Romeo and Juliet

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Discuss Shakespeare’s presentation of love before the wedding of Romeo and Juliet.

Love is one of the predominant themes of Romeo and Juliet, we have but one word for love but the Greek language has four words, for four different types of love. Eros is erotic love between lovers, which for one night is shared by Romeo and Juliet. Storge is family love, this is very important to the play; the love shown by the members of each family to their names is an excellent example of this type of love. Philia is the word for love between friends, the bond shown by Romeo and Benvolio is an example of this. Finally agape is spiritual love and is demonstrated by the constant references of most of the characters to god. Arguably Shakespeare himself was in love and at 18 was married to Anne Hathaway who was 26 at the time; together they had eight children and were married until 1616 when Shakespeare died.

The first introduction of love in the play is that shown by the servants to their families. “Gregory:
The quarrel is between our masters and us their men.” This is a demonstration of
agape; to such an extent that Gregory actually believes he is owned by his master lord Montague. This also brings up the point that love can make people act illogically, for instance we are not introduced to the reason for the feud between the families, and we are only told that both families are not willing to give in.

After the disagreement that escalated into a fight in Act I Scene 1 Lady Montague shows maternal love for Romeo, “Lady Montague: O, where is Romeo?—saw you him to-day?— Right glad I am he was not at this fray.” An alternate interpretation of this is that she is annoyed and wants to know where he is. In contrast to the fierce blind devotion to house shown by the participants in the fight, this maternal love is more caring and instinctive. The exclamation “O” could be interpreted in several ways; it could be seen as exasperation, woefulness, or just that she has only just realised Romeo isn’t there. However, in my opinion the “O” is an expression of concern for her son.

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Benvolio appears to be concerned about Romeo and is more pro-active in finding out what’s wrong with him. “Benvolio: Madam, an hour before the worshipp'd sun Peer'd forth the golden window of the east, A troubled mind drave me to walk abroad; Where,--underneath the grove of sycamore That westward rooteth from the city's side,-- So early walking did I see your son:”

This suggests that Benvolio is very concerned about Romeo and is even willing to get up early to go and find him. Shakespeare presents this type of love as noble because whereas family love has led ...

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