Romeo wakes up early in the morning going for walks and contemplates on what he is going to do. He describes Rosaline to Benvolio, but he is reluctant to tell him her name.
“Well, in that hit you miss. She’ll not be hit
With Cupid’s arrow: she hath Dian’s wit;
And, in strong proof of chastity well arm’d,
From love’s weak childish bow she lives uncharm’d.
She will not stay siege of loving terms,
Nor bide th’encounter of assailing eyes,
Nor ope her lap to saint-seducing gold.
O she is rich in beauty; only poor
That, when she dies, with beauty dies her store.
We learn that he seems to enjoy the pain the pain he is going through. He is very confusing and uses paradoxical words and phrases.
Juliet’ s relationship with her family is not an ideal relationship. She only speaks with her father, Capulet, once in the whole play and that is when they are having their argument, because of her refusal to marry Paris. Capulet becomes enraged and tells her how he will disown her and have her banished from Verona.
“How now, how now? chop-logic! What is this?
‘Proud’, and ‘I thank you’, and ‘I thank you not’;
And yet ‘not proud’? Mistress minion, you,
Thank me no thankings, nor proud me no prouds,
But fettle your fine joints ’gainst Thursday next,
To go with Paris to Saint Peter’s church,
Or I will drag thee on a hurdle thither.
Out, you green-sickness carrion! Out, you baggage!
You tallow-face!
The relationship between Juliet and her Mother, Lady Capulet, is not idyllic either. It seems as if Juliet is more her servant than her daughter, on several occasions Juliet calls her madam.
“Ay, madam; from the reach of these my hands.
Would none but I might venge my cousin’s death!”
The only relationship that is orthodox is the one between Juliet and Nurse. She lost her daughter, Susan, so she treats Juliet as the daughter she never had. Apart from Romeo, Nurse is the only person who Juliet confides in. She is also the only one who supports and approves of Juliet’s love for Romeo; she helps Romeo to arrange the marriage. After she arranges the marriage with Romeo, she comes back to talk to Juliet. She asks the Nurse to tell her what happened but the Nurse stalls and tells her to be patient. The Nurse says, “Jesu, what haste! Can you not stay awhile? Do you not see that I am out of breath?” This quote shows how their relationship is loving and sometimes fun.
The Nurse is the first to discover Juliet’s supposedly dead body. She does not realise that Juliet is dead and tries to wake her up. When she realises that Juliet is not waking up she calls Lady Capulet and Capulet to see her body. They are both shocked and sad, but this may be because she did not have the chance to marry the Count Paris.
When Juliet and Romeo are both found dead in the tomb, Friar Laurence explains to the Capulet’s and the Montague’s what happened and why they are dead. They realise that all the resentment and hate between Capulet’s and the Montague’s was a waste of time and that they should have loved their children more. They used the deaths as reason to reflect and settle their differences.
There are various amounts of different friendships in the play. The main friendships are the ones between Romeo and Mercutio, Romeo and Benvolio, Romeo and Friar Laurence and Nurse and Juliet. When all the friends are together and getting ready for the Capulet’s Ball, Romeo is still heartbroken but they still try to persuade him to attend the party. Mercutio tries to cheer him up and lighten up his mood:
Romeo:
Give me a torch. I am not for this ambling:
Being but heavy, I will bear the light
Mercutio:
Nay, gentle Romeo, we must have you dance.
Romeo:
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.
Mercutio:
You are a lover; borrow Cupid’s wings,
And soar with them above a common bound.
Romeo:
I am too sore empierced with his shaft
To soar with his light feathers; and so bound
I cannot bound a pitch above dull woe:
Under love’s heavy burden do I sink.
This shows how Romeos friends are looking out for him and want him to cheer up. Romeo’s friends are worried about him when they cannot find him. Benvolio calmly tells Mercutio where Romeo went, “He ran this way, and leap’d this orchard wall. Call good Mercutio.” Mercutio, being his usual self, becomes excited and says;
“Nay I’ll conjure too.
