Another instance where platonic love is obviously abundant is when Friar Lawrence is calming and ‘clearing Romeo’s mind of doubt and confusion’ in a similar way to the Nurse aiding Juliet. (Act 2; Scene 3; Line 55 Friar Lawrence to Romeo) ‘I am the drudge and toil in your delight; but you shall bear the burden soon at night’. What the Friar is saying here is: I am the labour for your happiness; but you will carry the responsibility/ the weight of your lover (The Friar will work and do as much as he can to ensure the relationship is fruitful between Juliet and Romeo, but eventually; or at night; it is only Romeo who will bear the responsibility and weight of his lover, there will be times when the Friar can do nothing).
Platonic love plays a very important role in Romeo and Juliet, without this friendship embedded within the text the play would be a constant fluxuation between love and hate. The friendship holds the individual families together and without it they would surely fall apart. The friendship is the reason the characters look out for each other. As in any society friendship is vital for it to operate in a civilized manner.
Lust or sexual love plays a huge part in Romeo and Juliet. Shakespeare wrote this play in a manner that was no different from many of his other tragedies; but it was the way that he communicated love throughout the text that made it so different and popular. Shakespeare conveyed the message of love using very rhythmic and poetic language. This feature of poetic and rhythmic conveyance of love is particularly found with reference to lust or sexual love. This ‘genre’ of love is found regularly. An example of this is; (Act 3; Scene 2; Juliet; line 5) ‘Spread thy close curtain; love performing night; that runaways eyes may wink; and Romeo leap to these arms; untalk’d of and unseen: Lovers can see to do their amorous rites By their own beauties; or if love be blind; it best agrees with night.’ This quotation; taken from Juliet’s soliloquy; a section famous for relevance to lust/ sexual love; is a fine example as it is taken at a time when Juliet has long awaited ‘her Romeo’. In this quotation Juliet is imagining what is to come that night. In her soliloquy Juliet is constantly proclaiming her lust and wants for Romeo’s sexual love that night. She gives specific reference to this; for example ‘close the curtain (of a four poster bed) ensuring privacy for lovers to have there amorous (sexual, Indicative of love or sexual desire) rights (sex).
Another example of reference to lust or sexual love is ‘If I profane thee with my unworthiest hand This holy shrine; the gentle sin this is; my lips like; two blushing pilgrims, ready stand To smooth that rough touch with a tender kiss’ (Act 1; Scene 5; Juliet; Line 92) In this quotation Romeo is giving Juliet an insight into his feelings for her, Juliet responds to this in a playful way; indicating that she also has feelings for Romeo. The couple are then engaged in a series of playful remarks and Romeo kisses Juliet’s hand. This sequence including the kiss between them; Romeo and Juliet are demonstrating there sexual lust and infatuation for each other in a suggestive and playful way, at the time of original performance (around 1600) this playfulness and suggestiveness would have been interpreted with more effect by a Shakespearian audience; although the language Shakespeare uses is marginally stylized and rather hyperbolic
At the beginning of Romeo and Juliet the love which Romeo bestows upon Rosaline is a perfect example of courtly love. (Courtly love: An idealized and often illicit form of love celebrated in the literature of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance in which a knight or courtier devotes himself to a noblewoman who is usually married and feigns indifference to preserve her reputation). The love Romeo shows towards Rosaline is similar to; if not a perfect example; Romeo appears to be more in love with the idea of being in love than love itself. A quotation expressing Romeo’s courtly love is “Bid a sick man in sadness make his will – a word ill urg’d to one that is so ill: in sadness, cousin, I do love a woman”. (Act 1; Scene 1; Romeo; Line 196) In this quotation Romeo is expressing the state of mental illness in which he resides as a result of his obsessive and courtly love for Rosaline. Shakespeare conveys this very well in that it comes across to the audience as a very extreme form of courtly love and yet the subtle and complex style of Shakespeare’s writing is not differed to achieve this. This quotation is taken from a conversation between Romeo and Benvolio, in which Benvolio is trying to find out why Romeo is so upset, and then persuade him to attend the Capulet’s masquerade.
