Credibility of Romeo’s Love
Love is an emotion many-if not all- desire for in their life, but should a person’s past flings call that love into question? Romeo had strong feelings for two different people in Shakespeare’s play Romeo and Juliet, one being Rosaline and the other being Juliet. Romeo’s feelings for Rosaline were more of an infatuation than love, but this does not weaken the credibility of his love of Juliet. There are three reasons that must be taken into account when talking about the connection between his infatuation with Rosaline and his love for Juliet. Many people have infatuations at some point in their lives before they meet someone they truly love, he learns many things from his infatuation that help to deepen his
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Moreover, Romeo through his infatuation with Rosaline learned valuable lessons that help him come to appreciate and understand the feelings he experiences with Juliet. Romeo felt rejection, sorrow, and misery from his infatuation with Rosaline which is seen when he is talking to Benvolio, “In sadness, cousin, I do love a woman” this particular quote shows the sadness or sorrow he feels from the feelings for Rosaline (1.1.201). Also when he says “She hath forsworn to love”, the words Romeo speaks allow it to be inferred that his feelings for her have been rejected (1.1.220). “At the opening of the play [Romeo] is maundering about like an erotic woman novelist, sighing and groaning because Rosaline will not listen to his tenders of affection” revealing that Romeo’s love was rejected and was upset because of this, allowing him to learn these feelings and what it is like to be rejected by the one he had feelings for (Northwood 19). Due to having felt these emotions from his infatuation, when he finds his love for Juliet and receives love and acceptance from her. Since he went so long, feeling sorrow and rejection when he finally finds Juliet, he can fully appreciate the love and acceptance he is given which intensifies his love for her and does the opposite of weakening the credibility of his love. Through his infatuation with Rosaline, he was able to grow as a person and become able to fully commit to his love for Juliet.
Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet – popularly considered by many to be the quintessential love story of all time – is a play that we are all familiar with in one way or another. Whether it be through the plethora of portrayals, adaptations and performances that exist or through your own reading of the play, chances are you have been acquainted with this tale of “tragic love” at some point in your life. Through this universal familiarity an odd occurrence can be noted, one of almost canonical reverence for the themes commonly believed to be central to the plot. The most widely believed theme of Romeo and Juliet is that of the ideal love unable to exist under the harsh social and political strains of this world. Out of this idea emerge two
Romeo is very dramatic and obsessed with love. In the beginning he is obsessed with being in love, it doesn't seem like he loves Rosaline, he just wants to be in love with someone. But by the end of the book I think he might actually love Juliet.
Romeo is a melodramatic 16-year old that lets his downheartedness over Rosaline take over when he sees Juliet. Romeo is unhappy, as Rosaline decided to stay chaste, and then he meets Juliet and he sees that she is looks attractive and wants to make irresponsible decisions. Romeo gives a perfect example of his irresponsible, lustful identity when he says this, “Did my heart love till now? / Forswear it, sight! For I ne'er saw true beauty till this night”(Shakespeare,
Romeo is portrayed as an emotional and reckless character. His friend Mercutio and Fr. Lawrence comment on Romeo’s fickle attitude when he immediately falls in love with Juliet completely forgetting about Rosaline, his first love. Romeo quotes,” Did my heart love until now? Foreswear it sight, for I never saw true beauty until this night”. His love for Rosaline was superficial. Juliet transforms Romeo’s immature and erotic infatuation to true and constant love. After meeting Juliet he matures very quickly. Maybe Romeo’s love for Juliet is so intense because unlike Rosaline, Juliet reciprocates his
Love is an important theme in most of Shakespeare’s play, including in Romeo and Juliet because love is a stronger force than all the animosity and forces of fate in Romeo and Juliet. In Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare’s play, Shakespeare explores Romeo’s change in attitude to love between Rosaline and Juliet. In Act 1 Scene 1 Shakespeare introduces us to Romeo’s passionate desire towards Rosaline through the use of oxymoron, monologues and vivid imagery. In contrast, in Act 2 Scene 2, when Romeo is addressing Juliet, his language shifts through the use of light, religious and mythical imagery to reflect his newly found romantic love to Juliet.
However, at the party he meets Juliet for the first time, and immediately falls in love with her: “Did my heart love till now? forswear it, sight! / For I ne’er saw true beauty till this night.” Romeo, who was in love with Rosaline until a moment ago, completely forgets about her and is now all focused on Juliet. But what is very surprising is not the fact that he is in love with his enemy’s daughter, the astonishing thing is the speed at which he falls in love with her. Soon, in fact, he and Juliet kiss each other: “Thus from my lips, by yours, my sin is purged.” However, Romeo’s characteristics to love so deeply Juliet is just a symbol of his lacking the capacity of moderation for intense feelings of all kind. Had Romeo stopped himself from being so deeply caught up by Juliet’s beauty, the tragedy would have never happened.
