Romeo’s Soliloquy in this part of the scene is in Rhyming couplets. This adds to the romance of the scene as it becomes like a love poem for Juliet. The first six lines are full of compliments about Juliet such as ‘Rich Jewel’ and ‘beauty too rich for use’. Romeo then moves on to say what he would like to do and gives the idea of her being like a goddess who’s touch would make him feel blessed. The last couplet shows his awe at Juliet’s beauty and he makes the powerful statement that he had never seen true beauty until he saw Juliet. The impact of this line is made more powerful by his earlier infatuation with Rosaline. In these lines he questions whether his heart had actually loved until then.
This soliloquy is used in both film versions, which shows that both directors thought this was an important part of the scene.
The next few lines of the scene are between Tybalt and Capulet. Tybalt is clearly angry that Romeo is at the party. He wants to fight Romeo but Capulet stops him. This could be seen as good overcoming bad – love overcoming hate. It is as if fate stops Tybalt from fighting Romeo because if he had then Romeo and Juliet might never have met.
This part of the scene also shows that, regardless of the fact that people who hated either him or his family surrounded Romeo, he still managed to fall in love. This adds to the reasons to believe it could have been true love, as surely Romeo knew the risks being taken in liking Juliet.
After this part of the scene, Romeo and Juliet first meet. In both the Zeffirelli and Luhrman versions the directors chose to have Juliet dancing at some point. When Romeo is watching her in the Luhrman version he has already seen her from behind the fish tank. In the Zeffirelli version he sees her for the first time while she is dancing.
Zeffirelli chose to have everyone dancing as a group. In some ways this emphasizes how beautiful Romeo thinks she is. Her beauty makes her stand out from the crowd and before he even has time to look at anyone else he has fallen for Juliet. The Luhrman version gives the impression that, after only seconds of seeing Juliet, Romeo wants to see more of her and so he watches her dance until he gets a chance to talk to her.
As soon as Romeo starts talking to Juliet he is already complimenting her and idolizing her. He uses the metaphor ‘holy shrine’ to make her seem like a goddess. Romeo describes his lips as pilgrims that wish to visit the shrine and Juliet replies using the same representations. Juliet is not as outright about her feelings as Romeo but obviously likes him too as she does not respond negatively and even places her hand against his in ‘holy palmer’s kiss’. They talk about letting their lips do as their hands do (Romeo asks for a kiss) and when Juliet attempts to decline his offer using wordplay, Romeo then says ‘lest faith turn to despair’. Although it seems this is aimed at his comments about the kiss it could also be a comment about Romeo’s love. He may be worried that she does not like him as much as likes her and so is near to losing his faith love.
After they have kissed Juliet says to Romeo ‘you kiss by th’ book’. This shows her inexperience with men and could lead us to believe that she isn’t in love with Romeo. Romeo may just be a crush but because of her age and lack of experience she really thinks she is in love with him.
After finding out that Juliet is a Capulet Romeo suggests that his life belongs to the enemy because he loves Juliet. This implies that Juliet is now the sole purpose of Romeo’s life even though they only met that night. When Juliet inquires as to who Romeo is she says that if he is married her grave is to be her wedding bed, meaning she will never marry if not to Romeo. The line ‘my grave is like to be my wedding bed’ is quite ironic as she fakes her death to get out of her arranged marriage and then a few days after marrying Romeo she takes her own life. The line Juliet uses just before the end of the scene, ‘my only love sprung from my only hate’, is used in the advertisement of the Baz Luhrman version. This could be because the line is very ironic and may make people interested in watching it to find out what happens.
Why the play is still popular today.
I think the reason the play has remained popular is because love is probably something that people will never fully understand. The passionate, deep love that Romeo and Juliet experience in the play made them act on instinct and even die for each other. People wish they could experience love like the one seen in ‘Romeo and Juliet’ even though it ended in tragedy.
I think it also remains popular because it is not just a typical love story that has a fairy tale ending. It is romantic but at the same time it is realistic (to an extent) in the fact that the course of true love never runs smooth. Many people today are faced with at least one of the problems seen in the play; parents often do not approve of their children being in a relationship and therefore the children keep secrets from them. When adults are to make decisions they can easily make the wrong ones if their decision is influenced. For example the friar’s decision to marry Romeo and Juliet to make them happy. His decision shows that even he believed that the love Romeo and Juliet had was true and so he risked his job and the respect people had for him in order for them to be together.
I do not think that ‘Romeo and Juliet’ will ever lose it’s popularity because people will always be interested in love stories, especially ones which make their love-lives seem a little less complicated.
