Romeo And Juliet: Concept Of Love In A Play

Romeo and Juliet, one of William Shakespeare’s arguably most renowned plays, heavily relies on the theme of love. Although, one must explore what types of love this refers to. Romantic love is probably most obvious, this love is mainly communicated between the two main characters throughout majority of the play. Platonic and familial love is also predominantly displayed amongst a few of the main characters in the play. Shakespeare plays around with the idea of love throughout the whole play and makes the viewer contemplate about love in a richer sense. Shakespeare’s audience also would have had very different perspectives of love and marriage compared to the ones we have today.

The lust between Romeo and Juliet can easily be mistaken for love. The contrast between love and lust can be very drastic. Lust is superficial when only the appearance in considered, this could be called “love at first sight”. The first clue of Romeo’s feelings towards Juliet is in the first act, scene five so it’s somewhat close to the beginning of the play. “Did my heart love till now? Forswear it, sight! For I ne’er saw true beauty till this night.” This implies that Romeo’s temporary obsession with Rosaline was nothing in comparison to the emotions he was feeling for Juliet. Although these feelings were rushed, they were extremely strong. Perhaps Romeo and Juliet’s love is fate and their love was due to cosmic significance, which could mean that Shakespeare suggests that the universe played a role in the creation of their love. Despite their love being forbid by the Capulet and Montague households, they inevitably find themselves drawn to each other. All in all, Shakespeare presents romantic love as a force of nature, so strong that it transcends customs and also through the combined suicides of the two lovers who just couldn’t possibly live without each other, life itself.

Romeo and Juliet is usually thought to be a play solely about romantic love. This is partially true but many of the background characters experience love that is platonic. This form of love is demonstrated by best friends Romeo and Mercutio. I believe that Shakespeare intentionally added Mercutio into the play to balance out the naïve and fickle personality of Romeo. While Romeo has an idealistic perspective of the world and more specifically love, Mercutio almost acts as his conscience. We can also identify the love Romeo feels for his friend, Mercutio, the moment he became so furious that Tybalt killed him and wanted revenge. The significance of Romeo’s feelings of revenge is that just a few lines ago he was refusing to fight Tybalt since Romeo knew that they were family through marriage with Juliet. However, Romeo’s feelings of love towards Mercutio and the rage he was experiencing over his death became so strong that he momentarily forgot about his relationship with Juliet. This proves that Romeo would go to great lengths to manifest his love for Mercutio. This dialogue spoken by Romeo, “fire-eye’d fury be my conduct now” resonates with Romeo’s feelings of fury and also well portray his love for Mercutio. Shakespeare did a great job of showcasing the platonic love between Romeo and Mercutio by his well thought out choice of character backgrounds and sequence of events.

During the Elizabethan times, people believed that love was not an essential part of marriage. Almost all marriages of the upper class were arranged, and were to the advantage of the families, although not necessarily to that of the children. Love was something that came after marriage, rather than before. Similarly, Paris’ love for Juliet is born out of tradition, not passion. He had identified her as a good candidate for a wife and approached her father to arrange the marriage. This shows his shallow, unpassionate approach towards love. He even admits to Friar Laurence that in his hustle to rush the wedding, he hadn’t discussed anything with Juliet. “Immoderately she weeps for Tybalt’s death, and therefore have I little talked of love.” This is a form of trivial love that Shakespeare decided to portray in this play. Several metaphors that Shakespeare used helped illustrate this. In Act V, Scene 3, Paris went to the tomb to mourn Juliet and says, ‘Sweet flower, with flowers thy bridal bed I strew.’ Paris compares Juliet to a flower and her tomb to a bridal bed. This could show a slight sign of remorse on Paris’ side for not talking to her in advance due to the use of the word “strew”. Overall, Paris’ love for Juliet was unrequited and transitory.

In conclusion, Romeo and Juliet portrays different aspects and types of love in many ways. Shakespeare’s idea of the concept of love is complex and multifaceted. Through different characters and relationships, he depicts some of the various types of love and the different ways it can proclaim. These relationships can be romantic, platonic, familial, shallow, trivial or fate.