The portrayal of Romeo’s love changes entirely when, at the Capulet party, Romeo meets Juliet. When Romeo sees Juliet for the first time he begins to speak of Juliet's beauty. He says ‘She doth teach the torches to burn bright,’ (Line 41 I v.) This shows how Romeo feels about Juliet and how he throws away his love for Rosaline. This shows how false Romeo’s first love was and then this shows how true Romeo’s new love for Juliet is.
Romeo continues, ‘did my heart love till now?’ which also shows how Romeo has forgotten about Rosaline and he now feels that he is experiencing true love. We see Romeo’s view of the idea of love change entirely in this scene as he stops thinking of love in a bad way as he was tormented by Rosaline and begins to compare it to a religion, something which would have been very close to the hearts of Shakespeare’s original audience. Romeo expresses this in many places in the scene, most notable on line 96wwhen he says ‘saints have hands that pilgrims hands do touch.
Act two scene two is when Romeo returns to find Juliet in the Capulet's orchard. The danger of going into the Capulet grounds firstly as a Montague and secondly as Tybalt tried to kill him at the party shows how much danger Romeo is willing to put himself in order to see Juliet again. When they meet and begin to talk, Juliet begins to ask very practical questions such as ‘how cam’st thou hither?’ (Line 62 II ii) This firstly shows Juliet’s caring for Romeo’s safety but this is more traditionally what a man would do fro a woman and then Romeo replies ‘with love’s light wings did I o’erpearch these walls,’ (line 66 II ii) This is a completely different way how Romeo is expressing his love for Juliet as Romeo uses the conventional ways of expressing his love which is the complete opposite of how Juliet expresses her love and he also does not answer her question.
In the next scene (II iii) we are introduced to Father Lawrence. He has great wisdom of love although being a catholic priest he has very little personal experience of love. Through out the play Father Lawrence repeats the phrase ‘love moderately’ which is foreshadowing for why the deaths of Romeo and Juliet occur.
Later in this act the Nurse’s view on love emerges. This first happens when she says ‘Though his face be better than any man; and his leg excels all men’s’ (Line 40-46 II v) This shows how the nurse regards love which is mainly by the physical aspects of loving and she shows that she lacks a deeper and more sensitive understanding of the relations hip between her Juliet and Romeo.
As the play progresses another depiction of love is shown. This is Lord Capulet’s view of love. He sees love as a business deal. He sees Juliet as his daughter and by this he thinks of her as his possession which he can use for his own advantage. This is shown when he says ‘And you’ll be mine, I’ll give you to my friend.’ (Line 192 III v) Here he is trying to force Juliet to marry Paris so that he can enter into the royal line without regarding Juliet’s feelings. When he says ‘you be mine’ he is showing his lack of regard love and how he thinks of Juliet s his property.
Shakespeare’s presentation of the theme of love varies greatly throughout the play and from one character to another. It can be see how the attitudes to love of the characters change especially Romeo and it can also be seen how Shakespeare presents each character views on love differently.
