Love in William Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet”
William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet is a tragedy that includes two families who are in a feud. Two teenagers end up falling madly in love with each other. The love comes off as so strong and powerful that it ends in the death of both Romeo and Juliet. The story is set in the streets of Verona, Italy during the late 1500’s. Romeo and Juliet’s relationship is described as true love. Everybody thinks Romeo and Juliet are supposedly in love although in this the love is mistaken for lust.
The night Romeo and Juliet met they were starstruck. The night they met they had their first kiss, Juliet says, “you kiss by the book”, which means Romeo is a good kisser. Romeo and Juliet are off to a fast start in their relationship. Their love can go extremely well but in this case, there were many obstacles. Later in the book, Friar Lawrence also states toward the couple “therefore love moderately.
” This quote shows that even further on in the relationship they are still moving too fast. Their love was all quick and consuming taking into consideration they got married the day after they met, which is not normal.
The feud between their families is a major toll on their relationship. Juliet says, “Deny thy father and refuse thy name”. This quote is Juliet’s way of saying she wants Romeo to make a decision about what he is going to do about his over overbearing parents not considering her parents are the same way.
This also shows Juliet can often appear overly romantic and impractical. Juliet proclaims that Romeo is her “only love sprung from my only hate!” This is the moment when she realizes he is a Montague. The quote states because of their family names they will be prohibited to be together. Putting that aside Juliet still decides to falls at the knees of her forbidden lover, Romeo.
One day after they met they got married, without knowing anything each other’s personality. Juliet says, “My ears have yet not drunk a hundred words, yet I know the sound.” This quote is the perfect example explaining that Romeo and Juliet hardly knew each other at all. Especially considering in each of their minds, the other was perfect. Mercutio makes a good point when he states, “If love be blind, love cannot hit the mark”. This quote is talking about mainly Romeo’s feelings. At the beginning of the story, Romeo is in love with this beautiful girl name Roseline. Just fifteen minutes after he was sobbing over her, he came across an even more beautiful lady, Juliet. In this scene, Shakespeare is showing us solely lust.
In conclusion, the feeling of attraction between the two main characters, Romeo and Juliet is not true love. Two young teenagers were convinced that they had deep feelings for each other but acted more out of lust than anything else. Shakespeare is trying to show readers not what love is, but what love is not. Love is an intense feeling of deep attraction.
