Shakespeare presents romantic love in various ways through ‘Romeo and Juliet’. Initially, Romeo is shown to be madly in love Rosaline for her appearance, and it is not genuine love. When Romeo and Juliet meet, Shakespeare shows their love as true love. However, the strength of their love causes them to die. In some ways, Romeo and Juliet ‘s love is shown to be more similar to a modern experience of love. This is such as Romeo and Juliet chose to get married by their own will instead of having an arranged marriage. In the 16th century, the arranged marriage between high ranking families was common. True love can be unbelievably powerful as both individuals such as Romeo and Juliet would kill themselves to be together forever.
Shakespeare is critical of romantic love when it is not genuine. Romeo has a confusing and shallow experience in his infatuation with Rosaline. When Romeo says ” O brawling love, O loving hate, O anything of nothing first create! O heavy lightness, serious vanity, misshapen chaos of well-seeming forms, feather of lead, bright smoke, cold fire, sick health, still waking sleep, that feel no love in this.” The oxymorons used, for example, bright smoke does not mean anything which suggests that the love poetry of Shakespeare’s time put contradictory words together in this way to express the turmoil that love creates. Love is not genuine when the marriage between Juliet and Paris is arranged. In the statement ‘Thus then if brief; the valiant Paris seeks you for his love.” And “A man, young lady! Lady, such a man as all the world – why, he’s a man of wax.” Said by Lady Capulet and the nurse. This suggests that they think Paris was the ideal man for Juliet to marry as he is the prince’s kinsmen. The phrase ‘man of wax’ refers to Paris being the perfect man for Juliet, like a sculptor’s model. Later in the play, Juliet disobeys her father by saying “I pray you to tell my lord and father, madam, I will not marry yet, and when I do, I swear it shall be Romeo, whom you know I hate, rather than Paris. These are news indeed.” The word ‘lord’ refers to Paris as in the past, 400 years ago, men were always considered to be more superior than women. When a girl is born, she is considered to be owned by her father. When she gets married, she is considered to be owned by both her father and husband. Before women get married, the husband is required to ask her father for consent. Furthermore, the age of the woman does not matter when it came to arranged marriage, as we can see when Juliet is forced to marry Paris at the age of 13. The actions of men of the time show huge amounts of gender inequality. Men could abuse their wives and not get punished as men were the ‘superior being’ at the time.
However, Shakespeare celebrates love when it is sincere and genuine. As a genuine meeting of souls arranged by Shakespeare, when Romeo first meets Juliet, he is enlightened about what genuine love is. This was suggested when Romeo says “Did my heart love till now? Forswear it, sight! For I ne’re saw true beauty till this night” and ” I profane with my unworthiest hand. This holy shrine, the gentle sin is this, my lips, two blusing pilgrams, ready stand. To smooth that rough touch with a tender kiss.” The phrase “holy shrine” suggests that Romeo, in a way, worships Juliet like how pilgrims worship a shrine. The language used in this statement is religious almost as though God somehow blesses the loving relationship between Romeo and Juliet. As their conversation develops, Romeo says ” O then, dear saint, let lips do what hands do: They pray, grant thou, lest faith turn to despair.” The phrase “let lips do what hands do” suggests that Romeo and Juliet are going to start kissing. In a modern relationship, it is less likely to have a ‘love at first sight’ type of relationship. This is such as people of the modern era has the ability to communicate online, so they do not go out as often and socialise compared to Shakespeare’s time. Romeo and Juliet are extremely intimate with each other while marrying couples at that time; they might not even kiss or hold hands. Romeo even sneaks back into the Capulet orchard to see Juliet without his parents knowing which shows that their love is somehow similar to a modern relationship. This is like relationships now: we get to choose who we want to be with, and we act by our own will. During the balcony scene, we realise that Juliet a pragmatic person and that Romeo can be really romantic. Juliet’s pragmatism is shown when she says “How cam’st thou hither, tell me, and wherefore? The orchard walls are high and hard to climb, and the place death, considering who thou art, if any of my kinsmen find thee here.” Romeo replies, “with love’s light wings did I o’erperch these walls, for stony limits cannot hold love out, and what love can do, that dares love attempt: Therefore thy kinsmen are no top to me.” The phrase “stony limits cannot hold love out, and what love can do” suggests that Romeo would do anything for his love for Juliet and that not many things could stop him. Even after when Juliet says “If they do see thee, they will murder thee.” This foreshadows Romeo’s death later in the play because of his love for Juliet. Romeo stays for Juliet and says “my life were better ended by their hate, than death prorogued, wanting thy love.” This suggests that Romeo would rather have himself killed by Juliet’s kinsmen than have to live without Juliet’s love. Although when love is celebrated when sincere and genuine, as night ends and dawn breaks, the two are forced to part to avoid being discovered by the Capulet kinsmen which exposes the forbidden nature of their relationship.
