"It is too sudden, too unadvis'd, too like the lightning which doth cease to be" (Act II Scene II Lines 118-120). With close reference to the play explore the extent to which 'falling in love' and other events happen too quickly to be credible.

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“It is too sudden, too unadvis’d, too like the lightning which doth cease to be” (Act II Scene II Lines 118-120). With close reference to the play explore the extent to which ‘falling in love’ and other events happen too quickly to be credible.

English Coursework: 1000 – 2000 Words

In ‘Romeo and Juliet’ the theme of love is the most contrasting and contradicting of all the issues raised. In the play, each character has a different perspective of love. Some characters feel that love is simply a contractual aspect of life, whereas others feel that it is a strong bond of emotion.

From the moment Romeo lays eyes upon Juliet, he seems to be head over heels in love. “Did my heart love till now? For I ne’er saw true beauty till this night.” These are the words that he murmurs as he sees her. William Shakespeare immediately creates intimacy between the pair and shows that Juliet could be falling for Romeo as well, for within speaking ten lines to the Montague, they kiss. It is extremely hard to believe that after knowing each other for a matter of minutes, you can be as in love as they were. During the latter stages of this scene, Romeo repeatedly asks Juliet for her to “repeat the sin,” referring to the kiss. This is followed by a plea; “O wilt thou leave me so unsatisfied?” This is a quotation which forces the reader to immediately believe that Romeo craves for some sexual pleasure and satisfaction. A reader would also argue that if you were truly in love with someone, you would not need satisfaction. When Romeo comes to the friar for advice and to ask him to marry them, Friar Lawrence says, “Young men’s love lies, then, not truly in their hearts but in their eyes.” This is a good quotation to argue that Romeo’s love is not as real as it seems. The friar, a wise man, does not believe that Romeo can possibly be in love with Juliet at this stage.

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Mercutio is Romeo’s supposed best friend. In Act II Scene IV when young Romeo returns to his friends, Mercutio says that he is “dead already: stabbed with a white wench’s black eye…with a love song.” This portrays the image that Mercutio sees that Romeo has actually fallen in love with Juliet. As they are best friends, one could come to believe that this is true. However, halfway through the same scene, on line thirty-five, Mercutio guesses that Romeo has had sex, and tells him “how, like a dried herring, art thou fishified.” This is an extremely sexual allusion, and contradict ...

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