In Act 1 scene 1 Romeo claims he is in love with a girl called Rosaline, which we never see. He doesn’t really behave like someone who is really in love when he talks about Rosaline because he is not sure whether he is really in love or not:
‘Benvolio: In love?
Romeo: Out
Benvolio: Of love?
Romeo: Out of her favour where I am in love’
Then after that, he says that Cupid even with his view muffle should at least see his target. Then suddenly he jumps to where he should have dinner, then straight after he ask about the fight that went on earlier in the day, but then says he’s already heard all about it:
‘Romeo: Alas that love whose view is muffled still should without eyes see pathways to his will. Where shall we dine? Oh me! What fray was here? Yet tell me not I have heard it all.’
If he were really in love, he would not be talking about where he should eat dinner while he is supposedly talking about the girl he loves. He also asks a question that he already knows the answer too then he says he doesn’t want the response because he already knows it. If he were really in love, he would only talk about the one he loves not where he should eat or what happened that day. He also says that love is like smoke it blinds you, then it is like a poison, then a cure so in the first you can clearly see that Romeo is not really in love but he thinks he is because of the way he talks about love, he is not sure what it is. He also claims that he is somewhere else, that he is not himself, so that makes you wonder whether what he is telling is truth or just mere fiction:
‘Romeo: Tut, I have lost myself, I am not here. This is not Romeo, he’s some other where.’
Also, the way he talks about Rosaline, makes you wonder whether or not he is being serious, because he says that she is immune to cupids arrow, and that sweet talk doesn’t seem to have any effect on her, and that she is also completely heedless to loving looks and that she can’t be won with so much gold that it would seduce a Saint. He claims that she has taken a vow against love because she won’t love him. In this itself, it shows that he is a selfish young man because he just wants her, and just because she won’t love him, he thinks that she will never love anyone plus he thinks of her a castle that has to be breached:
‘Romeo: well, in that hit you miss; she’ll not be hit with Cupid’s arrow… She will not stay the siege of loving terms nor bid th’ encounter assailing eyes, nor ope her lap to saint-seducing gold…
Romeo: … She hath forsworn to love, and in that vow do I live dead, that live to tell it now.’
In Act 1 Scene 5 Romeo finally seems to have really fallen in love with Juliet. I say this because when he sees her, he does not talk nonsense, he goes straight to how beautiful she is when he says that she is but a snow white dove among the crows and how she is so bright that the torches seem dim beside her and he also says that his heart hasn’t loved till now which confirms that he never really loved Rosaline, but that he thought he did and that his eyes need not look further for a more beautiful person:
‘Romeo: O, she doth teach the torches to burn bright…so shows a snowy dove trooping with crows…Did my heart love till now? Forswear it, sight for I ne’er saw true beauty till this night.’
You also know he is really in love with her because of the way he talks to her and the way he says how beautiful she is and also the way he compliments her beauty by saying it can be compared to the beauty of a saint, the words used also play a part of convincing you that he is truly in love because he uses words related to religion, he says that she is like a saint. The style of the way he speaks is a poetic loving way, the way you would speak to someone if you really loved him or her and wanted him or her to love you back. Juliet on the other hand basically repeat what Romeo says but in a different way. But as I said before, she uses the same style as him, which proves that she also is really in love with him. ‘Romeo: O then, dear saint…’
Shakespeare uses a lot of metaphors and similies to describe how Romeo feels when he is talking about Rosaline and about Juliet. When Romeo is speaking about Juliet, he uses similies and metaphors that show that she is compared to all the most beautiful and precious things there are on the planet, for example:
‘O doth teach the torches to burn bright. It seems she hangs upon the cheek of night as a rich jewel in an Ethiop’s ear- … So shows a snowy dove trooping with crows…’
In this segment, he compares her to fire and says that she is bright and beautiful that even fire seems dim beside her beauty, and then he says she is like a jewel, which means a very precious and beautiful thing. He also says that she stands out from the darkness for she is so bright and beautiful. He then compares her to a dove a very beautiful bird among the crows, this is again to say that she is the most beautiful girl; she stands out among the others.
