ROMEO & JULIET: Exploring the themes of love

ROMEO & JULIET ENGLISH ESSAY

Romeo and Juliet is a truly tragic story of star-crossed lovers written by the greatest dramatist and poet Shakespeare. He wrote this play to communicate love and empower the audience to see the world in all of its manifestations. Love is the most dominant theme explored throughout the entire play, various types of love have been constantly expressed, including romantic love, family love, shallow love and carer’s love.

Romeo and Juliet’s rapidly occurring attraction shown in act 2 at the Capulet’s party was indeed love at first sight. But was physical attraction a component of romantic love? Illogical lovers Romeo and Juliet believed it was. Although the rivals Capulet and Montague forbid any connections against each other, Romeo and Juliet ignored their restrictions for they were madly in love. The romantic love, of these two characters was found in all parts of the play. From the very first time they laid eyes upon each other a passionate bond was created. Romeo describes Juliet as a source of light, like a star against darkness; he acknowledges his love as blind. “Did my heart love til now?”

Not only do they show their amorous relationship through verbal communications but the actions expressed towards one another was irresistible. A scene which highlights romantic love is when Romeo sneaks to Juliet’s backyard, up to her balcony after his visit to the Capulet’s uninvited party. “It is my lady. O, it is my love!” he cries, as he watches Juliet in her room. They are so foolishly attached to each other that they cannot stand not being together every minute of the day. Because they are naïve teenagers, they do not fathom the consequences and continue with their idyllic life. Shakespeare showed romantic love through the characters Romeo and Juliet.

Family love was the love shown to Juliet by Lord Capulet as well as Romeo for Lord Montague. Although Lord Capulet is incredibly strict and quite distant to Juliet, he cares a lot about her and this is shown in act 3 where Juliet is arguing with him about not wanting to marry Paris. “Soft! Take me with you, take me with you, wife. How? Will she none? Doth she not give us thanks?” he tells Lady Capulet. Lord Montague is upset that Juliet does not appreciate the work he put in to find Juliet a nice, rich husband. Lord Capulet wishes for Juliet to have a bright future but gets very angry when she is not grateful.

Another scene where family love was shown was in act 5. “Hold, take this letter. Early in the morning see thou deliver it to my lord and father.” Romeo hands a farewell letter to his servant to give to Lord Montague. So he knows about his intentional death. Both act 3 and act 5 show family love although the love of Romeo and Juliet was much more conspicuous.

Another type of love is shallow love and this was revealed through the characters of Juliet and Paris. Paris's language says: "I'm a stiff and lacking in passion." Their love was unrequited and false; Juliet didn’t feel the sensual relationship like she did towards Romeo. Paris’ love for Juliet was born out of tradition, not passion. Paris didn’t spend time with Juliet, enough to get to know her and rushed their marriage without even asking Juliet if she felt the same way and just assumed that she will love him eventually.

Juliet and her nurse have been together since Juliet was born. She was the one that nursed Juliet as a baby until now, and was and still is seen with her far more often than her own mother. We know that their relationship is strong because she is the only person Juliet tells about Romeo and trusts her with her deepest secrets.

The close relationship between Juliet and her Nurse is known as carer’s love. Juliet’s nurse shows meaningful and heartfelt love towards her. She looks after her, listens to her problems and is always there when she needs a helping hand. Without the help of her nurse, Juliet would not be able to see Romeo. It was the nurse who helped them get closer. Juliet repeatedly turns to the nurse for guidance and advice; she feels very comfortable around her and always relies on her to fix problems. In act 2 Juliet’s Nurse warns Romeo to not betray Juliet and Romeo assures her he won’t. “If you should double deal with her, truly it were an ill thing.” She says.

Each of these topics on love is an example of the many ways in which Shakespeare skilfully reworked his source.
Although love is a major thematic element in the play there are also other themes explored as well. But love was most important because you could refer all of the characters in the play to the different types of love.