Explore the theme of love in Romeo and Juliet and how it is used

"And private, in his chamber, pens himself, shuts up his windows, locks far daylight out, and makes himself an artificial night. Black and portentous, must his humour prove, unless cancel may the cause remove." Romeo's relationship with his father is very distant. He doesn't seem to communicate with any of his family members and would far rather just shut himself away in his room and make night eternal. Romeo’s parents Lord and Lady Montague care about Romeo very much. They worry about him and when he is lovesick over Roseline. His mother says to Benvolio “O where is Romeo? Saw you him today? Right glad I am he was not at this fray”. As well as this, Juliet's relationship with her mother is problematic. "This is the matter. Nurse, give leave a while, we must talk in secret. Nurse, come back again. I have remembered me..." Lady Capulet doesn't know how to talk to her own daughter. A battle between youth and age, children and parents, shows how children in Shakespeare’s age were made obedient, and how Romeo and Juliet both disobeyed this. "Romeo doth thy name. And for thy name, which is which part of thee is. Take all myself." Juliet, with her love for Romeo growing every day, is very happy to disobey and hurt her parents so much that she is willing to run away with Romeo.

At the beginning of the play, Benvolio and Mercutio are very close to Romeo. They seem to know a lot about each other and each other's feelings. Mercutio, his best friend and someone he would do anything for. When Romeo discovers Juliet, the love of his life that fate brought together, he ditches his friends to be with Juliet. "Go then; tis in vain." Mercutio, even when abandoned by his closest friend, still fights to the death for Romeo. "A plague upon both your houses! They have made worms meat of me. I have it, and soundly to, your houses!" Mercutio, not only a victim of Montague and Capulet hatred, a victim of his loyalty to Romeo, but also a victim of the effects of Romeo and Juliet’s forbidden love.

"I will push Montague’s men from the wall, and thrust his maids to the wall." Shakespeare starts his play with a crude reference to sex. Mercutio’s view of love is rude, coarse and bawdy. He is into one-night stands and has never had a real girlfriend. He jokes about sex, for example when he probably lifts the nurse’s skirt up saying, “Here’s goodly gear, a sail!” Mercutio is fascinated by sexual innuendo “A slip can you not conceive?” He jokes even when he is dying “Ask for me tomorrow, you will find me a grave man.”  These phrases were for comic purposes and helped entertain the lower classes who would watch Shakespeare's plays. In the days of Shakespeare, this would have drawn the audiences attention to what was happening on stage, as it would have been performed in the Globe Theatre. The Globe Theatre would have had no curtains, lights etc... As well as this there would have been a very rowdy crowd with stinkards surrounding the stage, sex and sexual references would have drawn their attention straight to the play. Romeo and Juliet's love is pure love, and not as corrupt as how the servants refer to sex. Life on the streets is very much full with sexual innuendos. This in contrast with Shakespeare’s plays presents us with a more loving approach where it comes to Romeo and Juliet, whereas to the servants sexual references are more ridiculing and to be used as insults, therefore distancing themselves from Romeo and Juliet. Romeo and Juliet’s love is serious, and how love should be.

To explain courtly romantic love, you could say it is to be in love with the idea of being in love, rather than the person. This can be traced back to the medieval times when knights were expected to admire a lady from a distance, but not expect it to be returned. Romeo at the beginning seems to be somewhat of a courtly lover about how he talks about Roselyn. "Well in that hit you miss: she'll not be hit with cupid's arrow, she hath Diane's wit." As well Romeo, Paris is also portrayed in this way. When Juliet's death becomes known Paris says "Beguiled, divorced, wronged, spitted, and slain! Most detestable death, by the beguiled, by cruel be quite overthrown!" Compared to Romeo, Paris doesn't seem as bothered that Juliet has passed away. "O my love, my wife, death that have sucked the honey of thy breath, hath no power yet upon thy beauty." Romeo shows how his love is pure towards Juliet. Their love is flowing, like how they first speak. This exchange between Romeo and Juliet is a sonnet, a popular form of love poetry in Elizabethan times. A sonnet has fourteen lies and ten syllables in each line.

The sonnet that they speak has several uses of religious imagery. Romeo and Juliet speak about ‘holy shrine,' 'gentle sin,' 'pilgrims,' and ‘saints.’ This is showing how pure and innocent their love is. Romeo describes his lips as 'two blushing pilgrims,’ A pilgrim is the word used to describe a person that visits a holy place to worship. For example, pilgrims visit Bethlehem to worship Jesus. So in this sonnet, Romeo is the pilgrim who is devoted to Juliet. By saying that his lips are 'two blushing pilgrims,' Romeo is using a metaphor.

When Romeo initially sees Juliet, he compares her immediately to the brilliant light of the torches and tapers that illuminate Capulet's great hall: “O, she doth teach the torches to burn bright!" Juliet is the light that frees him from the darkness of his perpetual depression.

Healing love is a triumph of love as a result of personal suffering, sacrifice and commitment. Destruction and healing at the same time; how Romeo and Juliet destroyed their life but at the same time healed two family’s relationships. Love and order has been restored, both devotion and personal courage.