Does Shakespeare present a positive view of love in the play Romeo and Juliet?

The well-known play of the two lovers Romeo and Juliet is a fight between love for each other and respect for their families. In the time that the play was written it was common for marriage to be arranged by parents. If an aristocratic family had a daughter they would want her to marry into money so she would be able to lead a good life, as she would not be able to work for a living. If the family had a son they would not want him to marry out of his class or out of the families boundaries. This was one of the reasons why the love between these adolescence was so out of the ordinary and unlikely to work. The way in which Romeo woos Juliet is so quick. Falling in and out of love with Rosiline to Juliet so quickly allows the audience to believe that the love is that of appearance and not true.

The contrast shown between Romeo’s love for Rosiline and his love for Juliet is so extreme to the audience. This makes the tragedy at the end of the play has a larger affect on the audience. Showing how Shakespeare made viewers of the play became a part of the show. At the time the play was written the audience would sit around the stage as it was performed ‘in the round’ on a circular stage. This was common for the time as all the theatres were designed like this.

In most of the scenes, to describe love as being positive is debatable. Through out the play the audience is lead to believe that in many ways the love of Romeo and Juliet is negative. The feud between the families of the Capulet’s and Montague’s has not been resolved for years. Then in the short time of three days due to love of these two enemies become friends. This is not solely due to love but to death. This shows obviously that love can have a negative side.

It is because of the families disagreements that Romeo and Juliet have to conceal their love. The play opens with Romeo being in love for Rosaline who he had courted before and lost. Benvolio tries to convince Romeo that he must forget his feeling for Rosaline. At this point in the play Benvolio is portraying Romeo as a ‘Petrarchan Lover’. The audience may have noticed that the language used in this play was similar to the words of the poet Petrach. Who in his own words described this kind of love as ‘a man who is devoted to one love, who constantly suffers from jealous thoughts, can’t eat or drink’. The audience would notice this and see that the love for Rosaline would be negative.

Shakespeare cleverly throughout the play uses different characters to contrast Romeo and Juliet like the nurse and Mercutio. Mercutio is a volatile and lively character with an vivid imagination. He loves life and makes the most of each day. His love for words and puns is shown to its full, in his speech about Queen Mab. The speech begins, “She gallops night by night through lovers´ brains, and then they dream of love,” As it continues, the speech becomes vulgar and moves from the image of a beautiful fairy to ideas of war and suffering, “Sometime she driveth o´er ...

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The nurse is similar to Mercutio in her attitude. She acts as a substitute of Juliet´s mother, she raised and looked after her and is very close to Juliet. Juliet is in fact a lot closer to the nurse than to her own mother. She is the only character in the play that Juliet confides in about her love for Romeo because her parents would have disapproved of the romance. The nurse has a coarse attitude towards love and sex, but is an affectionate and loving woman who wants Juliet to be happy. The nurse had a husband whom she loved dearly, but he died. She refers to her husband in the play, the story is vulgar and she repeats it several times, finding it very funny. Clearly she and her husband shared a bawdy sense of humour. Juliet can see that there was a positive sign of love between the nurse and her husband unlike the love of her parents that has been chosen for them, because of an arranged marriage. “And yet I warrant it had upon it brow A bump as big as a young cock´rel´s stone, A perilous knock, and it cried bitterly. ’Yea´, quoth my husband, ‘fall´st upon thy face? Thou wilt fall backward when thou comest to age, Wilt thou not, Jule?´ It stinted and said ‘Ay´.”

Although the nurse is often vulgar and crude in her manner, she truly cares for Juliet. The nurse aids Juliet´s love for Romeo but in the end she tries to persuade Juliet to marry Paris. Although in seeing the unhappiness of Juliet’s parents would not wish that upon Juliet by marrying this man. The nurse has a big heart but clearly has no understanding of the depth of Juliet’s love for Romeo.

Mercutio and the nurse have different views on the love between Romeo and Juliet and they express these views to Romeo and Juliet. Until the death of Mercutio he is the only person Romeo can talk to, as his parents would also not approve of the love for the daughter of their archenemy. This is due to the expectations of aristocratic families who did not expect their young men to idolise women out of their league. This causes the love of Romeo and Juliet to have sacrifices so they can be together.

Romeo being a member of the Catholic Church confides in Friar Lawrence for help and guidance in the dilemma of his love for an enemy. The Friar tells Romeo not to rush things with Juliet as he can see that only bad can come of this, but when Romeo asks him to marry them, he agrees. The Friar approves of their love and truly cares about what happens to Romeo and Juliet. At the end of the play we see him trying to persuade Juliet not to kill herself and then when she has he explains to everyone why he married them.

