The aspects and perceptions of 'love' in Romeo and Juliet.

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The aspects and perceptions of 'love' in Romeo and Juliet

The play 'Romeo and Juliet´ presents true love in the form of

'star-crossed lovers´ and just as their love is depicted as eternal,

the play itself has endured for years. There have been many

adaptations of the play in the forms of books, films, ballets and

plays. Several books have been loosely based on the story, involving

young lovers of different religion or different race who are not

permitted to be together. These are always very popular because people

want to find true love. The words 'Romeo and Juliet´ conjure up images

associated with true love; but the play explores many views of 'love´.

Each character in the play has a different personality and view on

life, therefore they perceive 'love´ in their own distinct way, adding

a clear contrast to Romeo and Juliet´s first love, which is true and

pure.

The play 'Romeo and Juliet´ is the story of true love and devotion and

it is therefore unexpected that the first reference to relationships

in the play is all about sex. The first two characters that the

audience is introduced to are Sampson and Gregory. They are vulgar and

crude, making many sexual references and innuendoes. They do not see

love as involving emotions or desires, but as a purely physical thing,

sexual not emotional. Sampson refers to women as "weaker vessels" and

tells of how he will rape the maids of the Montague household;

"Women being the weaker vessels are ever thrust to the wall",

"I will push Montague's men from the wall, and thrust his maids to the

wall".

Both Sampson and Gregory have petty and narrow perceptions of 'love´.

Neither of them appears to have ever experienced true love. They talk

in a crude and coarse manner, brag about their own 'attributes´ and

see women as objects not people. They are typical of 'yobs´ in society

today, the type of people who fight because they think they should

because society expects them to or because of feuding that spans

generations.

Other contrasts to Romeo and Juliet in the play are the nurse and

Mercutio. Mercutio is volatile and lively with an amazing imagination.

He loves life and makes the most of each day. His love for words and

puns is shown to its full in his speech about Queen Mab. The speech

starts off being very idealistic and fantastical

"She gallops night by night

Through lovers´ brains, and then they dream of love,"

As it continues, the speech becomes vulgar and moves from the image of
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a beautiful fairy to ideas of war and suffering,

"Sometime she driveth o´er a soldiers neck,

And then dreams he of cutting foreign throats."

Mercutio is the kind of person who gets restless very easily. He

thinks that Romeo is wasting his time with Rosaline, and mocks him. In

general Mercutio has a clouded view of 'love´. Like Sampson and

Gregory he considers 'love´ only in sexual terms rather than emotions,

shown in his crude language,

The nurse is similar to Mercutio in her use of vulgar language. The

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