As the play begins we are introduced to one love almost straight away as Romeo appears in Act One Scene One, deeply in love with Rosaline but with mixed emotions, as he is devastated she doesn’t love him. Romeo and Benvolio begin to launch into a speech about Romeo’s love for Rosaline and Romeo begins to use oxymorons to describe his feelings for her. Examples of these are “heavy lightness”, “serious vanity”, and “feather of lead “,” bright smoke “,” sick health.”
He is describing Rosaline and uses words that contradict each other and pose the opposite meaning to one another, this is almost saying about him and Rosaline, as he knows he doesn’t have a chance with her and is almost expressing that him and Rosaline are opposites.
Benvolio is a very good cousin and considered more as one of Romeos best friend and he feels hurt when Romeo does. As Romeo says in Act One Scene One,
“This love feel I that feel no love in this.
Dost thou not laugh?”
Benvolio: “no coz, I rather weep.”
“Good heart, at what?”
Benvolio: “at they good heart’s oppression”
Romeo is obsessed with Rosaline and can’t get over the fact that someone of her beauty has sworn not to marry.
“She hath forsworn to love and in that vow do I live dead, that live to tell it now”
Benvolio feels sad for Romeo and he makes these feelings obvious by telling him to examine other beauties in order to help him to forget about his beloved Rosaline. But Romeo is convinced that Rosaline is the most beautiful woman in the world and other girls who resemble her beauty will only remind him of her. Romeo is very fortunate to stumble upon Capulet’s clown who is sending out invitations to the Capulet party where Rosaline will be. Benvolio takes his chance to tell Romeo that they must attend to meet Rosaline. Benvolio quotes in Act One Scene Two
“At this same ancient feast of Capulet’s sups the fair Rosaline, whom thou so loves with all the admired beauties of Verona”
Benvolio again hints to Romeo to forget about Rosaline as he feels he has no chance with her. Mercutio also tells Romeo to dance with other women and enjoy himself. Romeo replies,
“Not I believe me. You have dancing shoes with nimble soles, I have a soul of lead so stakes me to the ground I cannot move”
As Romeo says this he is almost reflecting on him he feels and that his soul feels like lead. Mercutio like Benvolio cares for Romeo’s feelings towards Rosaline but he himself treats love harshly,
“If love be rough with you, be rough with love”
This is showing how Mercutio views love again Shakespeare is using Mecutio as a way people might view love.
It’s his persuasiveness that drives Romeo to go to the Capulet party.
Lord Capulet welcomes the gentlemen to his party and not the women, which again show the way women, were treated as not equal in those days.
‘Welcome, gentlemen, ladies that have their toes, Unplagued with corns will have a bout with you.’
As Romeo enters the party his eyes immediately are in search of Rosaline and blocks everyone else out as his eyes land upon her he launches into a speech on how she looks and how he feels,
“Did my heart love till now? Forswear it, sight for I ne’er saw true beauty till this night”
He is still young and naive and shows signs of immaturity, as he hasn’t told Rosaline about his love for her but still worships her like a goddess this tells us his love is shallow and only is in love with her looks.
As the party draws on we are introduced to the moment when the lovers meet for the first time. Romeo’s feelings for Rosaline seem to diminish straight away as the beauty of Juliet strikes him, Shakespeare describes Juliet as “light” and expresses his view of how beautiful she is through Romeo who says she,
“shows a snowy dove trooping with crows’
He uses animal imagery showing that a dove represents peace as it’s white and a crow is black and vicious. Again this shows how Juliet can be describe as pure and meant to be a magical figure. His language that he has used before in the play is different towards Juliet and it seems he is in love straight away but not the shallow love he felt for Rosaline but love with true affection for Juliet and wants to find out more about her. We also see a new side to Romeo, a happy boyish cheeky side as he moves, fast presenting his love to Juliet by grabbing her hand and also using religious imagery by saying in Act One Scene Five,
“If I profane with my unworthiest hand
This holy shrine, the gentle sin is this:
My lips, two blushing pilgrims, ready stand
To smooth that rough truck with a tender kiss.”