Romeo! Humours! Madman! Passion! Lover !
Speak but one rhyme and I am satisfied;
Cry but ‘Ay me!’ Pronounce but ‘love’ and ‘dove’;
Speak to my gossip Venus one fair word,
One nickname for her purblind son and heir…”
Mercutio is a good friend of Romeo and is willing to die for him. Tybalt finds out about the marriage between Romeo and Juliet. He becomes enraged and wants to have a sword fight with Romeo. He refuses to fight, so Tybalt attacks him. Mercutio fights Tybalt for Romeo but Tybalt kills him. Romeo shows his honour for Mercutio and avenges his death.
“Alive in triumph, and Mercutio slain!
Away to heaven, respective lenity,
And fire-ey’d fury be my conduct now!
Now Tybalt, take the ‘villain’ back again
That late thou gav’st me; for Mercutio’s soul
Is but a little way above our heads,
Staying for thine to keep him company:
Either thou, or I, or both, must go with him.
Romeo’s love for Juliet is slightly similar to his love for Rosaline, they are both love at first sight. The love is different because Juliet also loves him and they get married the next day. Romeo describes Juliet as being the sun.
“It is the east, and Juliet is the sun!
Arise, fair sun, and kill the envious moon….”
Romeo describes Rosaline as fair and wise because she does not love him.
“She is too fair, too wise, wisely too fair,
To merit bliss by making me despair:
She hath forsworn to love, and in that vow
Do I live dead that live to tell it now.”
Romeo is happier when he is in love with Juliet because he knows that she loves him, whereas when Romeo says that he is in love with Rosaline he criticises himself.
At Capulet’s Ball, Romeo and Juliet meet for the very first time but they are both unaware that one is a Capulet and the other is a Montague. There is a sonnet in Act 1 scene 5. The sonnet uses distinct language to create images and show the passion between the two lovers. Romeo describes his lips as pilgrims,
“My Lips, two blushing pilgrim, ready stand
To smooth that rough touch with a tender kiss.”
Romeo describes his lips as pilgrims because he feels that Juliet’s body is holy and because he wants to kiss her.
At the ‘balcony’ scene, Romeo is driven wild by his love for Juliet. There is a vast amount of danger but he still goes to the Capulet’s orchard. Romeo asks Juliet to marry her and she says yes. They arrange a meeting. The ‘balcony’ scene contains a range of mixed emotions. The main emotion is joy. They both know each others identity Juliet speaks to herself and asks why he is a Montague,
“’Tis but thy name that is my enemy;
Thou art thyself, though not a Montague.
What’s Montague? It is nor hand nor foot
Nor arm nor face nor any other part
Belonging to man. O, be some other name;
What’s in a name? That which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet…”
The love between Romeo and Juliet is mainly passionate because it is love at first sight, but to make to make it right Romeo proposes to her to make it holy. The wedding night is passionate and Romeo takes the risk of staying overnight in Juliet’s bedroom.
When they both die in the last scene, it is the most dramatic scene in the whole of the play. Shakespeare uses dramatic irony when the audience know that Juliet is still alive, but Paris and Romeo do not. Romeo thinks that Paris is a thief so he fights Juliet honour of their love. They both love each other so much that they are willing to kill themselves. When Romeo thinks that she is dead he takes the potion that he brought from the Apothecary and dies. When Juliet sees Romeo’s corpse she too kills herself. This seen is full of tension and may cause the audience to feel sad because of the unnecessary suicides of Romeo and Juliet. The audience may also be excited by the action in the fight between Romeo and Paris.
The death of the two lovers brings the two families together. The deaths were too ironies and created a great twist at the in the play. There are various different loves in the play. The love between the Nurse and Juliet, the love between Romeo and Rosaline, the love between Romeo and Mercutio, the love between Lady Capulet and Juliet and finally the love between Romeo and Juliet. This is truly the strongest love of them all.
