How Does Shakespeare Present Love In Romeo And Juliet

Love is the most dominant and important theme in Romeo and Juliet - some techniques showing this are more obvious than others. Written by the famous playwright William Shakespeare in the late 16th century, the tragedy of Romeo and Juliet, set in Verona, Italy, is about paths of two teenagers from feuding families that fall in love with each other. There are several techniques used in the play that show how Shakespeare explores the concept of love, including the language used, light and dark imagery, and the different forms of love.

Language used by Romeo [in the beginning] is very romantic and poetic which develops into more mature language, showing how Romeo also develops from a blind lover to a more mature lover. In the beginning, Romeo spoke in a poetic, exaggerated, almost artificial way to express his feelings. He seemed more in love with the concept of ‘being in love’ rather than loving the woman herself. “She is too fair, too
The passionate love between Romeo and Juliet push the two closer to both love and violence. Romeo, although trying his best to be kind to Tybalt – “I do protest I never injuried thee” (3.1.65) – after he married Juliet, ends up killing him anyway to avenge Mercutio. Also, for the lovers’ wish to be together forever, they must contemplate suicide in order to achieve it. All for the sake of their love, the two lovers need to go down the path of violence. Juliet, originally a naïve and innocent girl, was most likely not someone to contemplate death for the sake of love. She becomes unafraid to lie to her family that she is ‘dead’, telling the Friar “Give me, give me! O tell not me of fear.” (4.2.121) when he tells her about his ‘fake death’ potion. Consequently, love matures the two lovers Romeo and Juliet, but also brings them violence, showing that love is not always entirely