Essay: Romance to Tragedy: Analyzing Romeo and Juliet’s Developing Views on Love

Young lover’s views on love never remain stagnant and develops over time as well as past experiences. The romantic tragedy, Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet prove this idea of the development of their views on love. Romeo and Juliet is about two young children, sixteen and thirteen respectively, finding love in each other and end up taking it to marriage. Unfortunately, they both take their lives after a misunderstanding. In the play, Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare uses figurative language to portray the theme of the understanding between vs. lust through the character’s Romeo and Juliet’s developing views on love that eventually lead to their tragedy.
Romeo and Juliet’s views on love is very different from each other in the beginning of the play. “O, heavy lightness, serious vanity, / Misshapen chaos of well-seeming forms, / Feather of lead, bright smoke, cold fire, sick health, / Still-waking sleep that is not what it is! / This love feel I, that feel love no this” (Shakespeare 1.1.183-187). Shakespeare uses oxymorons to show the contradictory factors on how love can be so good but so bad at the same time. This shows Romeo’s character as being a man who sees love as torture but still needs it for him to be able to survive. “I’ll look to like, if looking liking move. / But no more deep will I endart mine eye. / Than your consent gives strength to make it fly” (Shakespeare 1.3.103-105). Shakespeare uses a metaphor when he says, “make it fly”. The metaphor shows that her love for Paris will not grow higher than what she is supposed to have for him. This relates to Juliet’s views on love contrasting Romeo’s since she doesn’t want to love anyone by choice whereas Romeo says he needs it to stay alive. The contrasting perspectives on love are shown until Romeo and Juliet meet each other for the first time and fall in love.
Romeo and Juliet finding out who each other are eventually developed their understanding of love and lust. “Spread thy close curtain, love-performing night, / That runaways’ eyes may wink, and Romeo / Leap to these arms untalked of and unseen” (Shakespeare 3.2.5-7). Shakespeare uses a hyperbole so he can show Juliet’s desire for Romeo to be with her. The tone Julies uses when she says this makes it seems like she is lusting for Romeo but her point of view is that she wants to love Romeo forever. She wants to experience this love that she’s never felt before. “Did my heart love till now? Forswear it, sight, / For I ne’er saw true beauty till this night” (Shakespeare 1.5.59-60). Shakespeare utilizes personification to show Romeo’s feeling of true love instead of lust. Romeo’s feelings on love are maturing since now he is realizing how artificial his love for Rosaline really was. However, Romeo and Juliet’s expanded view on love ended up sadly leading to their deaths.
Romeo and Juliet’s judgement of love greatly developed and were fairly similar in the end of the play. “Here’s to my love, O, true apothecary, / Thy drugs are quick. Thus with a kiss I die” (Shakespeare 5.3.119-120). Shakespeare uses personification again when Romeo mentions that the drugs are quick. He is basically saying that he is soon to die since the drugs are already working. Romeo’s point of view on love is fairly similar to the beginning of the play but still different since it is related back to when he said love is needed to survive but now he is dying so he can be with his loved one. “O, happy dagger, / This is thy sheath. There rust, and let me die” (Shakespeare 5.3.174-175). Shakespeare uses an apostrophe since Juliet is telling the dagger to let her her die when she uses it. Juliet is dying for her love which is something that she wouldn’t do in the beginning of the play. She realized that love means a lot more and it’s worth dying for. The unfortunate tragedy was created because of Romeo and Juliet’s changing perspectives on love and how it should be.
The use of figurative language by Shakespeare and the views of love by his characters, Romeo and Juliet, created the bigger theme of the knowledge of differences between love and lust. Romeo and Juliet’s perspective views didn’t remain stagnant and slowly matured over the time of the play. In the beginning of the play, Romeo and Juliet’s views did not match but slowly started to become similar by the end of the play. This shows that over time, perspectives on love can be different and mature over time. Although, their love led to their death they realized the distinction between love and lust.