In Act 1, Scene 1 (Line 157) we meet one of the main characters, Romeo, for the very first time. The impression we get from him is that he is sad. In the play his brother (Benvolio) approaches him and asks why he is so sad. Romeo tells him what situation he is in and that he is in love but he is not enjoying this experience and is very confused. Benvoilio (without success) tries to discover the name of this lady (Rosalind) that causes great confusion in Romeo’s mind. Romeo tells him that she does not love him back so Benvolio gives him advice on how he should forget about her and find another lady but Romeo believes that this will just remind him how beautiful she is. This concludes the scene.
The language that is used in this scene to describe Romeo’s love for Rosalind is formal and structured. “O she is rich in beauty” and “ She is too fair, too wise; wisely too fair” are two quotes from Act 1, Scene 1 that Romeo uses to describe his love for Rosalind. This proves my statement. He talks about how he can’t get her out of his head and he can’t sleep at night. This is what Benvolio was trying to explain to him that this love is not truly from the heart but from the head (he just thinks he loves her when really he does not). This is one of the many types of love Shakespeare uses in this play.
Examine the variety of forms of love that Shakespeare creates in ‘Romeo and Juliet’
If you take these two relationships into account you can see that Shakespeare has created two different types of love between ‘Romeo and Juliet’ and ‘Romeo and
Rosalind’. Romeo loves Juliet truly with his heart and describes his love to her bigger than God himself whereas with Rosalind his head created the illusion that he loved her when he did not really. After meeting Juliet he knows this himself.
Shakespeare does this because he is trying to show the reader the difference between true love and head love. He has shown that Romeo is easily fooled by the charms of a lady and immediately thinks he is in love with her but when he meets Juliet he feels differently. Shakespeare introduces that Romeo and Juliet meeting is down to fate.
In Act 1, Scene 3 (Line 2) we meet the Nurse for the first time and is shortly approached by Juliet. The Nurse speaks of Juliet with Lady Capulet and Juliet hears her name mentioned so asks who calls. The Nurse states that her mother called her and Juliet asks what for. Lady Capulet tells the Nurse to leave but then recalls her to bear witness to what she has to say. The Nurse recalls event of Juliet’s life when she was two years old. Lady Capulet interrupts asking Juliet how she would feel about getting married and then reveals that she has a suitor, Count Paris. She encourages Juliet to attend the feast so she can meet him; she agrees and starts preparing for the feast. This concludes the scene.
The language in this scene is formal “That in gold clasps locks in the garden story” is an extract from Act 1, Scene 3 that proves this. I would of thought that the Nurse would speak informally because it would be most likely that she was not brought up into a royal or rich family. We know this because females who had been brought up in the upper class section of society would not go to work whereas if they had been brought up in the lower class it would not be unusual for women to go to work. Also women were not allowed to enter professions such as law and medicine but they can work in domestic services such as maids. They couldn’t go to college or school so even if they wanted a career in law or medicine they wouldn’t have the education needed. This all relates to the current law when Shakespeare was alive. I will explain this in greater detail in later paragraphs.
It is in Act 1, Scene 3 that we meet Lady Capulet first and this is the same time we meet the Nurse and Juliet. This proves it is an important scene as many of the main characters are included. This is the first time Juliet meets Lady Capulet in the play. I have already explained what happens in this scene in the paragraph above.
The language in this scene is also the same as the paragraph above. The love between Juliet and Lady Capulet is unique because Juliet loves her because she believes that she should since she was the one that gave birth to her but knows in her heart the Nurse has been more of a mother to her.
Examine the variety of forms of love that Shakespeare creates in ‘Romeo and Juliet’
These two relationships are completely different compared to each other. Juliet is a lot closer to the Nurse than her mother. This is probably because most ladies would not traditionally breast-feed their own children and often employed special nurses to do this for them; they were more commonly called wet nurses. I think Lady Capulet employed the Nurse to breast-feed Juliet and this has formed a motherly bond between the Nurse and Juliet. This is why Juliet and her mother (Lady Capulet) are not as close as Juliet and the Nurse.
Shakespeare has again created two types of love. The love between ‘Juliet and the Nurse’ is a deep bond love that goes back to when Juliet was born. This is not even close to the love Juliet feels towards her mother because it is like a maternal instinct. The Nurse breast-feed Juliet from birth so they are very close. The love between ‘Juliet and Lady Capulet’ is different all together because Juliet feels her mother only wants her to keep up appearances and to show her off.
The laws in Shakespeare’s time are a lot different than today’s current laws and so were the birth and death rates. To battle the high death rates women would have a baby every 2 years from when they were 17 until it was impossible for them to have them which the average age would be thirty five to forty years old. Out of all the babies born 3 out of 6 would die before they were one year old. This was because the sophistication of the medicine at that time was not very good and doctors couldn’t cure many illnesses, even in royalty children would die. Child bearing (birth) was considered as an honour unless the women were not married. This leads to the women’s rights in marriage. If the husband did not have sex with wife after marriage (consummated) she could get a divorce a lot easier. Most women married but some didn’t and were thought of as witches or prostitutes. If the family could afford it they would hire a nurse to care for the baby because normally they didn’t have much to do with them. When women married they didn’t inherit money or the title of the family but the husband would be paid a dowry, money that the father gives to his new son in law and would inherit the title. If the wife died the dowry would be returned to the family or closest relative. In Shakespeare’s play ‘Romeo and Juliet’ men would have played the women characters because in this era it was not acceptable for women to appear on stage.
