Love is presented through family love and honour. The two houses ‘Montague’ and ‘Capulet’ are enemies in the play and they fight each other all the time to prove who is the better family. At the start of the play in Act 1 Scene 1 it begins with Sampson and Gregory, ‘ I will push Montague’s men from the wall, and thrust their maids to the wall’ Sampson says to Gregory. This suggests that Sampson is saying that he thinks his house (Capulet) is better and will push Montague’s men off the wall and the take the virginities of their maids.
At the start of the play Shakespeare explores unrequited love through Romeo’s lust for Rosaline. ‘She hath forsworn to love’ (Act 1 Scene 1, Line 217), this suggests that Romeo loves Rosaline, but he thinks that she doesn’t love him.
When Romeo and Juliet first meet Shakespeare uses a very high level of imagery to emphasis how Romeo and Juliet fall in love at first sight. The imagery used to show Romeo’s love for Juliet is to a much higher level than that for Romeo’s love for Rosaline. Romeo’s describes Juliet as ‘a snowy dove trooping with crows’ (Act 1 Scene 5, Line 47), meaning that she stands out from the crowd, this is how Romeo sees her. Shakespeare describes their love through Juliet as ‘Too like the Lightning’ (Act 2 Scene 2, Line 119), the word ‘Lightning’ refers to Romeo and Juliet’s love being so fast and out of nowhere, full of brightness and life.
Their love is also very powerful as both Romeo and Juliet are willing to give up their families for love. Romeo shows Juliet that his love for her is so powerful that he is prepared to climb into his enemy’s house, risking his life, just so that he can see her. ‘With love’s light wings I o’erperch these walls, For the stony limits cannot hold love out’ (Act 2 Scene, Line 66), this suggests that Romeo’s love for Juliet is so strong that not even the heights of the wall can hold back his love for her. Romeo is compared to a ‘wantons bird’ (Act 2 Scene 2, Line 177) by Juliet as he keeps coming back to her and always finds it hard to leave her and go away.
Romeo and Juliet’s love can also be described as pure. ‘Juliet is the Sun’ (Act 2 Scene 2, Line 3), Shakespeare uses this metaphor to emphasis how Romeo thinks Juliet is so bright. ‘The brightness of her cheek would shame those stars’ (Act 2 Scene 2, Line 19), He compares Juliet’s cheeks to stars and says that her cheek is much brighter than the stars, so much brighter that her cheek would shame the stars. This suggests that Juliet must be really very bright, as the stars are amazingly bright but Juliet is much brighter.
Romeo and Juliet have also have a lot of physical love………………………
Shakespeare has made use of light and dark imagery to describe and emphasise Romeo’s love for Juliet……………………..