Romeo goes kiss her and she accepts his offer telling Romeo so he is very excited till he finds out by the nurse she is daughter of his family’s enemy,
“O dear account! My life is my foe’s debt”
Juliet is also curious as to who Romeo is, she tells us of her love for him as Romeo leaves the party she sends the nurse to find out who he is,
“Go ask him his name. If he be married, my grave is like to be my wedding bell”
This gives us an indication of how the play is going to end of the play and that Juliet has sworn not to love anyone else other than Romeo till she dies showing irony as we already know that there love will end in there death. They both know it would be very hard to be together as their love for each other is both their hate. But again contrasts and fate come into the play when Tybalt a cousin to Juliet hears her and Romeo speaking and his immediate instinct is to fight the Montague’s at the party this shows hate in the play.
During the meeting of the two lovers in Act One Scene Five lines ninety-one and one hundred and five are written as a sonnet fourteen lines long. During Shakespeare’s time sonnet writing was very popular particularly if it was some way involved with love.
As Romeo uses religious imagery so does Juliet they both use words like “sin”, “devotion”, “faith”, “purged” and “trespass”. The most significant word they use is “pilgrim” as “palmers”. Pilgrims showed their faith by making long journeys to shrines of the holy land, to bring back palm leaves as proof of their visit. So immediately they were telling each other that they would be faithful to one another and its pure love at first sight. Romeo’s passion for Juliet is shown as he sneaks to her window, every chance of getting caught and killed by Capulet swordsmen. He clearly hears his friends mocking his antics but doesn’t care, as he only loves one person whom is Juliet. As Romeo proceeds up the balcony to Juliet she appears and leaves herself very vulnerable as she pours out her feelings for Romeo. She yearns for Romeo and declares her love for him and is prepared to go against her family’s name in order to do so,
“O Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo?
Deny thy father and refuse thy name
Or if thou wilt not, be but sworn my love,
And I’ll no longer be a Capulet”
An Elizabethan audience would be shocked and would feel the suspense as they would wonder what would she do if her father finds out she is saying this. In those days it was considered a crime to go against your family’s will. But to a modern day audience it wouldn’t bother them that much as many people can relate to it again showing how society has changed.
Juliet is very young, only fourteen, but in those days it was common to marry at a young age again showing the difference in opinions between the two generations of audiences. Romeo has swept her off her feet and at the end of the balcony scene in Act Two Scene Two; she mentions the idea of marriage,
“Three words, dear Romeo, and goodnight indeed.
If that thy bent of love be honourable. Thy purpose marriage”
Juliet’s language is very simple and she speaks carefully and is weary of what she says and tries to be true to her love of Romeo. Juliet also uses animal references telling us and describing how she wants to keep him to herself,
“Romeo hist! O for a falconer’s voice
To lure this tassel-gentle back again”
Again we are reminded of their fate as Juliet says,
“Yet I must kill thee with to much cherishing”.
Juliet can’t stand a minute without her new love Romeo. She expresses her feelings for him in a soliloquy in Act Three Scene Two when she gets s very impatient waiting for him showing her immaturity. Juliet gives references that she is deeply in love and wants to lose her virginity,
“O, I have bought the mansion of a love
But not possessed it, and though I am sold
Not yet enjoyed it”.
When Juliet hears about Tybalt’s death through the nurse and Romeo was at fault for it, she is deeply saddened by the loss of her cousin but also fears for the loss of her Romeo, as they might never meet again. As Romeo is banished, his language turns back to very much as it was when he was in love with Rosaline. It turned very extreme and his emotions influence what he is saying, as he is miserable without Juliet, as he has lost his love and his best friend as Mercutio was killed in the fighting. He feels that he would rather be dead than banished as heaven is where Juliet this shows how Juliet represents an angel figure, showing how the families were very religious, as they believed in heaven.
In Act Three Scene Five Romeo and Juliet spend one last night with each other before he is banished. As in the two films of Romeo and Juliet they portray this night differently. The modern version by Baz Luhrman is more of them being excited and overjoyed to see each other. Where the Zefferelli version focuses more on the parting of the two lovers and the strong emotion between them. As they part more bird imagery is used,
“It was the lark, the herald of the morn, No nightingale”
We are again reminded of their fate as they both contemplate seeing each other again,
“Methinks I see thee, now art so low,
As one dead in the bottom of a tomb”
This is dramatic irony because the next time she sees Romeo he is in fact in the bottom of a tomb.
