marriage can take place and he will have a young beautiful wife who would
have his children and continue his family name and status. In the last
scene of the play, he nobly tries to protect Juliet’s tomb to show that he
does have respect for even though the truth of his love for her is
unclear. He also uses romantic language when he visits Juliet’s grave. For example, he says, “ Sweet flower, with flowers thy bridal bed I strew”. Because of what he says in this scene, it could be suggested that there is an indication of real love there and that he is genuinely in grief because of her death.
Another type of love present in Romeo and Juliet is family love. Lord
Capulet is caring, but he is strict. In Act one Scene two, Lord Capulet is
discussing the marriage of Juliet with him. Paris has come to ask for
Juliet’s hand in marriage, however Lord Capulet feels that Juliet is too
young and is not ready for marriage. He wants Juliet to have time to get
to know Paris and to feel that she can love him. It is evident that his own
marriage with Lady Capulet had not been too successful when he says,
“And too soon marred are those so early made.”
He therefore does not want Juliet to have the unhappy marriage he has
had. He obviously wants the best for Juliet, but he also considers the
fact that she is his only child and his investment for the future. Paris is
of high status and if Juliet married him, the Capulets would climb the
social ladder. When Juliet refuses to marry Paris, the other side of Lord
Capulet is visible. He is shown to be merciless when he threatens to throw
Juliet out if she does not marry Paris,
“…hang! beg! starve ! Die in the streets!”
This shows that Lord Capulet’s parental love for Juliet stops at the point
where his status and reputation become involved. Later on in the play, Lord Capulet forwards the date of the marriage after Juliet agrees to marry Paris. He seems to do this because he is pleased that she has agreed and so he wants them both to be together. However, he may have forwarded the date because he wanted Juliet and Paris to marry before either of them changes their minds. Paris has just heard about Tybalt being killed by Romeo so is aware of the ongoing feud and Juliet has agreed after firmly disagreeing. This basically shows that Juliet’s marriage is purely for Lord Capulet’s own interest and shows that parental love does not always exist in the play where it is expected.
Lady Capulet is the mother of Juliet, but she does not have the role of
a mother in her life at all. In Act one Scene three, Lady Capulet attempts
to discuss marriage with Juliet. She does not allow the Nurse to join in
with them at first, but then lets her when Lady Capulet notices the
situation. The Nurse has brought Juliet up so Lady Capulet is
uncomfortable and nervous with being with her own daughter because she
does not know her very well and has had little contact with Juliet. The
little support Juliet had from her mother is lost when she has the row
about marrying Paris with her father. Lady Capulet says,
“Talk not to me, for I’ll not speak a word. Do as thou wilt, for I have done
with thee.”
This also shows that Lady Capulet is not very supportive towards Juliet
and when Juliet really needs here, she is not there to help her as a
mother should.
Juliet’s relationship with the Nurse is deeper than with her mother.
The Nurse was Juliet’s wet-nurse and since then, has been with Juliet as
a guardian who does everything for her. This has built a mother-daughter
like bond between them both. Unlike Lady Capulet, Juliet's mother, the
nurse cares for Juliet, knows exactly when she was born, and has fond
memories of her childhood. The Nurse acted like a messenger, meeting
with Romeo to discuss wedding plans for him and Juliet. The love between
them was necessary for any future love to blossom. However, Juliet loses
the support of her Nurse at the same time where she loses her mother’s,
when the Nurse tries to persuade Juliet to marry Paris,
“I think it best you married with the County.”
The Nurse, being the mother-like figure in Juliet’s life, no longer backs
up Juliet and so her love for her wavers in tense situations.
Lord and Lady Montague are concerned about Romeo’s depression and
want to help him
“…we would as willingly give cure as know.”
This shows family love between Romeo and his parents. Lord Montague
has love for Romeo in the same way Lord Capulet has for Juliet, in the
sense that both fathers want the best for their children. Both families
have taken their family love and loyalty to the family name so far that it
has resulted in a feud. For example, Lord Capulet wants Juliet to marry
Paris not just because he cares for her, but also the Capulet family name
can maintain its high status and continues to be recognised as a prominent
family because of the marriage.
The two families show a genuine expression of love between
themselves, but not till the end of the play, after the deaths of Romeo
and Juliet. However, at this point, Lady Montague has also died, but out
of desperation and grief caused by the exile of Romeo from Verona.
There is also a sexual type of love in the play, but only between
Romeo and Juliet. Their relationship starts at the Capulet’s party with
physical attraction only and this relationship develops into a more mature
relationship with the completion of their passion. This is the more
pleasant side of sexual love where you can see how the love develops from
what each character can see, to a deeper and more significant bond
which they share.
