Ayla Deiri
20/10/03
Romeo & Juliet (Essay)
In Shakespeare’s play, Romeo and Juliet, we meet several young noblemen, each with very different and unique characteristics. For example, we could find one benevolent and calm character and at the same time find an opposing turbulent and malicious character. Therefore, by comparing the actions and characteristics of some of these characters, we can learn more about a specific character’s personality. Through their contrast to Romeo, the characters Benvolio, Mercutio, Paris and Tybalt serve to highlight his uniqueness.
First of all, Benvolio, Mercutio and Paris all have attitudes towards love which differ significantly to Romeo’s attitude. Benvolio, in my opinion, doesn’t really believe in love and does not take it as seriously as Romeo does. This is revealed when Romeo tells Benvolio about his unrequited love towards Rosaline and all Benvolio does is urge him to find some other woman to love, “Find a new infection in your eye, and the poison of the old infection will die” and “Be ruled by me, forget to think of her”. However, Romeo is emotional and in love with love since he refuses to forget about Rosaline as shown in the line, “Farewell, thou canst not teach me how to forget”. Moving on to Mercutio, he only thinks of women as sexual objects and makes fun of Romeo for being a lover, “You are a lover, borrow Cupid’s wings, and soar with them above a common bound”. Some examples of Mercutio’s sexual puns which prove he thinks about sex more than love are, “If love be blind love cannot hit the mark”, “Prick love for pricking, and you beat love down” and “To raise a spirit in his mistress’ circle”. In contrast, Romeo doesn’t think of sexual intercourse as much as Mercutio; his words make us detect that he is a true lover, “O she doth teach the torches to burn bright!” and “Did my heart love till now?”. Finally, Paris is a conventional suitor who follows the typical way of marriage during the Elizabethan times (he proposes to the parents before getting to know the girl) whereas Romeo talks to and loves the girl he gets married to. In addition, Paris doesn’t speak of the stars and love as Romeo does since he says lines like, “Happily met, my lady and my wife” and “I am sure, that you love me”.