In Act Four Scene One Friar Lawrence and Juliet devise a way to bring the lovers together in a plan so they can live happily together forever. Unfortunately this plan backfires and leaves the two “star crossed lovers” dead. The plan involved Romeo thinking Juliet was dead even though she only took potion to make her go to sleep for a long time. But Romeo was meant to receive a letter from Friar Lawrence but never did. So when he hears of Juliet’s death his immediate thought was to take his to be with her in heaven,
“Well, Juliet, I will lie with thee tonight lets see for means.
O mischief thou art swift to enter in thoughts of desperate men. I do remember an apothecary”.
Romeo is in anger that Juliet has died so he breaks his banishment to go to the church where she lies dead. But when he gets there he finds Paris mourning Juliet’s death and when Paris confronts Romeo, Romeo kills Paris,
“Wilt thou provoke me? Then have at thee, boy”
Romeo then turns to see Juliet, he is very emotional and with watching the two film versions helped us visualize the emotion Romeo faced. Romeo’s last speech in the play is a long soliloquy with his last word,
“Here’s to my love”
Juliet awakes to Romeo lying on her but realizes he is dead Friar Lawrence tries to explain to Juliet how Romeo has died and the letter did not reach him so then she took her life by stabbing herself. As they died almost exactly the same time it was thought if this happened their souls would mix mutually in death. And because of this tragic event the two families feud is put to rest. There are contrasts as Romeo killed Tybalt and Paris by sword but died by a drug and Juliet drugged herself but died by a sword. So from the start we were almost given the ending of what was going to happen.
The Capulet's are a very caring family their love for Juliet is very pure and they adore her, but they don’t know about her love for Romeo so they are becoming very concerned and frustrated in Act Three Scene Five that Juliet will not marry Paris and are beginning to wonder why she won’t. Lord Capulet becomes very angry and arranges her marriage to him and demands that if she doesn’t marry him he would disown her. This would shock an Elizabethan audience, as it was not heard of to stand up to your parents. Lord Capulet threatens if she doesn’t turn up to the wedding he will,
“And you be not, Beg! Starve!
Die in the streets! For by my soul I’ll ne’er acknowledge thee”
If only Lord Capulet and Lady Capulet knew the next time they would see Juliet would be when she is on her deathbed. In a sixteenth century household the mother here being Lady Capulet was meant to do the entire household work e.g. cleaning and looking after the children. In those days it was thought that wives were the property of their husbands and should treat them as a master and obey their demands. Even though Juliet is closer to her mother than her father it is shown that Shakespeare portrays the nurse to be a mother figure for Juliet as she is the one that raised her. It is also ironic that after Tybalt’s death both Lord and Lady Capulet talk about Romeo saying:
“That same villain Romeo”
This would be very hard for Juliet and also adds to the audiences suspense as what would happen to Juliet is they found at she was secretly in love with Romeo.
Another important type of love is the male and friendship bonding between Romeo, Benvolio and Mercutio. They all care for each other like brothers. Benvolio is a more patient and quiet compared to Mercutio’s he is more outgoing and loud. Mercutio mocks Romeo a lot and normally its to do with his love for women showing the difference in opinions of love, he mocks Romeo in Act Two Scene One by saying,
“Nay, I’ll conjure too,
Romeo! Humours! Madman! Passion! Lover!”
