The Corruption Of Love In Shakespeare's Romeo And Juliet

Love Essay

Love is defined as a profoundly tender, passionate affection for another person. This emotion is so passionate it can even be considered dangerous. Without love, it is often next to impossible for one to survive. People in this world often conceptualize that love is necessary and crave the feeling of being in love. With that said, what is truly confusing is if people are truly in love with another person, or are they just in love with the ideology of being in love. In Ancient Greece, love was viewed in many different ways. For example, they thought it could be agape, eros, or philia. Agape refers to the pure views of love or the “love of the soul.” Another view on love is philia, which is a disspassionate love one feels for family
Eros can mean “love of the body.” With that said, in the play Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare, the two main characters fall in such a passionate love that it deeply affects an already corrupted society. Romeo, a Montague, and Juliet, a Capulet, were from houses that depsised one another, but due to the fact Romeo fell in love with Juliet before even talking to her at a party, he had no idea she was a Capulet. Romeo had just fallen out of a truly pure love or agape, and he could not get over his last lover. When he falls in love with Juliet after just one look, eros takes over and her perfect beauty overwhelms him. Little did he know that his fate was far from perfect. Love is so blinding to Romeo that once he got caught into its' trap, no matter what the obstacle he could not get out. Despite the fact Juliet was who she was, or that there was a miniscule likelyhood that they would ever end up happily together did not
When Romeo goes he finds a girl whose beauty stops him immediately. It takes his breath away and love strikes him once again. He does not even know who she is, but the essence of her beauty takes his breath away: “O, she doth teach the torches to burn bright!/
It seems she hangs upon the cheek of night/
Like a rich jewel in an Ethiope'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.”(I, v, 78-90) Romeo believes Juliet's beauty is so radiant that he has never felt this way before. No one else had ever made him feel this way and Rosaline automatically leaves his brain for he is blinded by true beauty. Eros has struck into his life and he does not even know the girl yet. This suggests he may have never been in love with Rosaline to begin with, instead he fell in love with being in love. As he meets Juliet, he can not resist himself and he kisses her. He often can not stop thinking about her and uses religious language to express the love he has for her, for her even compares her to the sun and stars. When he finds out she is