutio assumes that Romeo is still heartbroken from Rosalind. Line 15 in Act II, Scene IV provides an alternative perspective that exposes the true nature of young love. “Alas poor Romeo, he is already dead, stabbed with a white wench’s black eye, run through the ear with a love song.” Mercutio assumes that love only results in pain, with Romeo’s troubles with infatuation only supporting his belief. Mercutio’s dissatisfied tone, in addition to his perspective on the matter, reveals how others view Romeo. Moreover, it reveals how much love influences
The love shared between Romeo Montague and Juliet Capulet is one of the most prominent emotions in the play that continues to influence behavior. When Juliet asks Romeo how he was able to climb her balcony, he responds, “With love’s light wings I do o’erperch these walls,/For stony limits cannot hold love out,/And what love can do, that dares love attempt” (Rom. 2.2.71-73). Romeo expresses the strength and influence love has on his behavior in order to be with Juliet. But when Friar Lawrence attempts to be optimistic about his banishment, Romeo obstinately asserts that, “Thou canst not speak of that thou dost not feel./Wert thou as young as I…”(3.3.67-68). While love can provide strength, it can also prompt, especially amongst young lovers, irrationality. It is evident that “His [Romeo’s] whole love affair betrays a cast of mind that is hopeful against obstacle and impatient of cold reason” (Draper 122). This “cast of mind” is a portion of the human nature that Shakespeare clearly conveys in the play. Shakespeare, through Romeo, portrays the positive and negat...
Mercutio is an extremely cocky jokester who views the subject of love as a very physical matter. When the Montagues are on their way to the Capulet party, Mercutio mocks Romeo saying, "If love be rough with you, be rough with love. Prick love for pricking, and you beat love down" (I, iv, 27-28). Mercutio is trying to comfort his friend by proclaiming that Rosaline is just another love prick in his life, and Romeo will love again after this phase of heartbreak. Several lines past, Mercutio's Queen Mab speech about a fairy creeping on people's dreams stretches on and on (I, iv, 53-94). Romeo tries to calm his friend, and the kinsman of the Prince admits to talking of nothing; he is one "that loves to hear himself talk and will speak more in a minute than he will stand in a month" (II, iv, 137-139). His tangent proves that his witty, light-hearted remarks puncture yet highlight the passionate, love-seeking qualities of Romeo.
Their youthful love plays a big role in their irrational decisions and their love blossoming so intensely and so quickly. “Did my heart love till now? Forswear it, sight! For I ne’er saw true beauty till this night” (1.V.52). This quote demonstrates how deeply Romeo is possessed by Juliet, showing their love at first sight. Not knowing that Romeo and Juliet are from feuding families, they fall in love at first sight. The love between Romeo and Juliet continues, despite the bitterness between the two families. “Love give me strength, and strength shall help afford” (1V.1.125) This quote shows how Shakespeare handled an emotion, then translating it into something that gave Juliet strength to continue the Friar 's plan to be with Romeo. The love between Romeo and Juliet makes them forget about their commitments to the world and everyone around them, they both get consumed in a self centered world of
After being rejected by Rosaline, a member of the Capulet family, Romeo rests his gaze on Juliet, her cousin. His methods to win Juliet’s heart consisted of sneaking into the Capulet’s party, however he receives a vision that “some consequence [was] yet hanging in the stars, shall bitterly begin [with] this fearful date” (I,v). The consequence was slowly becoming more realistic from that day, the day that the two ‘star-crossed’ lovers met. Romeo made the decision of attending the event despite his predicted vision of demise, risking his own safety for the sake of being in love. From that specific day, Romeo had been a changed man. His mindset had been corrupted to the point at which he could not see clearly, being blinded by love. This ultimately resulted in Romeo to make additional poor decisions in the future. The love that he felt for Juliet was so immense that he questioned any prior ‘love’ he felt, "did [his] heart love till now (meeting Juliet)? Forswear it sight, for [he] ne 'er saw true beauty till this night". Romeo’s perception of ‘true love’ differs from the accustomed apprehension. He is a petrarchan lover, essentially meaning that he is in love with the idea of being in
Immature love says: 'I love you because I need you.' Mature love says 'I need you because I love you.' Says Erich Fromm as he explores the problems Shakespeare has written in the play Romeo and Juliet. The problem in young immature love is that there will always be some sort that resulted/results in anything in what the young lovers have to go through. In this case of what William wrote is a big mistake that shouldn't have happened as many would say that they shouldn't have even been together. An important theme found in Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet is that young love only leads to bad luck and character down falls.
In an attempt to forget Rosaline, lovesick Romeo attends the Capulet’s party with Mercutio, and is instantaneously struck in the heart with Eros’s arrow when he sets his gaze upon Juliet, raising the question “[d]id [his] heart love till now? Forswear it, sight! For [he] ne’er saw true beauty till this night” (I.v.54-55). Juliet’s beauty is so captivating to Romeo that he is willing to let go of the angst from Rosaline’s rejection entirely, and inquire himself if he saw true allure before his encounter with Juliet. Romeo’s perception of love is presented as his attraction to someone’s physical appearance, opposed to what love truly is, a deep emotional bond. For example, the initial reaction Romeo has to Juliet’s beauty reflects how he defines love, as when he sees Juliet, someone who objectively appears more beautiful to him than Rosaline, he completely omits his previous lust for Rosaline and in turn lusts over Juliet. Romeo’s obsession with Juliet’s beauty expresses that what Romeo calls love in actuality is defined as
Love is ironic. It can take you anywhere in the world unexpectedly, and turn you into a person that you never were. However, love is also two-faced, having both a negative and positive view. It is what drives you to the point where you do not know who you are anymore. In Shakespeare's story, The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare perceives love with the personalities and actions of the characters, Romeo and Juliet. Both Romeo and Juliet are characterized as immature and irrational due to their "love." In addition, both characters fail to realize the reality of life and go towards the path of adolescence. Even though Romeo and Juliet are doomed at the end of the journey of "love," their demise was caused by their rash and silly decisions because their belief of everlasting love blinds them from reality and shapes their lives into an unstoppable time bomb.
William Shakespeare (1564-1616) was a Renaissance poet and playwright who wrote and published the original versions of 38 plays, 154 sonnets, two long narrative poems, and several other poems. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language, and often called England’s national poet. Several of his works became extremely well known, thoroughly studied, and enjoyed all over the world. One of Shakespeare’s most prominent plays is titled The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet. In this tragedy, the concept that is discussed and portrayed through the characters is love, as they are recognized as being “in love”. The general umbrella of love encompasses various kinds of love such as romantic love, the love of a parent for a child, love of one’s country, and several others. What is common to all love is this: Your own well-being is tied up with that of someone (or something) you love… When love is not present, changes in other people’s well being do not, in general, change your own… Being ‘in love’ infatuation is an intense state that displays similar features: … and finding everyone charming and nice, and thinking they all must sense one’s happiness. At first glance it seems as though Shakespeare advocates the hasty, hormone-driven passion portrayed by the protagonists, Romeo and Juliet; however, when viewed from a more modern, North-American perspective, it seems as though Shakespeare was not in fact endorsing it, but mocking the public’s superficial perception of love. Shakespeare’s criticism of the teens’ young and hasty love is portrayed in various instances of the play, including Romeo’s shallow, flip-flop love for Rosaline then Juliet, and his fights with Juliet’s family. Also, the conseque...
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 of 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
Through this tragic play, Shakespeare illustrates that love requires people to sacrifice many precious things, which can include family, friends, even life. Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet depicts the nuances of human experience of love. Romeo and Juliet’s story is the greatest declaration of romantic love.