He is pretending to summon spirits to try to make Romeo angry with him but in a friendly way so he comes out of hiding from them. Mercuito has no time for love and says,
“If love be rough with you, be rough with love
Prick love for pricking you bed love down”
It is this friendship bonding that makes Romeo go to the Capulet party. Tybalt overhears a conversation and finds out Romeo was at the party he seeks revenge on him and confronts his friends Benvolio and Mercutio in Act Three Scene One asking for Romeo. When Romeo turns up Mercutio stands up for him and entices Tybalt by mocking him,
Tybalt: “good e’en a word with one of you”
Mercuito: “And but one word with on of us? Couple it with something, make it a word a below”
As Tybalts rage rises he says to Mercutio,
“You shall find me apt enough to that, sir and you will give me the occasion”,
So from looking for Romeo Tybalt now is more interested in fighting Mercutio. And Mercutio has seemed to take the hate out of Tybalt for Romeo and put it in himself showing his true friendship in sticking up for his friend. Benvolio senses this is getting out of hand and urges them to settle their difference in a different place than in the middle of a street as it is in the view of everyone and he cares for Mercutio’s life,
“Reason coldly of your grievances or else depart”
They take no notice of this and of the rules laid down by the Prince of Verona. They begin to fight and when Romeo tries to break up the violence by intervening Tybalt strikes Mercutio under the arm of Romeo. Mercutio is wounded severely and dies in Romeo’s arms. Romeo is devastated of the loss of his friend and feels the only way to settle it is to get revenge and chase after Tybalt with the intent of killing him. Romeo storms off in pursuit of Tybalt and as he promised he took Tybalt’s life. This scene is the last time the friends are together as Romeo is banished as he committed an offence. But if it weren’t for Benvolio, Romeo would have been ordered to take the death penalty as Benvolio told the Prince of how Tybalt killed Mercutio. Romeo acted on his instincts and not sensibly and is devastated he will never be allowed to see Juliet again which he feels is a pain worse than death.
The play is also based on hate and the most obvious is the feud between the two households in Verona, Capulet and Montague. This hate between the two families is present right up to the moment they find out about the death of there two loved ones Romeo and Juliet. We are introduced to this hate almost straight away where the two households meet in conflict with a battle in the city. On the Capulet side there is Tybalt who is always looking for trouble or a fight he is the cousin of Juliet. The name Tybalt stand for the king of cats and it’s his fiery attitude that gets him killed. He was enticed by Montague’s being at the Capulet party he wanted to make sure that they never would attend one again. The two lovers Romeo and Juliet don’t want anything to do with hate; this is shown when they decide to go against there own families to be together. People try to stop this feud between the two families but with no real success. The two main people are the Prince and Friar Lawrence they use different ways in which to go about this business. The prince issues threats if anything gets out of line like Romeo’s banishment. But Friar Lawrence tries to use Romeo and Juliet’s love for each other to bring an end to the feud, which it does, but at a price. The death of Romeo and Juliet shows the families how stupid they have been and the feud has caused members of their family to be in distress and this is recognized by Lord Capulet and Lord Montague so they shake hands to stop this feud from ever starting again.
“O brother Montague, give me thy hand this is my daughter’s jointure, for no more can I demand”
The play is also based on fate as well as love and hate. Straight away we are given an indication on what is going to happen in the play when in the prologue it says,
“ A pair of star crossed lovers take their lives”
All the way throughout the play we are giving references to these types of comments by Romeo and Juliet that their life is going to end in death, in Act Three Scene Five,
“Methinks I see thee, now thou art so low, as one dead in the bottom of a tomb”.
And also in Act Two Scene Six,
“Then love-devouring death do what he dare”
This is all dramatic irony as this is going to happen also Romeo makes a quote when he was in Mantua,
“I dreamt my lady came and found me dead”
Friar Lawrence’s being involved with the church admits he has no power over fate and only it can take its course and what ever will be by him saying,
“ A greater power than we can contradict”
Romeo’s last words also were aimed at the stars and fate when he says in Act Five Scene Three
“Shake the yoke of inauspicious stars”
Around the time the play was written they heavily believed in fate so an Elizabethan audience would understand more than people today as they believed it worked. Also they believed in astrological explanations for things and that love was created in the stars and planets and our future was already made up for us. There are instances in the play which could of changed the whole outline of the play for example Romeo not attending the Capulet ball and if Friar Lawrence’s letter reached Romeo also if Juliet had woken a few seconds earlier they could have been together forever it is this idea of fate which creates the suspense throughout Romeo and Juliet.
Overall Romeo and Juliet is still now one of the greatest known plays in the world and when people hear the names “Romeo and Juliet” they immediately think of love.