When Romeo speaks of Rosaline however, he doesn’t compare her to all the beautiful things and says that she stands; he compares her to a fortress, which he has to overcome
‘She will not stay the siege of loving terms…’
Shakespeare doesn’t use all that many metaphors or similies to show that Romeo is really in love with Rosaline, but instead he uses term that suggest that Romeo just thinks he is in love and he makes the audience know that when he compares Rosaline to a fortress that has to be overcome, it shows that Rosaline doesn’t want anything to do with Romeo, but then when Talking about Juliet, he uses all the metaphors and similies to show that Romeo is really in love with her.
If you look closely at the use of structure and language in each scene, and compare the rhymes and the rhythm of Romeo’s speech, you see that they change when he is talking about Rosaline and when he is talking about Juliet. When he speaks about Juliet for example, he says:
‘A. O, she doth teach the torches to burn bright. A. It seems she hangs upon the cheek of night
B. as a rich jewel in an Ethiop’s ear – B. beauty too rich for use, for earth too dear…’
In this small extract, you see that line 1 rhyme with line 2 while they will not rhyme with line 3 or 4. Those lines rhyme only together, so it’s always the first rhymes with the following while the following doesn’t rhyme with the next to come. The used in this segment the language Romeo uses to describe what Juliet is to him shows us audience that he is really and truly in love with Juliet because when he says:
‘O, she doth teach the torches to burn bright…’
The words used say that he is saying that Juliet is so beautiful, that she is more beautiful than the fire on the torches. The structure of the extract also show that he says all the important things first then goes on with the less important, because first he talks about her beauty, which when spoken about captures the audiences attention because he says that she is more beautiful that the fires on the torches. When he talks about Rosaline thought, the rhymes aren’t there because he is not speaking out of love and neither out of grief, he is just thinking aloud, telling Benvolio his problems the language used also tells the audience that he is not sure of himself, that he thinks he is in love but really he isn’t, because he compares to a fort that he has to conquer:
‘She will not stay the siege of loving terms…’
This means he just wants her, but isn’t really in love with her. If you compare the language used when he is talking about Juliet and when he is talking about Rosaline, you see that there is a very big difference in them because one is the language of love while the other is the language of a sad man, who is not sure whether he is really in love or not.
If I was to stage the two scenes, I would for the first one when Romeo is speaking about Rosaline show him as a man not sure of what he is doing or saying and I would set the scene in a forest, to show the audience that Romeo really wants to be left alone, to think about a love he knows he does not love, but thinks he does. When Benvolio comes to talk to him, and he starts to speak of Rosaline, I would make him speak in a voice that would show that he is uncertain, yet sad because Rosaline does not love him. I would show him walking around thinking and contemplating to himself, as he sits there alone in the forest thinking about a girl he thinks he loves but in reality he doesn’t.
For the second scene, where he meets Juliet, and then really falls in love with her, I would stage it at a party and then when he finally sees her and start talking about her to himself, I want him to be full of awe and surprised that there is such a beauty in the world such as Juliet. When he starts talking, I want his voice to be a dreamy one, to shows that he has really fallen for her that he wishes he could be with her. Once they meet, Romeos voice should become the voice of a lover finally meeting his love, and the same for Juliet as she too is supposed to have fallen for Romeo. When they meet, I would make fireworks to go off, and then when they finally kiss for the first time, I would let a burst of red laser light go off in the shape of a heart, to show that the lovers have finally fallen for each other.
Shakespeare is really good at managing the emotions of the audience because when he wants the audience to feel sorry, he just makes the characters talk in a way that would tell the audience that the character is sad, when he wants them to be happy, for example when Romeo finally meets and kisses Juliet, the actions and words used makes the audience happy. For the conclusion of this essay, I have to stress the point that convincing the audience to believe what you want them to believe is key. If they do not believe that what you are saying is true, then they lose interest and when they loose interest they leave, so if you want your audience to stay, you got to make them believe that what is happening is real, for example:
‘‘Romeo: O, she doth teach the torches to burn bright…so shows a snowy dove trooping with crows…Did my heart love till now? Forswear it, sight for I ne’er saw true beauty till this night.’
This segment tells the audience that Romeo has truly fallen for the beautiful Juliet, but if you do not believe that they are really in love, then the whole essence of the play is lost because the play revolves around the doomed love of these two lovers. That is why it is so important to make the audience believe.