In Act 2 Scene 3 Friar Lawrence and Romeo talk about Romeo’s love for Juliet. The Friar can see that Romeo is rushing into this and can only end bad ‘the stain doth sit’ he compares Romeo’s love to a stain which will not stay but fade over time. The Friar tries to convince Romeo that he is fickle and he criticises the haste of his relationship ‘Of an old tear that is not wash’d off yet’. This scene shows the love to be positive, as it’s the only thing that has been strong enough to break the feud. The scene also shows a negative side as it portrays the fickleness of Romeo’s love and how he can chop and change his feelings with in the space of a few days.

All the main characters can see how the love of Romeo and Juliet is not going to end as happy as one may think. They are all aware of the disapproval of both their parents and Juliet is even married off to Paris, much to her disapproval. In the time the play was written respect for your parents would be so high that they would choose what happened to you and your future. ‘An You be mine’ the parents believed that you belonged to them, making you not a person with feelings and choice but a mere object that could be given away at will no questions asked ‘I’ll give you to my friend’ this was normal for the aristocratic society but would not have happened in the society of the lower classes.

Juliet’s father is adamant as to his daughter’s future and threatens ‘hang, beg, starve, die in the streets’ these are quite serious threats towards his own daughter which shows how strongly he believes that she should follow in the way of society and do as he has told her to. This portrays a negative side of love, as Juliet has to go against her father’s wishes and lie to him about what she believes to be right. Capulet would not have allowed this to happen and would have banished her from his house.

Romeo is in the same situation as Juliet, although his marriage wasn’t arranged on the Thursday to follow, ‘O’ Thursday let it be-o’ Thursday tell her she shall be married to this noble earl’. As these characters are the only children of these notorious Verona families this makes the situation more of dilemma. Capulet cares a lot for his daughter because all his other children have died and therefore she is very special to him. ‘Earth hath swallowed all my hopes but she; She’s the hopeful lady of my earth’. This allows the audience to believe how much she means to him and the way in which he wants her to be happy. His hopes of her having a loving marriage with Paris portrays he wants her to have a positive loving future with a man he approves of.

The parents wanted the best for their children who would hopefully carry on the family name. Their love is shown in many positive ways especially when it comes to choosing ideal partners for marriage. On the other hand the only reason they want this, is due to their pride and honour to the family name. Then to their horror the worst that could possibly happen does, Juliet marries Romeo changing her name to Montague.

Romeo demonstrates two types of love in this play, with Rosaline and Juliet. The contrast between the love is so sincere that the audience can quickly pick up on the idea that there is a change in the attitude Romeo has to Juliet. In the scene, when the lovers meet, it is obviously noticeable that there is an equality shown between the characters. The way in which they have equal amounts of dialect and how they both use the idea of religious images and words to court each other. ‘Saints, prayers, pilgrim, palm’, this emphasis’ the purity and commitment to the relationship, which was not shown toward Rosaline.

Juliet´s love for Romeo is the kind of ‘love´ that people crave. She loves him infinitely and will do anything for him, even die. Her devastation is immense when her love, Romeo, is banished from Verona because of the death of Juliet’s cousin, which was ended by Romeo’s sword accidentally in anger, after Tybalt kills Romeo’s best friend. Juliet tells her family that she is distraught due to the death of her cousin, Tybalt, but her grief is caused by her undying love for Romeo. His banishment causes great distraught to both the characters and illustrates the strength of the love between them.

The way in which the love is portrayed in this part of the play is so positive in their fantasy world but the rest of the world around them is falling apart and they just want the idealism of their life. Both Romeo and Juliet understand deep down what they are doing to their families and to the rest of Verona but don’t want to admit it to themselves. This is the negative side of their love. The lies and suffering that everyone is going through for their adolescent love.

In Romeo’s soliloquy in Scene 3 Act 5 he reflects on how much he is love with Juliet and how he feels guilty for the death of Juliet’s much loved cousin Tybalt. Shakespeare uses common similes in this speech as he compares the colour of ‘crimson in they lips and in thy cheeks’. Romeo is understood by the audience at this time to be absolutely besotted by his love for Juliet. This scene shows love to be positive as it portrays the commitment Romeo has for Juliet but is also negative as it shows how love can lead to death ‘unsubstantial death is amorous’. This explains in Romeo’s own words that the death was caused by love. This scene makes the metaphor of Juliet being ‘married to death’. The idea that that a sea wreck will always end in disaster ‘The dashing rocks thy sea-sick weary bark!’ this shows how the love is negative, ‘a dateless bargain to engrossing death’.

Shakespeare presents love in both a positive and negative way through the play. The fate and the bad luck encountered by the characters cannot be helped and makes the story more exciting whilst also making the tragedy build up to more of a crescendo at the end of the play when the lovers die. The idea that Shakespeare used as making fate into such a big part in the play making the love negative, as did the repercussions of the love on the rest of the families and friends of Romeo and Juliet. The way in which the love ended the on going feud was a positive consequence of the love, which was benefited by the families that had been impaired by the loss of their children.