Romeo loves Rosaline, but Rosaline does not feel the same about Romeo – Representation of Love
Romeo becomes unhappy with love as he says, ‘love is a smoke filled with sighs’, this shows that Romeo thinks that love is a bad thing and wishes that Rosaline felt the same about him as he feels about her. Romeo is love-sick and he doesn’t like that love isn’t going the right way for him, Shakespeare shows this by using the metaphor, ‘this is not Romeo, he is some other where’, this suggests that he is depressed over Rosaline as he wants her to love him back.
The use of Shakespeare’s language shows that Romeo is frustrated with love as he says, ‘out of her favour, where I am in love’; this demonstrates that Romeo’s love is ‘blindfolded’ as he loves Rosaline greatly, but she does not love him back. Romeo also says, ‘she’ll not be hit by a cupids arrow’, this depicts that Rosaline will never fall in love with Romeo but he cannot stop loving her.
During Romeo and Rosaline’s one-sided relationship, Shakespeare uses oxymoron’s throughout this play as Romeo says, ‘cold fire, sick health’, as this suggests that Romeo’s love sickness is affecting him and he is greatly confused.
During the Prologue, Shakespeare uses the line, ‘o brawling love, o loving hate’; this sums up the play as Romeo is talking about his experience of love in the way that it can make him happy and sad at the same time.
It is both love and hate. He is connecting his feelings to the remains of the brawl he can see in front of him. From this, he concludes that although their fight was partly because of the hate between the two families, it is more about the love within each family and having to protect their family honour, even if this means bloodshed.
This love/hate relationship can take many forms and can be created out of nothing, just as the brawl started because of the servants being arrogant and boisterous. It is a sad happiness and a serious foolishness, which can be seen as an oxymoron as though love is bound up in hate and Shakespeare uses them throughout the play to connect the two themes. However, the reasons for the brawl are more to do with love and therefore, love overcomes hate. Meanwhile, Lady Capulet is talking to Juliet about marriage, with the nurse in the room.
This scene provides the idea of parental love. Lady Capulet’s relationship with her daughter, Juliet, is much more formal than the relationship between the nurse and Juliet. Juliet has probably grown up with the nurse looking after her and therefore she feels closer to her and finds it easier to talk to her. The nurse is a lot less formal and her love for Juliet shows through her character. In the play, she can be seen as the mother figure for Juliet whereas Lady Capulet is rarely seen with Juliet except in brief scenes such as this one.