Romeo and Juliet's Emotional Development in the Play
In the play, both characters change dramatically. Shakespeare conveys
this well and throughout the play he devises different confrontations
and conversations which indicate the 2 main characters' personality
change.
In the beginning, Romeo loves after a woman he has not even had a
meaningful conversation with. He sulks and complains about his
emotional misfortune with Rosaline.
Courtly love is not true love. Courtly love is arranged love, where
people marry for status, and love is controlled. His sentences rhyme
and his words seem calculated. They come from his head, not his heart.
"Alas that Love, whose view is muffled still,
Should, without eyes, see pathways to his will." Romeo's love is
clearly contrived. He follows the Courtly Love tradition. This couplet
rhymes. It seems as though Romeo has planned all of his complaints
beforehand, and he is in love with being in love rather that being in
love properly.
Juliet, at the start of the play is inexperienced and vulnerable. She
is wrapped in cotton wool by the Nurse, smothered and not allowed her
own insight on the world. She had never been in love before she met
Romeo. She would have carried on with life, and married the first man
her mother set her up with. This almost happens. Paris, a kinsman of
the Prince, represents one of the social pressures breaking in on her
intimate relationship with Romeo.
Juliet agrees to marry Paris, but not for the cause of love.
"I'll look to like, if looking liking move;
But on more deep will I endart mine eye
Than your consent gives strength to make it fly." Juliet would only be
marrying Paris because it would please Lady Capulet. This further
shows Juliet's inability to make her own decisions, the lack of will
to make her own decisions and the great influence her mother has on
her life. This, is all of Juliet's character at the start of the play,
there is no other side to her.
In William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, Romeo’s impulsiveness contributes to the tragedy of the play. There is no doubt that Romeo rushes into love throughout the play. One example of this is when he falls in love with Rosaline. Although Rosaline is not a major role in the play, it shows the sorrow and uncertainty Romeo goes through after not being loved back. Marilyn Williamson said “During the time in which he was infatuated with Rosaline, he was … withdrawn into darkness” (6). The fact that Rosaline never shares the same feelings with Romeo, shows how quickly Romeo is to fall in love. “Out of her favor, where I am in love” (Rom. 1.1.158). Ironically, Romeo falls in love with Juliet during his plan to get closer to Rosaline. He is at a Capulet party when he first sees Juliet and
Love, what a small word for being one of the most powerful and complicated emotion someone can receive. Love grants people an experience of other emotions such as, sadness, happiness, jealousy, hatred and many more. It is because of those characteristics that love creates that make it so difficult to define the emotion in a few words. In the play, “Romeo and Juliet” by William Shakespeare, two star-crossed lovers, Romeo and Juliet, defy their parents in hopes of being able to be together and live a happy life. The characters in “Romeo and Juliet” show the characteristics of love through their words and actions throughout the play. The attributes the characters illustrate throughout the play are rage, loyalty, and sorrow.
Lady Capulet is very materialistic and she wants Juliet to gain wealth and status by marrying Paris ‘’Share all that he doth possess’’. In addition, because she got married at a young age, therefore she thinks it’s right for Juliet to be married at a young age ‘’I was likely your mother at just about your age’’. Moreover, she constantly urges Juliet to marry Paris without any sense of consideration for Juliet’s opinions or feelings, about the alliance of the marriage. Furthermore, this illustrates her cold attitude towards love and marriage as she only talks about Paris Social position and wealth.
Have you ever noticed how people change after they fall in love? In the story Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare, Juliet is proven to be a dynamic character because of how she changes throughout the story and why. In the story, Juliet changes from understanding and reasonable to disobedient and unreasonable because she is in love.
Juliet’s weakness to be controlled by love leads her to make unadvised and irresponsible decisions that contribute to her choice of ending her life. Characterized as a young and rash teenager, with no interest in love and marriage at first, Juliet wants to be independent. However, after she first lays eyes on Romeo, Juliet’s perception of love is quick to change. Their strong love easily manipulates and clouds her judgment. Even if she is cautious and realizes their love is too fast, the rush of feelings from having a first love overcomes her.
Although the lovers are both fairly impudent throughout the play, Romeo, the male lead, is even more so. Through out the play of Romeo and Juliet, the Montague heir has ceased maturity over the course of the Shakespearean tragedy. First of all, it was “Rosaline” (II.iii.67). whom Romeo “didst love so dear” (II.iii.67). at the beginning of the play as he “groaned . . . woes for Rosaline” (II.ii.74-78) however, he easily fell out of lover with her and in love with the “fair daughter of the rich Capulet” (II.iii.58) like he was changing his mind on a meal he’d order. Also, he fell out of love with Rosaline because she did not “doth grace for grace and love for love allow.” (II.iii. 85-88) which basically meant that Romeo didn’t love Rosaline because she didn’t love him back, which is very childish in hindsight. Another way that Romeo is immature is that he doesn’t have a sense of reality fore, he’s always either extremely depressed, like when Rosaline wanted to remain chaised for life or extremely elated like when he met Juliet, while having no real middle ground for his emotions. These are all reasons why Romeo is immature: he’s always heads over heels in love for trivial reasons and he has no to little sense of reality.
