Romeo And Juliet Love

Written in 1595-1597, William Shakespeare’s ‘Romeo and Juliet’ is a romantic tragedy which presents the story of ‘two star-crossed lovers’ pitted against fate, who through their simultaneous deaths end the ‘ancient grudge’ between their families, Montagues and Capulets. This essay will examine how Shakespeare represents the importance of love between characters in the play and discuss the varieties of love Shakespeare uses in the tragedy, particularly the ideals of romantic, divine, problematic and forbidden love.

In Elizabethan Era the story of two young lovers from conflicting families had been popular for years. The perspective in which Shakespeare describes the story is what makes ‘Romeo and Juliet’ unique. The play has been filmed often

Lady Capulet’s exclamation ‘Ay, you have been a mouse-hunt in your time’ indicates the unfaithfulness of Lord Capulet and the instability in the couple’s relationship, which is particularly recognizable in the epithet ‘mouse-hunt’. Furthermore Shakespeare portrays Lord Capulet’s view of love as obedience and duty, shown by orders such as ‘get thee to church a Thursday/or never after look me in the face’ on the other hand Shakespeare shows Lady Capulet’s love to be based on materialistic things. This symbolizes the dissimilarity of thoughts between the Capulets’ relationship. Problematic love is also demonstrated in Romeo’s confused mindset in Act One Scene One in which he metaphor ‘I have a soul of lead / So stakes me to the ground I cannot move’ illustrates that Romeo believes he is finally truly in love and this gives the impression to the audience of Romeo being highly dramatic. This unrequited love for Rosaline makes the audience wary of his feelings towards Juliet later on. Furthermore the oxymoron ‘O brawling love, O loving hate’ shows Romeo’s internal conflicted mindset caused by love. Additionally Shakespeare elaborates the passage with a tricolon of oxymorons, comparing love to a "feather of lead, cold fire, sick health”, communicating that love, while beautiful, can also cause extreme pain and sadness, which is especially the case of Romeo at this stage. Problematic love also appears to be chaotic and destructive, bringing death to friends, family, and to Romeo and Juliet themselves. In the play, Romeo and Juliet's love is discussed with violence and death, and this bondage is apparent in their suicide. A twenty-first century audience would see this as highly dramatic whereas in Elizabethan England the audience was used to this type of