In Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare, Shakespeare explores the world of love through the main character, Romeo. At first, Romeo was hopelessly in love with Rosaline. He couldn't imagine life without her. But he then goes to party at the Capulet house, and meets Juliet. Now, Rosaline is nothing, and Juliet means the world to him. Shakespeare is using Romeos fickle love life to send a message to all teenagers who think that they are in love. Romeo is meant to show how little anyone knows about love until they have fully experienced the world.
Romeo is in love throughout the story. But not with Rosaline or Juliet. He is in love with the idea of being in love. The people he says he loves are only temporary. This is evident when Mercutio and Benvolio are looking for Romeo in act 2 scene 1, and Mercutio calls out that Romeo is in love with Rosaline, when in fact he had snuck off to see his new love, Juliet. Romeo's best friend and cousin hand't even known that Romeo had fallen out of and into love within a few hours. It is also the reason why Romeo was having such a hard time getting over Rosaline, before he met Juliet. It was obviously not because he could only love Rosaline for the rest of his life. No, it was because he wanted to have someone be the apple of his eye. And he hoped for that someone to feel the same about him. The actual person did not matter to him.
To be honest, I'm a little disappointed in Romeo. Romeo and Juliet are supposed to be the classic couple throughout history, the one you can point at and say "Look at the love they have. I want that." But knowing that this isn't actually true makes the sweetness of the story seem bittersweet. It also makes Romeo out to be a sort of monster, someone who is only looking for someone to benefit him, and he has no plans of returning the favor. Also, I had originally thought that modern times made the world a place where teens don't know what true love is. Knowing that this has always been like this sort of softens the blow, makes it seem like humanity isn't declining as much as we had thought.
WOW Marya that just blew my mind!
ReplyDeleteNo, but in all seriousness that makes so much sense-- about Romeo wanting to be in love-- and I agree with you 100%.I think his emotions overall are really confusing. He obviously desires the feeling of being in love, yet he is aware of the pain it causes him. Great job!!