Even though Romeo exclaims that he is deeply in love with Rosaline, he uses poor poetry to show this, which could suggest his love is not as real as he thinks it is. He speaks in rhyming couplets to try and show his “love” to her. “This love that thou hast shown, Doth add more grief to much of mine own”. This tells us that because Romeo has shown so much love, it adds to his grief and pain and he cannot bear it.
In Act 1, Scene 4 Romeo gets a bad feeling before going to the Capulets ball and sees his own death. This shocks and disturbs him a little bit. He talks about “some consequence yet hanging in the stars” which relates back to the prologue with the death of a pair of “star-crossed lovers”. This suggests that Romeo is feeling a bit shocked because he has had a premonition of a chain of events which ultimately lead to his death.
Towards the end of the act, in scene 5, Romeo is at the Capulets party. Whilst there, he meets Juliet for the first time. Suddenly all his sadness, confusion and self doubt are banished. He describes her as a “snowy dove trooping with crows”. Doves are often regarded as special and if they are trooping with crows it shows they must be kind to associate with such a dark and unsightly bird, which could describe Juliet.
This shows that Romeo is very impetuous and always in a hurry. He falls completely out of love with Rosaline and immediately falls in love with Juliet. There is almost some irony that this is his reaction towards Juliet as Romeo denied to Benvolio that he could forget about Rosaline. When he talks to Juliet, he forgets about the love he had for Rosaline and is trying to “sweet talk” Juliet into liking him.
“My lips two blushing pilgrims ready stand,” Romeo describes his lips as being special and even sacred like a pilgrim, when everybody has lips and not just him. “To smooth that rough touch with a gentle kiss,” Romeo is trying to explain that if he seems a bit rough he is a caring person .There is a big contrast here because rough and gentle are the complete opposite to each other, which is what Romeo is describing himself as. Both rough which shows he has an aggressive side and gentle which shows a more romantic and relaxing side. He feels calm when the two are together. This sort of language that he has been using which is calm and peaceful is associated with God and marriage which shows it is real love this time. Unlike with Rosaline when he used rhyming couplets which gave the impression that he wasn’t really as in love with her as he thought.
The audience know that Romeo has just met Juliet so surely he couldn’t fall in love with her from seeing her for the first time. He knows what he wants in life; first Rosaline and now Juliet. This could imply that Romeo is a very demanding person, even if he doesn’t show it on the outside. He has twice fallen for a Capulet – this shows that he could just be making the family feud worse than it already is. His love for Juliet, even though it is hasty, seems genuine.
Soon after the party at the Capulets is over in Act 2 scene 2, Romeo sneaks off to hide from Mercutio and Benvolio. In hiding Romeo is moving away from his friends and the Montague’s to have a new life with Juliet. He puts her first in his life which shows he is very devoted. Whilst hiding he stumbles across Juliet. Once the two are together again they cannot be separated. Romeo is that devoted to see or to speak to Juliet he is afraid of the consequences. He is prepared to die for her or to do anything she wants him to. The lovers believe that they are in fact in “true love” and do not mind the fact that they are both from rival families. Because names are not important to them it’s the reality underneath that matters.
To demonstrate their love the two arrange to marry without their parents consent. This shows both a darker side to Romeo and to Juliet and also convinces us that Romeo is not just sweet talking Juliet. He convinces us by marrying Juliet. “Exchange of thy loves faithful vow of mine,” emphasises the fact that Romeo does want to marry Juliet and he wants to exchange vows. To love each other, never to be faithful, til death us do part.
In act 2 scene 3, when Friar Lawrence and Romeo are talking Romeo explains how he has his doubts because only yesterday he was in love with Rosaline. This shows that his love for Rosaline was not true. “Is Rosaline who thou didst love so dear so soon forsaken?” He asks how can Rosaline be forgotten about so quickly? Romeo is older than Juliet so he should know better not to rush into things. Romeo does not feel ashamed for his actions which might show that he doesn’t have a conscience. This is because he has no apologies for his inconsistent behaviour when he is talking to Friar Lawrence. “Her I love now,” Romeo is referring to Juliet who he loves so much now.