Romeo and Juliet choose their own actions through their judgments, which were caused by their belief of everlasting love. Due to their unsound and absurd attitudes, both characters are dazed by love in a puerile manner. The relationship they created was actually built on lust and desperation. Firstly, Romeo is the first character whom shows immature love in the story as a whole. Once Capulet’s party is over, Romeo’s attitude leads him to jump over the wall to Juliet’s house and exclaim to her,” And what love can do, that dares love attempt./Therefore thy kinsmen are no stop to me”(2.2.68-9). The effect of love caused Romeo to not pay attention to the consequences of jumping over the wall and talking to the daughter of his enemy. The flaw is that he is beginning to think that his love is as hard as nails. It is illogical for Romeo to think this...
... and is ready to swear the vows of marriage with Romeo. Juliet’s reckless and hasty decisions demonstrate her impulsiveness. Juliet’s love for Romeo largely dictates her brash decisions and speech. If Romeo did not enter Juliet’s life, she would never have known the hurt and heartbreak she experiences throughout the tragedy.
To begin, Juliet challenges her family expectations in favour of living a life where she can express her love to Romeo, who is her family’s enemy, freely. For example, as Romeo and Juliet speak with each other on the balcony, she states “Deny thy father and refuse thy name; or if thou wilt not, be but sworn my love, and I’ll no longer be a Capulet” (II, ii, 100-102). Juliet understands society will not allow her to be with Romeo, a Montague, because he is the family’s (Capulet’s) enemy. But due to her intense love toward Romeo, she is ready to give up her family ...
The significance of Juliet’s change in character is to show her accelerated transformation from a young girl into a mature woman. In the beginning of the play Juliet is unable to make her own decisions. However after her meeting with Romeo, Juliet becomes more assertive and defends her love for Romeo. In conclusion, individuals cannot be forced to love; love is nurtured and nourished but also is always put to test.
Romeo and Juliet is a timeless tale of lovers who's misfortune and immaturity was a cause of their own destruction. The characters individually show immaturity and together demonstrate how ignorance of the world effects more than just their own lives. Romeo and Juliet, as expressed in the succeeding examples, fall in love quickly as a result of their naivety.
A Psychological Analysis of Romeo and Juliet Romeo and Juliet was obviously not written to fit the psychoanalytic model, as the theories of Freud were not developed for centuries after Shakespeare. Shakespeare wrote about Renaissance England, a culture so heavily steeped in Christianity, that it would have blushed at the instinctual and sexual thrust of Freud’s theory. However, in order to keep literature alive and relevant, a culture must continually reinterpret the themes and ideas of past works. While contextual readings assure cultural precision, often these readings guarantee the death of a particular work. Homer’s Iliad, a monument among classical works, is currently not as renowned as Romeo and Juliet because it is so heavily dependent on its cultural context.
Romeo and Juliet is a romantic love story about a young lad named Romeo who has fallen in love with Lady Juliet, but is unable to marry her because of a long-lasting family feud. The play ends in the death of both these characters and the reunion of the friendship between the families. Romeo is in love with Juliet, and this is a true, passionate love (unlike the love Paris has for her or the love Romeo had for Rosaline) that nothing can overcome, not even the hatred between their two families that is the reason for the death of their two children. Throughout the play, Shakespeare thoroughly explores the themes of both true love and false love and hatred. Without either of these themes, the play would loose its romantic touch and probably would not be as famous as it is today.
After taking Juliet’s age into consideration, it is important to analyze her views on love. Throughout the play, Juliet’s views change from one scene to the next. At the start of the play, Juliet’s view of love not one of luxury, but rather one of necessity. This is obvious from the earliest starting point as expressed above when Lady Capulet converses with her daughter about marriage and what the attributes of a decent suitor are. These attributes include someone who can provide for her and take care of her. This essentially amounts to Lady Capulet telling Juliet that stability is more important than love when choosing a suitor. As the play progresses up to the balcony scene, Juliet’s view of love essentially grows into a fairy tale as she appears to let her heart override her brain. The kind of love adults feed children when they are young, the damsel in distress motif and the prince charming motif. Juliet represents the princess and Romeo is her prince. In reality, this is not what love is. However, according to psychologist Robert Sternberg, the three components of love are intimacy, passion, and commitment
When Romeo meets Juliet, he claimed to be immediately in love. Although he has been sulking over Rosaline, when he met Juliet, he states, “Did my heart love till now? forswear it sight! For I ne’er saw true beauty till this night” (Act 1.5 Lines 51-52). The entire time as he envisions love with Rosaline, it was all incoherent. Romeo’s impulsive attitude causes him to fall head over heels with Juliet, which begins the drama in this play.