Romeo and Juliet

It is deeply ironic that “love”, which is regarded so highly in our society, is a very general term without well-defined specific terms. For instance, there are not even explicit terms to describe the specific types of love one feels between, say, a family member, and a romantic interest, which are clearly distinct and almost completely universal. We naturally seek a universal definition of love, a complete truth. I daresay that I doubt one exists. This ambiguity of terminology has undoubtedly caused much conflict; history has no shortage of examples. Further irony arises in that despite being central to life, both physically and mentally, we still seem to struggle greatly with the concept; mathematics has much better utilized its ubiquity among the ancient civilizations. As a corollary, love is one of, if not the, most common theme in literature and the other arts. Here, we shall examine a specific example. In Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare illustrates romantic love, infatuation, and familial love, and how all three contradict each other by promoting different courses of action.

Firstly, Shakespeare depicts infatuation in his play. Note that infatuation is distinct from romantic love because infatuation lacks certain qualities, such as a conscious will to maintain said love. We refer to Romeo’s feelings for Rosaline before the party. Romeo says:

She is too fair, too wise, wisely too fair,

To merit bliss by making me despair.

She hath forsworn to love, and in that vow

Do I live dead that live to tell it now. (1.1.221-5)

From this quote, Romeo’s feelings of Rosaline are extremely apparent: Romeo “loves” Rosaline, in common terms. However, this affection does not contain the usual elements th...

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...3-4). There is no denying that this decision is obviously far from optimal. And hence the point is proved- the two types of love have hence produced a much more counterintuitive result than expected. Indeed, this contradiction is one of the central themes of this work.

In Romeo and Juliet, there exist multiple types of love, and they all contradict each other by motivating characters to perform actions that they would otherwise not perform under the influence of one alone. In particular, Shakespeare illustrates both infatuation and familial love. Furthermore, all three types of love contradict each other- romantic love permits instantaneous destruction of infatuation. Similarly, familial love and romantic love, when both present, cause much agony to Juliet. Indeed, this work well demonstrates why love can be so powerful and at the same time so disastrous.