When at the party Romeo seems very depressed and doesn’t feel up to doing anything because he is still in love with Roseline. But then he sees Juliet dancing in the middle of the room. At this point he forgets all about Roseline and is now permanently fixated on Juliet. At the start Juliet is a typical rich girl who has been proposed to the most eligible bachelor around that of Paris; Simply to enhance the name of the Capulet family. Romeo and Juliet catch eyes; play shy for a short time and then kiss. They both then excuse there behaviour ‘if that be a sin may I take my sin back’. It is only as Juliet’s nurse reveals to her that Romeo is a Montague when the awkwardness of the situation starts. As Romeo is walking away from the Capulet house he sees Juliet appear on the balcony and decides his ‘love has no bounds’. By going into the garden Romeo puts himself in danger of being caught, this shows us his love for Juliet or is he just curios? He then talks to Juliet in a very flamboyant fashion, using very long and flattering speech’s, which proves his love and rules out the curiosity. When Juliet proposes to him he panics and doesn’t really react. Because he is so desperate for love he reluctantly accepts. He is addicted to love.
Romeo compares Juliet to many superior objects in an attempt to flatter her. This doesn’t work because Juliet asks him to just tell her that he loves her and to stop comparing her to things. ‘Does thou not love me’.
’And for that offence immediately we do exile him hence’. Romeos banishment is the prime factor in the deaths of Romeo and Juliet. Romeos exile poisons all possibility of happiness for him and Juliet. This causes Juliet great sorrow, greater than if he had been executed as stated by her in act lll scene ll. After his exile Romeos attitude to love seriously changes. Before he wasn’t sure whether he loved Juliet, but now he wants to spend every second with her. You could say that Romeos exile replenishes their relationship.
We first hear of Juliet when Lady Capulet tells her of the proposed marriage to Paris. She is shocked and is given more time to decide. This tells us that she has never really been in love and now has to make the biggest decision of her life. Buy agreeing to the proposal it shows her loyalty to her parents even though she doesn’t want to go through with it. Her attitude changes dramatically when she meats Romeo because she goes from being very nervous to suggesting marriage to him in a very short period of time. During the play we are given the impression that she is in a rush to marry. This may be because she doesn’t want to marry Paris, or that she is completely dedicated to Romeo. At certain points in the play we get the impression that she is using Romeo as a way out of her problems. When Juliet says ‘O Romeo, Romeo! Wherefore art thou Romeo!’ Romeo only realises then that Juliet loves him deeply.
In act l scene l when Romeo opens his heart to Mercutio about Roseline he is mocked. This says that Mercutio doesn’t take love seriously and is afraid of it. Maybe he has been hurt in an earlier relationship and has not yet recovered, or maybe he’s just never been in love.
Through the play Paris is shown as an obstacle between Romeo and Juliet. But as the play goes on we discover that he really does love Juliet. In act4 scene5 when he is killed the last thing that he says is that he wants to be buried in the same tomb as Juliet even though they are not married. This proves that he is marrying for love and not just for the money and title. He is a formal suitor where as Romeo needs love to survive.
The nurse is very excited to hear the news that Juliet will be married to Romeo. She is ecstatic to se he mistress happy. When she goes to take a message to Romeo she is playful and in some ways flirts with Mercutio. I think that this means that she is lonely and is looking for love. She is Jealous that Juliet has found love before her at her age.
Throughout the play different attitudes to love are portrayed. It varies from being scare of love (Mercutio) to having to be in love all of the time.