The play Romeo and Juliet has been considered to be the most touching love story of all time, but when you look closer and past all the initial “fantasies”, you see the truth. Romeo and Juliet believed that they were in love because of the mere idea of it, however based on their actions and the short amount of time that the stages of their “love” progressed in, it soon became clear that what they were actually feeling was infatuation.
Teenage crushes are explored through the middle school and high school years. The two most important crushes are romantic and identity. Most of these crushes are seen as jokes by parents. However, experiencing these types of crushes ultimately lead to the discovery of one's true identity. Shakespeare uses romantic and identity crushes to show how parents need to take teenage crushes more serious.
The love story Romeo and Juliet is regarded worldwide as the pinnacle of western literature, but were the two in deep love, or were they hormonal teenagers infatuated with each other? William Shakespeare's play Romeo and Juliet has attracted debate from opposition sides for centuries. Some claim that Romeo and Juliet were nothing but two melodramatic teenagers while others believed that everyone should aspire to their level of love. When utilizing Ann Lander’s article “Love and Infatuation” for definitions on love and infatuation, it becomes clearly apparent that the two were nothing but infatuated teenagers. Thus, it is irrefutable that the love story of Romeo and Juliet was actually
Romeo and Juliet, one of William’s Shakespeare most famous classic works, is a heart-wrenching tale which is composed of passionate love and anger. It is a timeless piece of literature that has lasted to this century. The beautiful story is set in the remote town of Verona. This play recounts a tale of two star-crossed lovers, forbidden to pursue their inescapable love due to the long history of a violent family feud. Passion is strongly represented in Romeo and Juliet’s undying romance. As the story continues, passionate and uncontrolled anger is clearly expressed, fuelled by the noxious hatred of the family’s feud, intensifying as the plot progresses.
Juliet is to be married as “The valiant Paris seeks [her] for his love”(686) and Romeo feels depressed. Juliet doesn’t truly want to be married to Paris and when Romeo comes along and says he loves her, Juliet uses this as an excuse to be ineligible to Paris. At their young ages of 13 and 16 both, don’t truly know love and can’t effectively associate their feelings. The friar feels that"[Romeo’s] love did read by rote, that could not spell'"(707). Romeo is only repeating what he has heard about love, not genuinely understanding what he is saying. He acts impatient and brash, quickly jumping at any chance to say he is in love thinking it will bring him happiness. Moments before he saw Juliet, Romeo claimed that he was deeply in love with Rosaline, although when presented with someone who he deemed as more beautiful he’s questions if, "[his] heart [did] love till now?...For [he feels he has] ne'er saw true beauty till this night" (pg 692). If he had truly been in love with Rosaline then seeing another girl wouldn't have changed his mind, but as he is so young he isn't able to understand that what he felt for both, Juliet and Rosaline was lust. Teenagers act irrationally, based solely on emotion, Romeo and Juliet are too caught up in their feelings to take a step back and consider their
Shakespeare thus portrays Romeo and his love as an infatuation. This infatuation is evident in how instantaneously Romeo falls out of love with Rosaline and into love with Juliet. At one stage, Rosaline was the “precious treasure of his eyesight”, yet Romeo’s embodiment of perfection was, a few scenes later, his notion of defectiveness. This therefore reveals to the audience the instantaneous and reckless path of the two lovers, as well as the fickleness of adolescent “love”, diminishing at the sight of
Romeo's “love” for Juliet and vice versa is not true love. For Romeo the “love” he feels for Juliet is not true, it is his heartbroken heart manifesting itself after he is rejected by Rosalin. In fact the only reason he goes to the party where he meets Juliet is because he thinks that Rosalin might be there. This quote from
Romeo labels his feelings towards Juliet as “love”, although he has not gotten the opportunity to learn about her personality. This indicates that what he feels about her was entirely formed by her physical beauty rather than genuine feelings. Evidently, sexual desires seemed to be his ulterior motive for marrying her, instead of committing to love, care, and cherish her till death do them apart.
Right after Rosaline breaks up with Romeo to become a priest, Romeo spots Juliet, and is attracted to her. Today, many teenagers go through relationships and breakups before they marry, but that was not the case many years ago. In Shakespeare's time it was common to marry your first love. Many couples now wait at least a year before deciding to marry, but back in Shakespeare’s time it wasn’t uncommon to marry someone after a few dates. (https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/sticky-bonds/200906/teenagers-in-love). There is a simple explanation for this; Romeo was in love with Juliet so much that he could not wait any longer to marry. When Roseline dumped Romeo, Romeo was in pain. But when Juliet came along he no longer felt that pain. In Stanford University, researchers tested how seeing a loved one can reduce anothers pain. The scientists strapped a heated probe to the palm of fifteen college students, who said that they were in love. “Looking at a picture of a loved one reduced moderate pain by about 40 percent and eased severe pain by 10-15 percent” ((http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/10/13/love-and-pain-relief/). So seeing Juliet reduced Romeo’s heart