An example of hyperbolic love (Exaggerated love used for emphasis) is “Why then, O brawling love (quarrelling love), O loving hate, O anything of nothing first create! O heavy lightness, Serious vanity, misshapen chaos of well seeing forms, feather of lead, bright smoke, cold fire, sick health, still waking sleep, that is not what it is! This love I feel, that feel no love in this. Dost thou not love?” (Act 1; Scene 1; Romeo; Line 170) this entire quotation is exaggerated; it features many examples of oxymoron’s ‘feather of lead’, ‘heavy lightness’ and ‘cold fire’. This quotation is used to emphasise Romeo’s courtly love for Rosaline and is done hyperbolically by exaggerating everything Romeo says, this gives the audience a strong impression of his feelings for Rosaline and this gives further meaning to the relationship between him and Juliet as Romeo is so quick to forget this huge love for Rosaline and adopt his immense feelings for Juliet; In that Romeo suddenly forgets Rosaline for whom his feelings are clearly very strong with one glimpse of his Juliet. After Romeo and Juliet have met at the Capulet’s party, Romeo seems to completely disregard Rosaline and all his thoughts are with Juliet.
Maternal or Paternal love (motherly or fatherly love) plays a huge role in Romeo and Juliet. I think this was intended by Shakespeare as it is the relationships between parents and children; or in this case; parental figures and the children in their care, that hold both families together through the entire play. A quote showing maternal love of Juliet from the nurse is “Peace, I have done. God mark thee to his grace. Thou wast the prettiest babe that e’er I nurs’d. And I might live to see thee married once, I have my wish.” In this quotation, the nurse, who is definitely the maternal figure to Juliet is exclaiming how pleased she would be if she was to see Juliet marry; this demonstrates the nurses care; not only as her job and her loyalty but her genuine interest and maternal love for Juliet. Obviously in a modern view it appears strange that it is the nurse expressing these close feelings to Juliet; instead of her mother. Throughout the play the nurse appears as a maternal figure to Juliet; this is due to the apparent lack of bonding except in a formal; explicitly non maternal state between Juliet and her mother.
Another quotation giving an example of maternal love is “well, well, thou hast a careful father, child, one who to put thy from thy heaviness, hath sorted out a day of joy. That I expects not, nor I looked not for.” (Act 3; Scene 5; Lady Capulet; Line 107) This quotation shows Juliet’s father (Capulet’s) care for Juliet as his daughter. He has arranged a wedding for her and Paris. Although this planned wedding may be viewed as unkind or negative; an opinion shared by Juliet and the audience, it is still a kind act. The rule at the time was that the parents of a girl would, when she was around 13, arrange a marriage to a suitable son, preferably to a rich family, both in finance and social standing; the idea being that he could provide her with a good life and healthy children. Paris appears to be a very suitable husband and this appropriate choice and planned wedding can be understood as paternal love; although his later actions towards Romeo are not very sympathetic.
By far the most important love featuring in Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet is true love. This is the love between Romeo and Juliet, they are after all; said to be ‘star crossed lovers’. A quote demonstrating this would be; “But my true love is grown to such excess I cannot sum up sum of half my wealth” (Act 2; Scene 6; Juliet; Line 33) Here, Juliet is exclaiming that she has become so engaged with her love for Romeo that for her to even imagine ‘half’ of her love for him has become an impossibility, her love for Romeo has become so strong and powerful that it would be unimaginable; here Shakespeare is hinting that perhaps it would also be impossible for both Romeo and Juliet to imagine a world without each other; this has certain meanings later in the play; with regard to how they are perhaps still deeply in love after they die; this is of course a view that would have been universally accepted. This is a typical Shakespearian method of achieving hyperbole in an orthodox way. The storyline in Romeo and Juliet revolves around there true love; everything in the text is somehow linked to Romeo and Juliet’s true love for each other.
In conclusion I can say that of course Romeo and Juliet is a story which revolves around emotions; ranging from extreme violent hate (between the Montague’s and the Capulet’s) to true love found between Romeo and Juliet; both members of a different household. This suggests and obvious moral; true love will perceiver even through the most difficult and troublesome times; Romeo and Juliet’s struggle through the play to obtain and maintain their true love is an obvious example of this. Their love has had its beginning in the play and has struggled through its difficulties; the main difficulty is the feud between the Montague’s and the Capulet’s; this has obviously made their love more difficult but it has persevered through and survived until their death. I think their marriage is an important symbol of this, their love is never ending after this point; after they both die together they are still together and in love in their afterlife.
In my opinion Romeo and Juliet is an emotional guide, the emotions shown between two characters and their ‘genre’ of love is obvious; the audience are required to simply interpret the morals and their meanings. The love throughout Romeo and Juliet can be seen as evolving; in analyzing the relationship which opens the play, namely, Romeo and Rosaline, with the one which quickly replaces it, Romeo and Juliet, we see a progression in the characters from innocence to maturity, from love-sickness to the authentic experience of love.
