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How Does Shakespeare Present Love In Romeo And Juliet

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The theme love dominates Romeo and Juliet, and the subject commitment underlies this principal theme of love. Shakespeare presents commitment within the love relationship in Romeo and Juliet through out the play. In the Prologue, Shakespeare introduces Romeo and Juliet to us for the first time as the “star-crossed lovers” who “take their life” and immediately we are aware that this is a play about the most powerful kind of love and commitment. Romeo, a Montague, and Juliet, a Capulet, fall in love against the backdrop of their feuding families. The Prologue is written in the form of a sonnet (a traditional love poem) and this is because Shakespeare wants to show from the outset that Romeo and Juliet is fundamentally a play about love. The …show more content…

This scene (Act 2, scene 2) is one of the most famous in all of Shakespeare’s play. It follows the meeting of Romeo and Juliet in the masquerade party at Juliet’s home. When Romeo sees Juliet walking onto the balcony he says “But soft! What light through yonder window breaks? It is the east and Juliet is the sun”. This metaphor shows that when Romeo sees Juliet he feels hope as if the sun is rising He has instantly forgotten his previous love …show more content…

Juliet wrestles with the possibility of loving the son of her family’s sworn enemy and admits that she is willing to marry him regardless. Juliet says the name Montague is simply a name just as a rose would still “smell as sweet “if it were something else. Romeo reciprocates this commitment by swearing to take Juliet at her word and be called something other than Montague. “Call me but love and I’ll be new baptised. Henceforth I never will be Romeo”. The most significant demonstration of commitment is at the end of the play when both Romeo & Juliet take their lives in Act 5 Scene 3. It is clear by now that the lovers would rather be together in death than without each other in life. Romeo drinks the poison and says in his farewell lines to Juliet: “Here’s to my love … and with a kiss I die”. Romeo is besoted with Juliet even when he thinks she is dead. He kisses her, drinks the poison and dies at her side. A moment later the Friar arrives and discovers the dead bodies of Romeo and Paris (who had been killed moments earlier by Romeo). When Juliet wakes from her death-like sleep she demands: “Where is my Romeo?” The pair are inseparable and committed in life and death. Juliet can no longer live without Romeo. She grabs the dagger and says: “Oh happy dagger. This is thy sheath. There rust and let me die.” The prince sums up their commitment to each other at the end of the play when he says:

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