Cuts beauty off from all posterity.
She is too fair, too wise, wisely too fair,
To merit bliss by making me despair.
She hath forsworn to love, and in that vow
Do I live dead, that live to tell it now.
Act 1 Scene 1 lines 216 – 222
However, he is saying that she is only beautiful on the outside and that her beauty is wasted. Whereas he says that Juliet has ‘true beauty’, which implies that, it is not just about her appearance.
Shakespeare convinces you of Romeo and Juliet’s love more by showing Romeo’s feelings for Rosaline. He does this by showing what Romeo thinks of Rosaline and how he ‘loves’ her and cannot think about anything but her, at the beginning of the play. However, Shakespeare shows Romeo’s love for Juliet because of the way that Romeo does not even care about Rosaline anymore. As soon as he meets Juliet he falls in love with her and forgets about Rosaline completely. People may argue that this shows Romeo as being fickle, however I think that Shakespeare has done this to show just how much Romeo does love Juliet and the impact that she has on him. This is because meeting her makes him forget all previous feelings and emotions.
Shakespeare, through Romeo refers to Romeos and Juliet’s love as being religious,
Romeo: O then dear saint let lips do what hands do!
They pray: grant thou, lest faith turn to despair
Act1 Scene 5 lines 92-109
By Shakespeare referring to a kiss as a pray shows meaning behind it, that it is good and a power that they cannot resist or deny. Also, it is generally just a sweet thing to say from Romeo and people may just take it for face value that Romeo is being nice to Juliet and because he is so attracted to her straight away, he wants to kiss her. Juliet also refers to Romeo as being her only love after the first meeting, which as before does have an impact because it is touching but also shows how she feels and just how much Romeo means to her as soon as they have met,
Juliet: My only love sprung from my only hate…
Act 1 scene 5 lines 127 – 145
As he and his family are her only hate, it shows how much easier it would be for her to just never have anything to do with Romeo but because she really does love him, she knows that she will not be able to do that. Which shows the audience how much Romeo and Juliet are rendered helpless to each other, their feelings and maybe even fate?
Shakespeare also shows the audience Romeo and Juliet’s love for each other by showing them all of the risks that they have to go through to be together. Romeo and Juliet both risk their name and family by falling in love with the enemy. They also both get married without any of their family knowing which would obviously lead to great danger if they were ever caught. Romeo is in Juliet’s bedroom when her mother is around (or on the balcony), which is he was caught would probably lead to him being killed. Juliet also goes through all of the trouble of getting the poison in order to avoid marrying Paris and staying with Romeo. Romeo also risks being rejected and even making a fool out of himself when he comes to Juliet’s balcony. Romeo also goes back to Verona after being exiled with the punishment of his life because he has heard of Juliet’s death.
All of these things that Shakespeare has included contribute to showing the reader/viewer just what Romeo and Juliet are willing to go through for each other and for their love. Therefore, this shows the audience that they must truly believe in their love.
As the quote says:
“Romeo and Juliet meet only five times in the play and if the audience doesn’t believe utterly in their love, then the whole thing is a waste of time”
Romeo and Juliet do only meet a very few amount of times during the course of the play. However, because of all of the other devices that Shakespeare uses throughout the play the audience do not even notice how often that they meet. This is because they are already convinced. You need to really be convinced by their love from when they first meet or, as the quote suggests ‘the whole thing is a waste of time’ because even though Romeo and Juliet kill themselves at the end, which is obviously very convincing, it does not have the same impact on the audience if they only start to understand how they feel for each other then.
There is a great impact on the audience in the way that Shakespeare has made Romeo and Juliet’s love wrong or rebellious. This is so effective because it makes the audience think, “If their love wasn’t real then they wouldn’t go to such lengths and risks for it” therefore, Shakespeare almost makes the audience convince themselves into believing it.
Shakespeare also puts Romeo and Juliet in a situation that means even if Juliet’s (and the Friar’s) plan went as it was supposed to, there is no real way that Romeo and Juliet could have survived together, especially with the lives that they were used to leading. As they were used to big life styles, coming from rich families. However, if they were to live together they would be turned away from their families and also Romeo was exiled. Therefore, they would have to live out of Verona and penniless. This makes you think about their love being real because they have not even though about the future, which shows how madly in love they are and how prepared they are to be together.
Even though it is quite simple, Shakespeare would also have had to make his actors convincing and they would have also had to truly believe and understand how Romeo and Juliet felt at all times, especially towards each other.
In conclusion, I think that Shakespeare portrayed Romeo and Juliet’s feelings for each other very well. He used many different techniques and in such a short space of time, it is hard to believe that people would love each other so much that they would die for them, yet you honestly believe it when watching or reading the play.
