‘Show me a mistress that is passing fair; / What doth her beauty serve but as a note / Where I may read who passed that passing fair?’
It is possible to tell, that at this time he has no intention of loving anyone else other than Rosaline.
When Romeo hears of her vow to remain chaste, the only thing Romeo is thinks about how much of a waste this will be for her, ‘She hath, and in that sparing makes huge waste,’ this means that she is wasting her life by saving herself from not being a virgin. The point where Romeo really makes his point is when he says, ‘That when she dies, with beauty dies her store,’ which means that when she dies, her beauty, which is unique will go with her because she cannot pass it down to next generations. ‘She hath forsworn to love, and in that vow // Do I live dead that live to tell it now,’ this illustrates to the audience, that Rosaline has sworn never to love and so Romeo says that, that decision makes him feel dead.
When Romeo meets Juliet for the first time at the Capulet mansion, during the big party, he only realizes that she is a Capulet near to the end before she leaves. The way they speak shows a spiritual pilgrimage that was meant to happen, ‘Good pilgrim, you do wrong your hand too much,’ and, ‘Ay, pilgrim, lips that they must use in prayer.’ The use of religious and words sanctifies their new relationship. But they do not only use holy words, Shakespeare makes a good use of metaphors when Romeo says, ‘This bud of love, by summer’s ripening breath,’ Juliet describes how, when they next meet, their relationship will be a full flower from a small bud that will blossom until then. The one problem that is well known by each of the two lovers, is that they are both from enemy families, but each at their own time insists that they would change their name or who they are just to be with one and other, Juliet first says, ‘Or if thou wilt not be but sworn, my love, and I will no longer be a Capulet,’ she says that she is willing to give up her name and power to be with him. Romeo also says something nearly the same, ‘my name, dear saint, is hateful to myself because it is an enemy to thee,’ He says here that he would hate and sacrifice his name, the symbol of his identity, in order to please her.
Going back to the religious aspect of their relationship, to quote Romeo, ‘I take thee at thy word, call me but love, and I’ll be new baptised,’ Romeo is saying that he will start a new, fresh life and relinquish his old life in order to be with her. During their time together on the famous balcony scene, Juliet fears for his safety a lot, ‘If they do see thee, they will murder thee,’ but Romeo is in more fear of her eyes that 20 of her kinsmen, ‘Alack, there lies more peril in thine eye // Than twenty of their swords.’ From this we can demonstrate that, Romeo is more scared that he will be rejected to love Juliet than the Capulet guards finding him and murdering him; this implies even further that Romeo loves Juliet more than his own life. Shakespeare also shows their perfect connection, when he perfectly connects their lines in the play, he writes it show Juliet completes Romeos Iambic Pentameter,
Romeo: What shall I swear by?
Juliet: Do not swear at all;
By doing this, people that can notice the connection in their words, can also notice their perfect connection to one and other. The religious sanctity of their love concludes that Romeo and Juliet and destined to be together, in the 1996 production of Romeo and Juliet by Baz Luhrmann, there are many referenced to water, the time they first meet is between a fish tank, and during the balcony scene they fall into the water, this can also suggest that them being together is a clean, pure love and nothing can divide them. Their love is a love that is not like any of the other loves in the play, where one is bawdy, mercenary or based on physical attraction, but Romeo and Juliet share a sacred and perfect love for each other, that is based on true emotion and a perfect fitting.
From the first point we meet Mercutio; the audience can see that he is a humorous character because of the type of things he talks about. He is on neither Capulet nor Montagues side, but has a good friendship with Romeo. Mercutio’s negative attitude towards love is discovered when he says, ‘why, that some pale hard-hearted wench, that Rosaline, torments him so that he will run mad,’ what he is saying is, that Rosaline is being selfish and uncaring towards Romeos needs. One reason for Mercutio's rudeness towards women may be because he has bad experience with a woman before and that she may have refused to love him too, ‘Dido, a dowdy; Cleopatra, a gipsy… hildings and harlots,’ when he says this, he is naming many famous women lovers and saying what he really thought of them.
