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.
At the start of the play he's talking to Mercutio about Rosaline and says, "Out of her favour, where I am in love." (1.1.10)He thinks he is in love with Rosaline but he knows they can never be together. I especially think he didn't really like Rosaline when he forgets about her as soon as he sees Juliet, "Did my heart love till now? forswear it, sight! For I ne'er saw true beauty till this night."(1.5.1) He says he hadn't seen true beauty until now even though he loved Rosaline a few seconds ago.
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,
During some of part one, and two, we slowly learn about Romeo and his dilemma. He has fallen in love with beautiful Rosaline and all of his heart is crying out to her. He vows to never see a beauty as fair as her, and complains about the rudeness and pain of love. He allows himself to go to the party with Mercutio and his friends, but remarks he won't have a good time. "I'll go along, no such sight to be shown, But to rejoice in a splendor of mine own." That is until he sees Juliet. Instantly he forgets all of his lamenting for Rosaline love, and proclaims Juliet is the most beautiful thing he has ever seen. "O! she doth teach the torches to burn bright. It seems she hangs on the cheek of night, like a rich jewel in an Ethiop's ear; Beauty too rich for use, for earth too dear! So shows a snowy dove trooping with crows, As yonder lady o'er her fellows shows. The measure done, I'll watch her place of stand, And, touching hers, make blessed my rude hand. Did my heart love till now? forswear it, sight! For I ne'er saw true beauty till this night."
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.
At the beginning of the play, Romeo is infatuated with Rosaline. When Montague’s nephew, Benvolio, comes home from a fight with the Capulets’ servants, his aunt Lady Montague tells him about how her son Romeo, has been in a melancholic mood, walking alone in the gardens. Benvolio promises Lady Montague that he would find out what is troubling his cousin, Romeo. Not one who is interested in fighting, Romeo is preoccupied by what he thinks is love and begins to confide in Benvolio that he is madly in love
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
Obsession is in everything. Obsession occurs in every living human to ever walk this earth. Everybody has feelings and actions that are triggered by an intense moment and these intense moments can cause people’s feelings to go in a flux. This flux could then affect both the people they care about around them and themselves. And sometimes holding this obsession leads to a bigger problem. Obsession is difficult to contain yet we see it every day, fiction or not.
He is heartbroken that Rosaline does not return the love he has for her and prone to becoming fond of another woman. As shown in Act 1 of the play, fate manipulates Romeo and Juliet into a lovesick relationship that can only lead to a very tragic end.
Rosaline is aware of Romeos ‘feelings’ towards her and spurns his advances, yet Romeo takes this rejection as encouragement and continues to attempt to woo her. These are strong features of courtly love. Paris treats his ‘love’ in a different manner, but the same features are there. He goes to meet Lord Capulet and arranges to marry Juliet, although he has never met her.
The first time that love is explored during the play is when Romeo first speaks of Rosaline and his passion for her, even though he is ‘Out of her favour’ (I.i.159) which is a powerful statement as it shows that Romeo still has these feelings for Rosaline even though he knows she doesn’t feel the same. This is also the first occasion where love and hate coincide as Romeo is speaking about Rosaline when he hears of the duel and comments ‘Here’s much to do with hate, but more with love’ (I.i.166). The fact that the conversation switches from love to hate and visa versa so quickly shows that the two themes are closely linked and that one has an effect on the other. In this passage of speech Romeo speaks as a ‘Petrachan Lover’ as he elevates Rosaline in his language. He uses oxymorons such as ‘O loving hate’ (I.i.167) and ‘Feather of lead, bright smoke, cold fire, sick health’ (I.i.171) to add effect and drama to his speech, and his language is so exagerated it makes the audience believe that he really is in love.
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.
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.
In the beginning of the play, Romeo is young and carefree, he loves Rosaline and then Juliet. He is in love with the fact that he is in love. Romeo in this case is the tragic hero, his tragic flaw is his immaturity and fickle traits. Benvolio and Mercutio make fun of Romeo in the beginning because he is always in love. Romeo goes to this party thinking that no girl is prettier than Rosaline, but when he goes and meets Juliet he thinks she is the most beautiful, and that fate brought them together. Romeo acts on this fate to make it permanent despite the several obstacles. Romeo says before the party at the Capulet’s, “I fear, too early, for my mind misgives-Some consequence yet hanging in the stars-shall bitterly begin
Romeo seems to be miserable as he is in love with Rosaline yet Rosaline is not in love with him. Once Romeo learns that the Capulet’s are holding a party at which Rosaline is attending he risks his life just to be with the one he loves. Romeo is passionate for love.
The first kind of love shown in the play is teenage love through Romeo. Montague tells us that "Many a morning hath he (Romeo) been seen... adding to the clouds more clouds with his deep sighs." Romeo is often seen sighing showing that he is either depressed or in love. Romeo is both. He says he is "out of her favour where I am in love". He is "in love" with Rosaline but she has sworn herself to a life of chastity and does not return Romeo's love. Shakespeare mocks Romeo's infatuation with the
Romeo at the beginning of the play doesn't have the most level-headed understand of what real love is and as an example at the beginning of the play he has "fallen in love" with Rosaline and proclaimed that she is the perfect example of a women. Then later on completely forgets about her after seeing Juliet. This gives the reader the sense that Romeo is not very deep in his feelings for women and has a more superficial idea of what love is. Throughout the play though Shakespeare was able to convey how Romeo has matured in his attitude toward love from a shallow desire to a profound and intense passion. His fidelity toward Juliet is quite abstract in the sense that he loves her enough to commit suicide because he feels that he is not able to continue his lie without her which is a demonstration of his faithfulness and loyalty to her. In Romeo and Juliet Romeo is driven by his emotions a lot of the time when making decisions. Examples of him doing this are that because of anger compels him to kill Tybalt in a duel to avenge to death of his friend and despair causes him to take his own life upon hearing of Juliet's death. He also is driven many times by his love for Juliet. Love forces him to make the reckless decision to sneak into the garden of his enemy's daughter and risk death only to catch a glimpse of her. These intense depths of feeing are what drive the character in this story