Courtly love is a literary convention and Romeo is the stereotypical young lover who pines for the love of a woman who is unobtainable, although Romeo goes too far in his quest as a courtly lover thus making his love seem pretentious. Romeo displays what was expected of a courtly lover, “where underneath the grove of sycamore”.
During the Elizabethan period there were codes and rules to follow when trying to court a lady and to have sex before marriage was seen to be a sin.
Romeo shuts himself away banished from society, preferring night to day, “Shuts up windows, locks fair daylight out”. Romeo is very melodramatic and one of his lines could also sum up the whole play, “Here’s much to do with hate, but more with love”.
However, he makes contrasts between night and day, displaying signs of his confusion concerning his love for both Rosaline and Juliet. The impression made is that Romeo is in love with the idea of being in love rather than actually being in love with someone. The overuse of these oxymorons in his speech makes the effect become even more artificial, also demonstrating signs of his confusion, “cold fire, sick health, still-waking sleep, that is not what it is!”
Romeo wants to be a courtly lover so he uses the language he expects lovers to use. However he uses too much so that it begins to seem forced. It is a clever use of language but too extreme. Romeo’s second speech is a very intellectual use of wording, “Being vexed a sea nourished with loving tears”. This speech shows us two sides of love, happiness and rejection. A courtly lover like Romeo sees both these sides of love although Romeo rarely sees the happy side. Rosaline appears to have distanced herself and seems to want nothing more to do with Romeo. In contrast, Romeo thinks that he is so in love that he has lost his identity, “This is not Romeo, he’s some other where”.
Here Romeo yet again is being over dramatic and sounds rather pathetic as his constant wooing of Rosaline will not change her mind. Furthermore it shows that he has no consideration for her feelings so Romeo’s views on courtly love are self-centred.
The language of courtly lovers can sometimes be cryptic. This was one of the devices Shakespeare may have used to engage the audiences’ attention as many people went to the theatre to “hear” plays rather than see them. The rich and wealthy in the audience would be very much interested in the context of the language and how it is being used.
It is a traditional idea that love enters through the eye and Benvolio is the first to mention this by using many proverbs. He also feels that the cure to solve Romeo’s love is to love another, “one fire burns out another’s burning”, so from this it followed that Romeo saw Juliet at a masked ball, and was instantly drawn to her eyes.
When Romeo begins to speak of his love for Juliet the speech that he uses is very similar to the earlier portrayal of his love for Rosaline. Once again he uses courtly love language and images as he describes Juliet as being so radiant that she outshines the torches, “o she doth teach the torches to burn bright”. Moreover his speech quickly becomes simpler and the lines are shorter portraying that he is learning to speak of his true feelings for her, “It is my lady. O it is my love!”
The love between Romeo and Juliet is extremely superficial, as they have only fallen in love with each other’s looks. This is why many parents arranged for their children to be married during this period in time as most were too young and vulnerable to make a serious decision about whom they wanted to marry. Another reason why many women during the renaissance period were married off so early was because they would have been of sexual maturity by the age of 15 yrs, and so increases the chances of having a child with her new husband.
Juliet is very young and innocent and it shows that this new love is overwhelming for her. It shows that they have truly fallen for each other as their speech is entwined in a love sonnet so they are in tune with each other, “then my lips the sin that they have took”.
Parental love also runs through the play especially in Act one as Juliet’s father shows a more protective love for his daughter. Capulet shows that he has Juliet’s best interests at hear whilst considering marrying her off with Paris by unequivocally stating to Paris that he will only agree to the marriage if Juliet consents, “And she agreed within her scope of choice”. This parental sensitivity on the part of Capulet shows that he truly cares about Juliet, as she is all he has left making her truly precious to him.
Nevertheless later on in the play he bullies and threatens, cursing his daughter when she refuses to marry Paris, “Hang thee young baggage!” In this way it demonstrates Capulet’s weakness. He takes more pride in his reputation, wealth and status rather than the welfare of his own daughter which is a major contradiction.
Lady Capulet shows a love for her daughter but it is very distant, as she has not played a bog role in the upbringing of her own daughter. At this moment in time, there was a social tradition in the higher classes to have a wet nurse. It would not have been fashionable for older ladies to feed their own infants. It would have been likely for the nurse to develop a maternal bond with the child over the years.
The Nurse shows maternal love towards Juliet and treats her as her own. She enjoys reminiscing about when Juliet was little, “ And since that time it is aleven years”. The Nurse’s love for Juliet is also displayed when she is used as a messenger for both Romeo and Juliet. Her status is that of a lower class which shown by the use of her crass humour when giving advice to Juliet of sexual nature, “More haste, less speed”.
Marriage is a topic that can be seen in many different lights and the different characters have varying opinions. For example Mercutio thinks that Romeo is blinded by beauty and not love, “If love be rough with you, you be rough with love”.
The traditional marriage customs are illustrated in Act four with Paris arriving to claim his bride with musicians, intending that they should wake Juliet and accompany them throughout the day. This custom is typical of a grand, sixteenth century, English wedding. “The county will be here with music straight”
The theme of marriage to death is very prominent in the latter part of Romeo and Juliet. Juliet highlights this link of marriage to death when she is desperate for the delay of her marriage to Paris, “if you do not, make the bridal bed”. She threatens that she would rather die than marry Paris. Shakespeare thus creating dramatic irony uses another foreshadowing device.
On hearing of the death of his daughter, Capulet personifies death itself by linking it to a marriage with Juliet. “ Death is my heir; my daughter he hath wedded.”
Lady Capulet thinks of marriage as a way of sharing wealth and nobility and does not associate love and marriage together, “That book in many’s eyes doth share the glory”
This is a rather superficial view and may have possibly come from her personal experience.
All the views on love so far have not mentioned physical love. However the Nurse and Mercutio especially use this as a subject to make sexual puns. The Nurse is more positive whereas Mercutio is more cynical about love. The Nurse uses colourful language when describing events between Romeo and Juliet, “Thou wilt fall backward when thou com’st to age.” She sees marriage as fun and fulfilling, “Go, girl, seek happy nights to happy days”
In comparison Mercutio mocks those who are in love, usually Romeo. During much of this mocking he uses vivid imagery and sexual innuendoes, “If love be blind, love cannot hit the mark.” Mercutio’s own attitude to women is a stark contrast; there is no emotion only sexual desire. Most Elizabethans would relate to this statement because to them sexual desire was not antithetical to romance; it was the essence of romance. However Romeo sums up Mercutio when saying that he has never been in love yet mocks it. “He jests at scars that never felt a wound”
The love between Romeo and Mercutio was very special. Mercutio, although he loves to dual, was also defending Romeo’s good name in the dual against Tybalt. Therefore when Mercutio is slain Romeo returns that regard for his true friend, for a moment forgetting his bride, and attacks Tybalt in vengeance for the death of his close friend. “ Alive in triumph! And Mercutio slain!”
With the language and characters Shakespeare uses, he manages to get a variation of views spanning extremities and so making the reader ultimately feel sympathetic for the two lovers. Using these very different characters the play is powered by using love to conquer hate. There are many different perceptions of love and marriage amongst people of the Renaissance period as they influenced Shakespeare to write the play to what was common at the time. This is shown as the play explores the widest range of human experience to make it come to life.
By Arun Joshi