Because of Mercutios flagrant disrespect towards love he says, ‘Now art thou what thou are by art and well as nature; for this drivelling love … bauble in a hole’ this clearly shows his obvious use of sexual innuendo and that all he thinks love equates is for his pleasure. To sum up Mercutio’s rude, raw and repulsive thoughts about love, he says, ‘A bawd, a bawd, a bawd! So ho!’ the modern meaning of this sentence can be debatable, but whatever it means, he is using it as a derogatory term for a woman.
To summarize, Mercutio may, or may not have been in love, if he was, we can say that the love he was in was probably not a successful one, and so he has come to hate women. This explains his bawdy, sexual attitude towards love.
In contrary to the other loves already present in the play, Shakespeare has also added a type of ‘mercenary’ love between Lord and Lady Capulet. Whilst at the Capulet’s party Lady Capulet is constantly making references to Paris when speaking to Juliet,
‘This precious book of love, this unbound lover,
To beautify him only lacks a cover.’
From this, the audience realize that she is talking about how Paris is available, he is a rich man that possesses a very important title, and Lady Capulet wants Juliet to be interested in him so she can eventually get married to him. Lady Capulet has a mercenary attitude towards love, this means that she believes that, to love someone is only to be with someone that has a high reputation and so she gets a high status as well, we see this when she says, ‘And what obscured in this fair volume lies \ Find written in the margin of his eyes.’ Here, she is using a metaphor and describing Paris as a book and saying, whatever she doesn’t like about him, and it doesn’t matter, because she is gaining a good reputation by being with him, from this we can see that she is only with Lord Capulet because of his high rank in society.
Lord Capulet has the same attitude at Lady Capulet, he believes that finding the right person to marry is all about status and what she will get out of marrying him, he says, ‘And having now provided \ A gentleman of noble parentage,’ He says this when he is angry that Juliet has refused to marry Paris, he is saying that, he’s provided someone who has a good reputation for Juliet. Lord Capulet is also showing a blatant disregard for Juliet’s feelings he says, ‘An you be mine, I'll give you to my friend.’ He is saying, if you are my daughter and want to remain that way, you will marry my friend, from this the audience can also see that he is not interested in what Juliet wants and that she’s only there because is it ‘right’ to have a child, this shows even more of a mercenary attitude towards love and marriage.
The attitudes shown by Lord and Lady Capulet towards marriage are solely for their own profits, Lady Capulet most probably married Lord Capulet because he is a rich man who has a big status in Verona and Lord Capulet married Lady Capulet because a man of his status should be married and also for his convenience.
Throughout the whole play, Shakespeare has included four different types of love, First of all we have Romeos shallow, fashionable love for Rosaline. This was not a very long or high-quality love that was possessed, it was Romeos first love and he was love sick because he could not be with his first love. The audience find out that because Rosaline has wished to remain chaste. Next we see a totally different attitude towards love with Mercutio. Mercutio shows a unashamed disrespect towards women with his rude, bawdy attitude, he also makes vulgar statements about sex and how women are exclusively for men’s sexual pleasures. We could say that Mercutio has had a bad past experience with women and so he thinks any pure love will always end in tragedy. We then have Lord and Lady Capulets love for profit, where the two are conveniently together for the status and because its imperative of someone of great power to be married.
Out of all these types of loves included, none are pure, spiritual and based on true love. Shakespeare has included these types of loves because they make Romeo and Juliet’s love look much superior than theirs. Their love is shown to be a holy, spiritual that ‘god will approve of’ which is in great contrast to the others, where one hates love, one cant love and one must love.
When we see Romeo and Juliet’s love for the first time, it contrasts to all the other loves so far in the play. And so we can conclude that Shakespeares purpose of including all the different types of love, to show dramatically that Romeo and Juliet share the only pure love and their love in much greater than other loves, but, unlike the others, their love ends in tragedy
