‘Nay, gentle Romeo we must have you dance’ Mercutio is trying to lift Romeo out of his melancholy. He shows his love of humour when he says ‘Nay, I’ll conjure too’ He is making a joke about Rosaline having Romeo under a spell. ‘|Why, is this not better now than groaning for love? Now art thou sociable, now thou art Romeo’ Mercutio is pleased that Romeo seems to be more like his old self and he can enjoy bantering with him.
We see parental love, the love a mother or father has for their offspring, but this is really only displayed by the Montague’s, they care very deeply for their son Romeo. Lady Montague is relived that Romeo wasn’t in the fight ‘right glad I am he was not at this fray’. In fact when she hears Romeo has been banished from Verona she is heartbroken and dies ‘alas, my liege, my wife is dead tonight. Grief of my son’s exile hath stopped her breath’
Montague adores his son as well, we see that he is worried about h is son very early on ‘black and portentous must this humour prove, unless good council may the cause remove.’ We also know that he cares enough to try and get Romeo to discuss what is bothering him, he wants to help ‘We would as willingly give cure as know.’ After the fight scene where Tybalt dies he stands up for his son to the prince ‘Not Romeo, Prince, he was Mercutio friend. His fault concludes but what the law should end,’
Lady Capulet and her husband do not display a deep love for their daughter. They have left most of Juliet’s upbringing to the Nurse, they don’t really seem to have a lot of time for her, but still expect her to be an obedient and dutiful daughter. In fact when we are first introduced to Juliet her mother doesn’t even know where she is in the house and tells the nurse to get her. And when she tells Juliet about Paris she has to have the Nurse with her, in fact the nurse knows Juliet age better than her mother ‘I’ll lay fourteen of my teeth’ ‘she’s not fourteen’. She doesn’t support Juliet’s decision not to marry, and hardly stands up for her when her father upbraids her. She tells her ‘talk not to me, for I’ll not speak a word. Do as thou wilt, for I have done with thee.’ after the argument. And although she seems upset at Juliet’s death and declares ‘but one thing to rejoice and solace in, and cruel death hath catched it from my sight.' she later shows her own self involvement when she says ‘O me! This sight of death is as a bell that warns my old age to a sepulchre.’
Old Capulet doesn’t show much in the way of affection to his daughter either, he views her as a commodity and is very angry when she doesn’t want to marry Paris, ‘doth she not give us thanks, doth she not count her blest, unworthy as she is’ he launches into a tirade and even calls her a whore ‘mistress minion you’. He is much more concerned about the family pride than about his daughter’s feelings. He even tells her he will drag her there himself, then he says ‘Graze where you will, you shall not house with me. Look to’t think on’t, I do not use to jest.’ He is telling her in no uncertain terms that if she doesn’t obey him she is going to be thrown out of the household. He is also aware of the dangers of early teenage pregnancies, and even though he proclaims his love for his child to Paris ‘She is the hopeful lady of my earth.’ And points out that she is much to young for marriage he soon changes his mind as he considers it to be a good match, but what he means is that Paris would be a good catch and it would help to further the family’s fortunes Even after Juliet’s refusal to wed Paris he still goes ahead with arranging the wedding.
Lady Capulet wants to gain from the match as well when she is telling Juliet about him she describes him as ‘the valiant Paris’ and says ‘Verona’s summer hath not such a flower.’ Would she have been as eager for the match if Paris wasn’t a count? She tells Juliet ‘so shall you share all that he doth possess, by having him, making your self no less’ The
Nurse views love as a physical earthy thing that should be fun, she likes to regale people with tales of her sex life as she has very much enjoyed it, ‘now by my maidenhead at twelve year old’. She is a fun person and loves to gossip, the language she uses can be much sexualised like Mercutio's ‘A bump as big as a cockerel’s stone'. She has been Juliet’s nurse since the death of her own daughter who was around the same age as Juliet, so she is very close to her. She looks upon Juliet as almost her own, and is definitely closer to her than her own mother is. Nurse likes to let people know how maternal she feels towards Juliet she brings up the fact she breast fed her when she talks to Romeo ‘ I nursed her daughter that you talked withal’ She wants Juliet to be happy as she adores her so much, she tells Juliet ‘go, girl, seek happy nights to happy days’. She helps Juliet with her trysts with Romeo even though she thinks Paris is better perfect, ‘A man young lady! Lady such a man as in all the world-why, he’s a man of wax’. She also tells Juliet that she’s chosen the wrong man ‘Well, you have made a simple choice! You know not how to choose a man. Romeo! No not he.’ But still she wants to help Juliet.