However, sex is also shown in a bawdy and lewd way in the play by the
Nurse and Romeo’s friend, Mercutio. In Act two Scene one, Mercutio
refers to sex in a vulgar way, such as, “medlar”, which was a crude name
for the female private parts, and “spirit”, which referred to semen. The
Nurse also presents sex in a bawdy way when she says such things as,
“ Thou wilt fall backward when thou hast more wit”.
However, they may refer to sex in this way because they have never experienced real love so do not understand it properly.
Love in the sense of marriage also is in the play, but only occurs because
there is romantic and sexual love present. Romeo and Juliet’s relationship
develops from physical attraction into romantic passion because they
start to know each other better know. Their genuine love develops
further to become symbolised by their marriage. Only true love could
result in such a quick marriage. The sincerity of their love is also shown
by their unselfish concern for one another. Juliet is the main evidence
for this. In the balcony scene, Juliet thinks about all the possible
consequences of Romeo being in the Capulet orchard. She told him that
they would kill him if they found him,
“If they do see thee, they will murder thee.”
She would only be concerned for his safety if her love for him was truly
sincere. However, Romeo sometimes still lets his emotions and self-pity
override him when he hears the news of his banishment in Friar
Lawrence’s cell. He is so deep into his own feelings and worries that he
does not consider the feelings and thoughts of Juliet who, at this stage,
has just become his wife. She is also very concerned for him and is also in
emotional pain and suffering due to Romeo’s banishment, but Romeo does
not reflect upon this until the arrival of the Nurse who tells him of
Juliet’s situation.
Romeo is very poetic and uses highly romantic and poetical language
to describe Rosaline, and then, Juliet. However, his feelings have more
depth. In the balcony scene he uses words to do with light to describe
Juliet. For example, he says, “bright angel” to express his love for her.
This is the second time Romeo falls in love in the play, but this time the
love and feelings have more depth because he is responding to a real
person not to Rosaline, who was beyond his reach. This time, his flattering
language can be heard by the one he is in love with and is not something
which he keeps to himself. Because of this, the love between them
developed quicker and was true in the sense that both of them had love
for each other and was not unrequited love as it was when Romeo was in
love with Rosaline.
At the time, marriage was not normally about love between two
people, but was arranged and was based on economic and social issues,
such as maintaining status, which is a reason for the intended marriage
between Paris and Juliet. This marriage represents the typical view of
marriage at the time. Lord and Lady Capulet’s marriage was also arranged
and was because of social reasons. Lady Capulet was much younger than
Lord Capulet and Shakespeare makes out that because of this, they are
not happy. They did not know each other and so there was no love
between them. When Paris is talking to Lord Capulet about his marriage
to Juliet, Lord Capulet tells him that Juliet is still to young and gives
hints about his own marriage to show him that if she were to be married
young, there may not be any love between them. Lord Capulet says,
“And too soon marred are happy mothers made.”
He wants the best for Juliet so does not want her to get married so
young. This sentence seems to be out of experience, which can only mean
that he is talking about his own marriage. His marriage to Lady Capulet
was not a marriage based on love, but on convenience.
Lady Capulet also has views on marriage and especially on the role of
the wife in a marriage. She says,
“This precious book of love, this unbound cover, to beautify him only lacks a cover”.
The start of this quotation, Lady Capulet is referring to Paris as being the “book of love” that is complete, but only needs a cover to achieve everything he needs. He has status and wealth, but only needs a wife who is the “cover”. From this, it is evident that Lady Capulet only sees herself and all other wives as being an ornament or decoration belonging to the husband and like the final piece of the ‘jigsaw’.
Mercutio also presents his view of love and marriage. However, it is
not in a pleasant way, but is cynical about it. He feels that Romeo should
not allow love to dominate him,
“If love be rough with you, be rough with love.”
His mocking views may be possibly due to him never found himself in a relationship of love and since he has never had the experience he can only mock. In the same speech he also says,
“Give me a case to put my visage in: a visor for visor.”
This indicates that he may have been physically unattractive, which may have stopped him to have a relationship and experience love, which caused him to have this view of love.
He also degrades love with his bawdy and vulgar
remarks about sex, as mentioned before. He portrays love as being all
about sex and nothing else. He feels that people marry so they can have
sex and so therefore not because they love someone for whom they are. In his Queen Mab speech he says things like,
“ Through lovers brains and then they dream of love” and “O’er layers’ fingers who straight dream on fees”.
He feels that love is mostly about money and status and not about a relationship between two people. He also says,
“O’er ladies’ lips, who straight on kisses’ dream, which oft the angry Mab with blisters plagues because their breaths with sweetmeats tainted are”.
Here, he degrades romantic love by talking about women having blisters on their lips caused by bad breath.
Shakespeare incorporates many different kinds of love in ‘Romeo and
Juliet’, which all link together and follow one after another. Each type of
love involves emotion and feelings between people and they all combine to
become what the play is all about; true love.