Think of Romeo and Juliet and immediately you think of lovers - The play has come to represent all that young love exemplifies - It almost goes without saying then that the major theme of the play is love.

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Think of Romeo and Juliet and immediately you think of lovers. The play has come to represent all that young love exemplifies. It almost goes without saying then that the major  of the play is love.

However, the theme is dealt with in far more depth than might first appear. Let's look at the various types of love Shakespeare explores in the play. This section deals with the love of material possessions and power

The story takes place in mostly affluent settings. The two families are of the upper class, both being Lords. So it is to be expected that there is a fair amount of wealth about. For example, the Capulet ball (and subsequent plans for the marriage) is an indication of wealth and the ability to entertain on a lavish scale. Thus Shakespeare creates an atmosphere of ease and opulence.

The Montague family features less prominently in the story, appearing mostly in the opening act, then reappearing to defend Romeo after the fight and finally again at the end when we also learn of Lady Montague's untimely death. 

On the other hand, the Capulets are very involved in the action, not least because of the immediate marriage of their daughter to Paris. Shakespeare makes it clear that this is not a marriage of love but rather one arranged for economic reasons. Paris is quite a catch for the family. He is a Count, not without status and presumably the wealth that goes with the title. When Juliet refuses to marry Paris it becomes increasingly obvious that what concerns her father is not so much his daughter's happiness as what the family stands to gain. Juliet becomes no more than another possession with which to barter.

At the end of the play Shakespeare makes the point that no amount of wealth and power, no statues erected in pure gold, can replace the lives that are lost. By pursuing wealth and status, the Capulets sacrifice the irreplaceable life of their only daughter.

We could define romantic love as being 'in love with the idea of love'. This suggests being in love with a notion or concept rather than with a person. It dates back to the  days when knights were expected to champion a lady, admiring her from afar rather than desiring physical contact. A more modern  would see romantic love as unfulfilled sexual desire, devoid of any substance or actuality - an abstraction rather than a reality.

This romantic love is what we see when we first meet Romeo. He is madly in love with Rosaline - or with the idea of being in love with her. He admires her from afar. He sighs and keeps to himself, displaying all the symptoms of fanciful love or sublimated physical passion. Wisely, Benvolio suggests seeing Rosaline in the
 of the other beauties of Verona. 

However, once he has met Juliet this idyllic view of love changes. Now he is aware of the depth and passion that goes to make up true love. He is in love with Juliet, the person, rather than with an idea of what love should be. He confronts the reality of true love during the course of the play, maturing and gaining a new independence. By the end he is prepared to sacrifice his life rather than live in the void of being without Juliet.

In the same way Juliet makes an early commitment to Romeo. Have you noticed that it is in fact Juliet who proposes marriage in the balcony scene? Once she has pledged herself to Romeo this is the only way to go, and she is adamant that as Friar Lawrence says, 'Holy Church incorporate two in one' (Act 11,
 vi). Here is the fusion of romantic and true love in a marriage that will withstand all the tribulations of time - even if Shakespeare does choose to telescope the events into only a few days. The act of sex is a natural outcome of their love, a fulfilment of their commitment to one another. In a sense, they become mature adults at this event. You might like to think of the idea here of being forever bound together in love and death, for that is how the play ends.

The other
 struck by romantic love is Paris. He deals with Juliet and the impending marriage with the utmost formality and correctness, observing all the ceremony necessary for an engaged man. Look at his behaviour towards his betrothed in the brief scene in which they meet outside Friar Lawrence's cell, starting with the formal greeting, "Happily met, my lady and my wife" (Act IV, scene 1). The verbal interchange (more like sparring) that follows shows both the precision and ceremony with which Paris woos his lady as well as Juliet's new found independence. 

Later in the play, faced with the untimely death of Juliet, Paris laments in a formal, stylised and far too 'romantic' manner: "Beguiled, divorced, wronged, spited, and slain! / Most detestable Death, by thee beguiled, / By cruel, cruel thee quite overthrown!" (Act 4, scene v). We need only  this with Romeo's outpouring of true and unselfish grief in the scene in which he greets his 'dead' wife: "O my love, my wife, / Death, that hath sucked the honey of thy breath, / Hath no power yet upon thy beauty" (Act 5, scene iii). This is not the formality of grief but the raw emotions of a man driven to suicide by the death of his beloved wife. 

As with so much else in this play of contrasts, romantic love is placed in sharp opposition to the reality of true love - with all its happiness and tribulations. The lovers have a fair share of both, yet in the end it is their intense longing to be together, united in death, that consolidates the point Shakespeare wishes to make about the nature of true love.

Romeo and Juliet is a love story where very little goes right for the lovers. Their time shared is brief, their moments of true happiness even less.

Thematically, however, Shakespeare uses the true love of the two young people to make a point. Their dedication to one another, in spite of insurmountable obstacles, overcomes all the
 and fighting upon which the ancient feud is based. It is the example of unselfish love that finally brings about reconciliation - even if this comes at a terrible price! All the selfishness and grasping for wealth and power is resolved in the simplicity of the love Romeo and Juliet share. In fact, it could be said that the whole purpose of the play is only realised in the very closing lines of the play as we see the two families finally reconciled after so much strife. 

Shakespeare believes in the healing influence of love, its ability as Chaucer noted, to 'conquer all'. Here, as in so many of his other plays, we see something positive emerge from human suffering and personal commitment. The sacrifice of the two young people is not in vain. The price is been heavy - but healing takes place! 

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we consider passion as being a show of strong emotion, usually allied to outbursts of anger and/or sexual love, then Romeo and Juliet is a play in which passion far outstrips the restraints of reason.

The play opens with a burst of anger as the two rival families clash in the streets. Almost immediately we are faced by the irrational behaviour not only of the citizens of Verona but also the Lords Capulet and Montague. This is an event to be repeated later in the play, with disastrous results: the deaths of Mercutio and Tybalt. We see tempers flare as characters ...

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