When she discovers Juliet in her slumber, and thinks she is dead, her desolation is genuine ‘O woe! O woeful, woeful day’ ‘never was seen so black a day as this’
Friar Laurence is a good man; he shows a love of nature, people, peace and harmony. When we first meet him he is talking to himself and displays a deep wisdom that shows his love of nature and his dismay at fellow mankind’s faults ‘the earth that’s nature’s mothers is her womb’ in man as well as herbs-grave and rude will; and where the worser is predominant, full soon the canker eats up that plant.’
He displays his affection for Romeo shortly after we meet him ‘’ what early tongue so sweet saluteth me? We also realise that he is very aware of what is transpiring in Romeos life, and he is very attuned to Romeos emotion , he sees straight away that something is wrong with Romeo ‘ Young son, it argues a distempered head, o soon to bid good morrow to they bed.’. He is wondering why Romeo is up so early and realises that he must have something troubling his mind. We realise that the friar has been Romeos confident, when he expresses dismay at the thought that Romeo has spent the night with Rosaline ‘God pardon sin! Wast thou with Rosaline?’. Although perhaps he des not know Romeo as well as he thinks because he shows surprise when it is revealed that Romeos love has passed on to another, ‘ Holy saint Francis! What a change is here! Is Rosaline, that thou didst love so dear, so soon forsaken?. We know that the friar in his friendly, fatherly way has tried to advise Romeo before ‘for doting, not for loving, pupil mine’.
We see his love of peace and harmony shine out with his reaction to the news that Romeo is in love with Juliet and wants to marry her, he tells Romeo ‘’ In one respect I’ll thy assistant be; for this alliance may so happy prove, to turn your households’ rancour to pure love’. He is banking on the marriage reuniting the warring families, and thus bringing peace to the city.
He tries to council Romeo after he tells him about the exile, ‘And turned that black word ‘death’ to banishment. This is dear mercy and thou seest it not’ He tries to discuss the situation with Romeo, but Romeo will not listen to any sense as he has descended into a deep despondency. When Romeo threatens to stab himself The Friar stops him and lectures him, almost as though he was a father to him ‘Thy tears are womanish, thy wild acts denote, the unreasonable fury of a beast.’ And goes on to tell Romeo to pull himself together, and go to his wife for a night, then hide in Mantua until they can make things right for his return. He wants to do the best he can by the young lovers. We know that his attachment to Romeo is strong enough to be common knowledge to those involved with Romeo, because when Balthazar addresses him he says ‘It doth so, holy sir, and there’s my master, one that you love.’
These are but a few of the types of love that Shakespeare wrote about in Romeo and Juliet. The main love the obvious one is of course ‘true love’. This is the love that we are lead to believe Romeo and Juliet felt for each other, but because their love, and the effects it caused, like the ripples in a pond, meant their time ran out before we are able to validate the longevity of it, I felt that I would prefer to explore some of the other more definite allegiances in the play. I feel that the patterns of love that Shakespeare shared with us would have perhaps touched his audiences more then than to day with our modern cynicism. They show that love can be destructive as well as creative and nurturing, and this is a lesson that we should all take to heart. As did the Capulets and Montagues, alas too late, but notice they took. ‘O brother Montague, give me thy hand. This is my daughter’s jointure, for no more can I demand.’ This is when old
Montague offers up the long awaited for peace between the families. But as Shakespeare points out, the fates can, and quite often do, take a hand in the passions of mankind.
