Love is shown in the second half of Act 1, Scene 1. Romeo feels he is in love with Rosaline, but Shakespeare presents Romeo as being a Petrarchan lover, this term came from a poet ‘Petrach’ who wrote sonnets to his lover about his unrequited love to her. Romeo feels the love he is showing towards Rosaline is not being reciprocated and therefore this causes him to dwell on his emotional torment.
Shakespeare chooses language that reflects Romeo’s youthfulness and immaturity, alongside his idealized notions of romance. Romeo describes his mind through a set of oxymorons, putting contradictory words together such as – ‘O brawling love, O loving hate’, this is blending the extremes of the love Romeo presents to Rosaline with the desolation on unrequited love.
An audience would realise that this love Romeo presents, reflects his immaturity and that if he is able to love a woman he barely knows, when he falls in love, the love he has for that woman will be much deeper and more meaningful.
Next, Romeo’s emotions that he presents reflect the state of Verona and the divide caused by the feuding families – the Montagues and the Capulets. In the same was the city is caught in the family fight, so is Romeo with the unrequited love he puts forth for Rosaline. Romeo illustrates his idea of love as a battle, by using many military terms to describe the way he has used the power of speech and vision to try and ‘win over’ Rosaline, but with no success – ‘she will not stay the siege of loving terms, Nor bide th’ encounter of assailing eyes’. This shows Shakespeare is constantly demonstrating the closeness of love and hate, these constant conflicting images increase tension and the audiences anticipation of the plays finale when the DEATH of Romeo and Juliet’s LOVE overcomes the feud.
In Act 1, Scene 5, Romeo and Juliet meet for the first time and is struck by her beauty, ending up breaking into a sonnet. The use of speech Romeo presents to Juliet gives an important insight to their relationship. Shakespeare presents Romeo’s initial feelings towards Juliet in a lusting, flirtatious manner. Immediately Romeo describes Juliet as a star – ‘she doth teaches the torches to burn bright!’ showing how Romeo felt ‘love at first sight’. Also the constant reference to light and dark references continues throughout the play, and many light and dark images are cast around the lovers. The pair are repeatedly associated with darkness, this points to the secret nature of their love because this was the only time they were able to meet in safety. At the same time, the light is referring to the brightness that continues to grow in each other’s eyes to the very end, when Juliet’s beauty even illuminates the darkness of the tomb. The association of both Romeo and Juliet with stars also continually reminds the audience that their love is ‘star cross’d’. Shakespeare has used this language to constantly remind you that the pairs love was always going to happen because it was ‘written in the stars’.
Shakespeare describes Juliet as a ‘like a rich jewel in an Ethiope’s ear’, this states that Romeo believes Juliet stands out from the crowd, like an Ethiope would’ve done in Elizabethan society. Shakespeare’s use of the simile ‘like a rich jewel’, shows how Juliet’s beauty is much higher than any other girl at the party. Therefore, it is only normal that Romeo is attracted to her.
Shakespeare uses this very powerful speech to portray just how much Romeo loves Juliet because in the play, it was very hard to visualise Juliet’s beauty, this was because all actors were boys. This meant Juliet would’ve been played by an adolescent boy ‘dressed up’ as a girl. An audience would find very important because the value of jewellery is high and Romeo is saying how beautiful and important Juliet is, through his use of words. This would make an Elizabethan audience realise that this love Romeo presents to Juliet is of a much deeper sense and this time Romeo loves Juliet for everything and not just her beauty, unlike Rosaline who he loved purely because of her looks.
As mentioned above, Shakespeare presents Romeo’s initial feeling to Juliet as flirtatious and lustful, but as the scene continues Romeo’s love to Juliet changes, to that of more passion and there is a sense of meaning behind his words. Shakespeare shows this through the change in language used -Romeo's use of traditional, hackneyed poetry in the early stages of the play show him as a young, inexperienced lover who is more interested in the concept of being in love, than actually loving another human being. As the play progresses, Romeo's use of language shifts as he begins to speak in blank verse as well as rhyme. Through this development, his expressions sound more genuine rather than like a poem learned by rote. Shakespeare elevates Romeo's language as he elevates Romeo's love for Juliet.
When Romeo and Juliet speak for the first time, Romeo believes he can now distinguish between the artificial love he felt towards Rosaline, and the true genuine love he feels from Juliet. Romeo acknowledges his love for Rosaline was blind ‘Did my heart love till now?…’ and ‘For I ne’er saw true beauty till this night’.
This shows an audience the transition Romeo has taken from his initial love for Rosaline and his real love for Juliet. The audience can share the passion Romeo has for Juliet through the language Shakespeare has used to show the change that Romeo has taken.
As Romeo’s feeling towards Juliet change so does his use of speech. Shakespeare includes a lot of religious imagery and quotes when Romeo talks to Juliet for the first time. An example of this is when Romeo states that he is a pilgrim and she is a shrine – ‘…profane with my unworthiest hand, this Holy shrine…’, this shows how Romeo feels he has been on a long pilgrimage to find a beautiful lady like Juliet, and now all he wants to do is kiss ‘the saint’, this religious imagery would’ve had a large effect on an Elizabethan audience because at this time religion was reaching a peak and many people went to church. This would show an audience how highly Romeo felt about Juliet because Saints were an important part of their religious culture.
Romeo proceeds to woo Juliet with another sonnet which continues to use the religious imagery begun in the first sonnet to emphasize the wonder and spiritual purity of his love. Flirting with his pure approach, Juliet teases Romeo as a lover who ‘kisses according to convention’ rather than from the heart, but the audience recognizes that he has already shed most of his pretenses. Romeo and Juliet are so enrapt completing the sonnet and gazing into each other's sparkling eyes that they forget to ask one another for names; instead, both discover from the Nurse the other's identity. In an instant, Juliet concisely expresses the connection between love and hate and marriage and death: "My only love sprung from my only hate." She also declares immediately that if she cannot marry Romeo, she would rather die: ‘If he be married. My grave is like to be my wedding bed.’ The image of death as a bridegroom for Juliet is repeated throughout the play to maintain an atmosphere of impending tragedy.
Turning the attention to Tony Kytes