Bearing in mind Friar Lawrence has his doubts, he marries the couple anyway. He believes that this will end the family hatred between the two families so it is the best thing to do. Romeo himself has matured more and considerably kind and considerate towards Juliet. The two speak very caring and politely to each other. Especially Romeo towards Juliet at the wedding. “Let rich music unfold the happiness that both receive”. This suggests that instead of Romeo describing how happy he is he says music could. Music in my opinion is associated with happiness so Romeo is describing that the music could help to describe how happy he is because he is lost for words.
Soon after getting married, Romeo witnesses one of his best friends being murdered. Romeo deliberately avoided confrontation with Tybalt to the despair of Mercutio until he was drawn into the fight. He doesn’t want to be a part of all the fighting and violence. Romeo knows himself that he has not done anything wrong so tries to ignore Tybalt who attempts to tease him into a fight. “Villain am I none”. Mercutio challenges Tybalt and the two fight. In the confusion of Romeo trying to stop the two fighting, Mercutio is stabbed. Romeo does not want to accept that his friend is hurt which suggest that he can’t face up to problems in his life. “The hurt cannot be much,” it might not have hurt much but ultimately it led to Mercutio’s death. This is the reason why Romeo changed because he wanted revenge on Tybalt and would not stop until he got it.
Once Romeo is angry, he gets out of control. He forgets about the ones he loves and how Juliet would be affected by hid actions. He wanted to get revenge on Tybalt for doing what he did. This is extremely selfish of Romeo and again shows how childish he can be: he didn’t think when getting his revenge that Tybalt was Juliet’s cousin and that she would be married to a murderer.
Its not only his acts of violence that are disturbing but Romeo’s language suddenly changes to being very violent. “Fire-eyed fury is my conduct now,” shows that rage and fury is what will guide him through life now. Fires are dangerous to play around with so this could be associated with Romeo. This is the complete opposite to the way he kept describing his passionate love towards Juliet; and how he wanted to be with her forever.
By killing Tybalt, this makes Romeo just the same as the other characters who are always fighting. Even though he didn’t want to be a part with any fighting or the feud, he now is. He even blames his actions on Juliet for making him “effeminate.” This is why at the beginning of the play he was separate to it all and love sick under the sycamore trees. Once involved with violence it is always hard to steer away from it again. Because of his childish revenge to get his own back on Tybalt, Romeo is banished for his actions. Before he is told this even he knows he is “a fortunes fool.”
Yet again, upon hearing the bad news from friar Lawrence Romeo acts childish. He describes how there’s no point in living if he can’t be with Juliet. “Much more than death,” are Romeo’s words on his punishment. “There is no world without Verona walls” emphasises the fact that Verona is extremely important to him and he cannot live with without it. He will be so alone and distraught without Verona because it plays such an important part in his life. He is a well regarded person in the town; even Capulet let him attend his party in Act 1 Scene 5. When they are from rival families. This also pursues the point that Romeo may as well be dead because his life will surely fall apart if it doesn’t.
One death leads to another and before he knows it he has killed another person. This time it is Paris. Paris was supposed to be marrying Juliet and was protecting her from any unwanted visitors such as Romeo after her “death”. This leaves the impression that Romeo doesn’t really know what he is doing, and panics in difficult situations. Because Romeo wanted to get his own way, he killed Paris in order to achieve his aim; to see Juliet for one last time. Again he didn’t want to but is still a murderer. This just makes us pity Romeo because he has done such a bad thing.
The last thing that Romeo does to prove he has dramatically changed is buy a small bottle of poison. It is enough to kill 20 men and Romeo is willing to go ahead with the suicide. This is deceiving it is his choice though and if he feels that if the love of his life has died and there’s no point in living he should confine this in someone. Not just go for the easiest option and kill himself. Even though Romeo did commit suicide, he was thinking about other people when he did. Unlike Juliet who left no message for her parents, Romeo writes a final letter to his father. This shows that even after all the evil and horrible things he has done he still is a caring person underneath.
Romeo’s death is no surprise to him as he predicted it early on in the play. The audience also knew that Romeo would die because it said so in the prologue. It was his own choice to end his life the way he did, which shows that Romeo has changed dramatically during the play. He has a split personality. He is a nice, caring and considerate person when things are going his way, but when things don’t you wouldn’t want to get on the wrong side of him; as he is capable of anything.
