People in the sixteenth century usually shared the same attitudes to love and marriage as ones around them, and usually ones who had a great influence upon them.
The nurse, in the play fills this role. She has nursed Juliet since the day she was born and obviously has formed a strong and reliable bond with her. This perhaps gifts the nurse one of the main attitudes in the play. The nurse seems to believe that love is not a great thing. She believes that the only reason women are on earth is to reproduce and therefore believes love is barely existent. ‘I am the drudge and toil in your delight, but you shall bear the burthen soon at night’ – this quote backs up the fact that the nurse has a very negative view on love. By this she is saying, that although Juliet is in high spirits about love now, sooner or later she will see another side to it. The nurse is saying this from experience and is obviously trying to protect Juliet from getting hurt.
It becomes apparent in the play that the nurse’s view of love is very materialistic. She seems to believe that men are only after two things from women, money and children. The nurse views love as physical attraction and not an emotion. We can see this when she states - ‘he who lays his hands on her shall have the chinks’. By this the nurse means that whomever Juliet marries shall have her dowry. She obviously believes that, that is all men want and she is trying to protect Juliet from getting hurt.
Shakespeare clearly shows the contrasting attitudes to love and marriage in the play. And no-ones view contrasts more from the nurses than Romeo’s very close friend Mercutio. He shares similar views of ones today. He feels that love is an emotion that cannot be changed. He obviously sees marriage as something that should not be taken for granted, and that you should be married for love, and not social standing. It is clear that Romeo shares his views with Mercutio when they both speak of Cupid lending them wings. Later, Mercutio compares Romeo to a male deer - ‘Without his roe, like a dried herring’. This shows that Mercutio believes that, Romeo without love in his life, may as well be dead. He believes that Romeo has nothing to live for if love does not exist in his life. Mercutio also states - ‘why is this not better now than groaning for love?’ Mercutio believes that although love can be important in people’s lives, it can also bring out the worst in them and make them unsociable. Another quote from Act one Scene four that shows Mercutio’s view of love is - ‘You burthen love, too great oppression for such a tender thing’. This shows that Mercutio views love as a tender thing and a feeling that cannot be changed or tampered with. The last quote that proves Mercutio’s attitude to love is - ‘love is like a great natural, that runs lolling up and down to hide his bauble in a hole’ – In this case, Mercutio is challenging Romeo’s interpretation that he is in love by saying that love is changeable and in his opinion, true love is hard to find.
Juliet perhaps shares similar views to both, the nurse, and Mercutio. We learn early on in the play that Juliet views love as - ‘an honour which I dream not of’ – This shows that Juliet believes she is too young to get married, but obviously views it as an important part of life as she said it would be ‘an honour’. Juliet’s opinion on marriage seems to change as soon as she meets Romeo. Juliet becomes a lot more careless and worry full, she seems to lean away from her old practical and materialistic self. However, there are a lot of times when Juliet is a lot more practical and clear headed than Romeo. In Act 2 Scene 2, Juliet speaks of how in love she is - ‘my love is deep, the more I have for thee, the more I give to thee’. This, again, shows how in love Juliet is with Romeo, she strays away from her practical self and turns into what one would expect from a love sick person of this day and age. A part in the play to contradict this quote is when Romeo speaks of breaking in to the Capulet's estate in order to see Juliet, he speaks of how his wings would help him fly over the wall, which shows his tendency to exaggerate. But Juliet is much more practical about the idea and is much more worried about the guards catching Romeo. Romeo seems to believe that if he is in love, then nothing can stand in his way, but Juliet sees the potential dangers, and shows her attitudes. A part in the play, which shows Juliet’s true emotions for Romeo, is just after Romeo kills Tybalt. Juliet hears the news, and immediately asks after Romeo instead of Tybalt. This shows her emotions as, Tybalt, her cousin, whom she has known all of her life has just been killed and she asks of someone whom she has only recently met. This shows just how in love Juliet must be, and shows her attitude to love. Another quote that shows that Juliet is practical in the way that she goes about love is ‘I’ll look to like, if looking liking move’ – This quote shows that Juliet will not try to fall in love, as in some ways, love is fate and cannot be controlled as it is a feeling. It also shows that she will wait until love comes to her. By this quote you can also see that Juliet is a typical young women of that era. She is obeying her parent’s wishes not to find somebody for herself but to wait until the right person enters her life. Juliet also shows her attitude to love again with this quote – ‘No more deep will I endart mine eye, than your consent gives strength to make it fly’ – This is showing, again, that Juliet will not try for love, but will wait for someone who truly loves her. This makes Juliet sound innocent, and that she will only do what her parents let her, including getting married. The one quote that I feel sums up just how Juliet feels for Romeo is - ‘My true love is grown to such excess, I cannot sum up half my wealth’. This shows that although Juliet comes from a wealthy family, and has all the wealth she could ever need, all that could never buy the happiness that Romeo gives her and how much she truly loves him.
The portrayal of true love in ‘Romeo and Juliet’ is rather shocking for the time when the play was set. In the sixteenth century, as I have stated, marriage was almost always arranged by the father of the bride and for a daughter to go against his wishes in such a terrific fashion is outrageous in itself. And as cruel as the attitudes to love and marriage then may seem to us now, arranged marriages where the couple would not necessarily love each other were the accepted form of arrangement. Romeo and Juliet brake all these boundaries in order to be together and even go to the extreme of marrying in spite of their families and committing suicide to be together. This shows, perhaps, that Shakespeare felt extremely strongly about the theme of love, which I personally makes the play unique. The attitude to love shown by Romeo and Juliet in the play is that love is all conquering and nothing can stand in its way, which today, may be thought of as ludicrous. But on the other hand, the boundaries and attitudes of love and marriage in the sixteenth century shown in the play grant the reader a true appreciation of the differences in today’s modern society.
The different attitudes to love and marriage in the play, for me, do not really hinder our appreciation of the play, but make it that little bit more exciting and enjoyable to read. I feel that, although love is the main theme in the book, there is so much more to appreciate. From the humour in the nurse’s and Mercutio’s speeches to the dramatic fight scenes, that make us appreciate the play a little bit more. The fact that the attitudes to love and marriage have changed over time does not hinder our appreciation of the play, instead it allows us to see different points of view on the matters. However, the story is meant to be about love, which Shakespeare does through showing the lengths that some people may go to for love, (although at times they may seem, unrealistic to us). He does not only show this through the eccentric Romeo, but through the sonnets that other characters recite during the play. This I feel, on top of every other aspect of the play, rules out the fact that attitudes to love and marriage were different in the sixteenth century, and does not hinder our appreciation of the play, as there is so much more to appreciate.