However, Shakespeare shows that when love is honest and sincere, it can lead to extreme and violent acts in the name of passion. Romeo and Juliet’s love leads them to ultimately die so that they could see each other in the afterlife. Romeo and Juliet were hasty and speedy about their decision to be married. When Juliet says “Thy purpose marriage, and me word tomorrow, by one that I’ll procure to come to thee, where and what time thou wilt perform the rite, and all my fortunes at thy foot i’ll lay, and follow thee my lord throughout the world.” The phrase “all my fortunes at thy foot I’ll lay, and follow thee my lord throughout the world” suggests that Juliet is willing to give Romeo all her fortune and follow Romeo around the world. This is ironic as Juliet, in the end, drank the potion that the Friar gave her and pretended to be dead, lying to her family just for Romeo. Friar Lawrence also warned Romeo about going so fast to change from loving Rosaline to Juliet. When Friar Lawrence states “Holy Saint Francis, what a change is here! Is Rosaline, that thou didst love so dear, So soon forsaken? Young men’s love then lies not truly in their hearts, but in their eyes.” The phrase “young men’s love then lies not truly in their hearts but in their eyes,” suggests that Romeo only looks for the appearance and not for the heart in a girl. Romeo and Juliet then proceed to arrange their marriage in secret. Shakespeare then adds dramatic irony when Juliet says “O God, I have an ill-diving soul! Methinks I see thee now, thou art so low, as one dead in the bottom of a tomb. Either my eye sight fails, or thou look’st pale.” In the phrase “methinks I see thee now, thou art so low, as one dead in the bottom of a tomb” means that Romeo looks like someone died in the bottom of a tomb and later in the play, Romeo kills himself in Juliet’s tomb. When Prince Escalus banished Romeo, the nurse suggests to Juliet that she should now consider Paris as she was certain that Romeo would never go back to Verona. The nurse even says that Romeo is “a dishclout” compared to Paris. Juliet then loses her trust for the nurse and says “So many thousand times? Go, counsellor, thou and bosom henceforth shall be train. I’ll to the Friar to know his remedy; If all else fail, myself have power to die.” The phrase “If all else fail, myself have power to die” tells us that Juliet would instead commit suicide than living without Romeo in her life. Back then, committing suicide was a major sin and was said that by doing so, you would end up in hell. This shows how strong their love is for each other as they had to make a major decision whether to commit that sin or not.
All in all, Shakespeare’s message about love is that whether if love is genuine or not, people still tend to act foolishly. However, Romeo and Juliet as they were sincere and honest towards each other. Not only did they fall for each other at first sight, but they were also extremely intimate with each other in no time. The tragedy that made both of them commit suicide was inevitable. All Juliet did was to disobey her father for the first time, and Capulet had to make things even more difficult for Juliet than it already was. Juliet then had to fake her death as there were no other options left back then. This then leads the ‘star crossed lovers’ to suicide. In modern times, arranged marriage does not happen in most cultures. Most parents would want their child to be happy with who they marry. Therefore audiences now would react differently to the tragedy of the play compared to the audiences then. Audiences now would feel that Capulet did the wrong thing by arranging the marriage for Juliet instead of allowing her to choose her husband while audiences then would not understand why Romeo and Juliet disobeyed their parents. Although what Romeo and Juliet experienced would not apply to people now, this remains to be a tragic play because Shakespeare presents Romeo and Juliet’s love so strongly that it feels like a waste. In modern times, they would not have to die as there would be far better options than committing suicide.