“The brightness of her cheek would shame those stars”(Act 2 Scene 2)
“O speak again bright angel,…” (Act 2 Scene 2)
“Two of the fairest stars in all of heaven” (Act 2 Scene 2)
It is obvious that Romeo is truly in love with Juliet. He risks is life to see her, twice. Firstly in the balcony scene and secondly on the night after her marriage. Juliet cares about Romeo. She was frightened for the welfare of his life. But she was still disheartened to see him leave.
“‘Tis almost morning; I would have thee gone,
And yet no farther than a wanton’s bird” (Act 2 Scene 2)
It would be true to say that Juliet loves Romeo just as much, for she would also risk her life for him, for she shows signs throughout the play that she was always ready to kill herself, rather than to marry Paris. This is surely a true aspect of her love towards Romeo.
“Give me some present counsel, or behold
’Twixt my extremes and me this bloody knife…”
Romeo and Juliet loved each other the second they set eyes upon each other. Straight away Romeo talked to her in a sonnet, Juliet, showing her love talked back in the same fashion. One of the most serious turning points in the play was when Romeo killed Tybalt. It got Romeo banished, therefore breaking Juliet’s heart. But instead of bringing her true pain into the open, instead she blamed her mourning on the death of her cousin, Tybalt. Throughout the play Juliet becomes much more independent and ‘rebellious’, and all of this just as a result of being in love with the person she loves, Romeo.
The Nurse is Juliet’s mother figure. She has looked after Juliet since the day she was born and since then has grown a very close relationship with Juliet, one even closer than Juliet’s own mother has. The Nurse has a totally different view on love; it seems she has never experienced true love, even though she is married. The Nurse sees’ a very different attitude to love than to Romeo and Juliet. She sees it as a minor importance, but when finds out the deal between Romeo and Juliet she tries her best to be happy for Juliet and to show a great interest. When confronting Juliet on the matter she tends to stray from the subject and talk about one of her ‘amusing’ stories, usually about her husband,
“And yet I warrant it had upon it brow
A bump as big as a young cock’rel’s stone,
A perilous knock, and it cried bitterly”
Nurse is kind towards Juliet, when Juliet asks her to do something, she does it with no problems, but usually she does come back to it later on and feel sorry for herself. It shows that the Nurse is loved by Juliet so much that she was the only person who knew about the wedding, outside of Romeo and Juliet, except Friar Lawrence, this shows a great amount of trust towards The Nurse.
Friar Lawrence is a close friend to Romeo. He helps him out in times of need. The Friar agreed to marry the couple, but only because he thought that the marriage would bring the households together in love, and not hatred,
“In one respect I’ll thy assistant be:
For this may so happy prove
To turn your households’ rancour to pure love”
The Friar tries to knock some sense into Romeo, he tells him not to rush things with Juliet as just a day ago he loved Rosaline. The Friar at first did not believe that this was a true love but a physical love, but he later sees’ the truth and agrees.
“Holy Saint Francis, what a change is here!
Is Rosaline, whom thou didst love so dear,
So soon forsaken? Young men’s love then lies
Not truly in their hearts, but in their eyes”
Friar Lawrence is seen as a lifesaver, he tries to save Juliet’s life twice, but not succeeding the second time. It seems he must have been a clever man to come up with such a plan, which fooled so many people, but it soon backfired, leaving both Juliet and Romeo dead.
Lord Capulet is Juliet’s father. He is well known and respected throughout Verona. Juliet is special to him, due to her being his only child. All of Capulet’s previous children had died at birth. When Capulet confronts Juliet about wanting her to marry Paris he did not take too kindly to her refusing and he got so mad he threatened to chuck her out of the household and take her name away.
“And you be mine, I’ll give you to my friend;
And you be not hang, beg, starve, die in the streets,
For my soul, I’ll ne’er acknowledge thee,
Nor what is mine shall never do thee good.” (Act 3 Scene 5)
Capulet does care for Juliet and want the best for her, but in those times women were seen to be owned by someone, and not to have their own rights. Juliet could have seen this coming, for at the beginning of the play Lady Capulet, Juliet’s mother, tried to persuade her to at least talk to Paris at the ball. Capulet feels that Juliet should take the chance, but deep down he fells that what he’s doing is wrong. This could be because he was not satisfied with his own marriage and he didn’t want Juliet to make the same mistake. This could mean that Capulet does not love his wife and does not know what Juliet was going through.
Samson and Gregory, although may be minor characters in the play, played quite a big role in showing views about love. They were rude, vulgar and only respected themselves. They showed quite clearly that they did not respect the true meaning of love. They only looked at physical love and sex. They saw women as the weaker sex and thought that they had no rights. Sampson shows his hatred for the Monagues and gives evidence that he believes in the points that are mentioned above.
“Women being the weaker vessels are ever thrust to the wall”
“I will push Montague’s men from the wall and thrust his maids to the wall”
Sampson and Gregory is the type of people that kept the thought of the ‘weaker sex’ alive for longer than it should have been. They see women of objects that have no feelings.
There are many different views of love in “Romeo and Juliet”. Each character provides their own thought weather it was good or bad. It is obvious that most the people in the play never even experienced true love. Romeo and Juliet share the same views of love, which is why they made such a successful couple.
