Love - an intense feeling of affection and care towards another person. Lust - a strong desire of a sexual nature. Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet is a romantic tragedy that forms many questions and arguments. Romeo and Juliet’s relationship is very confusing. Were they really in love? Was it just lust? Was she just trying to avoid marrying Paris? These are all questions raised by this play. The theme of love vs lust is best addressed by Romeo’s soliloquy in Act 2, Scene 2. Romeo and Juliet focused mostly on appearance while “falling in love”. The first thing that Romeo says when he sees Juliet is about her beauty. “Did my heart love til now? Forswear it, sight! For I have never seen true beauty till this night.” (Act 1, Scene 5). Then, he goes on and on, and barely talks to her before deciding he loves her. Most of the things that Romeo and Juliet say, both to each other and in general, have to do with beauty or handsomeness. This is evidence that they are focusing on outward appearance. Also, Romeo and Juliet had just met when they decided that they were in love. Getting married the day after meeting is not logical. These are some examples that Romeo and Juliet were not truly …show more content…
This theme is best shown in Romeo’s soliloquy in Act 2 Scene 2. “ It is the east, and Juliet is the sun. Arise, fair sun, and kill the envious moon, who is already sick and pale with grief that thou, her maid, art far more fair than she.” (Act 2, Scene 2). Romeo and Juliet brings up lots of debate about whether they were in love, or in lust. This essay brought those points to attention. There are many lessons to be learned from Romeo and Juliet, but this is definitely the most important one. As one can see, it is easy to confuse lust for love and vice versa. It is important to take time in relationships, and make sure that you know the full story before you react. If actions are taken to quickly, they can lead to a tragic
In Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare, the couple experiences lustful infatuation rather than love due to physical appearances driving the relationship instead of pure emotion.
“An intense feeling of deep attraction.” That is the definition of love. Love between a man and a dog, a kid and ice-cream, a mother and her family, and love between two selfless people. This is true love. In the play, Romeo and Juliet, written by William Shakespeare, the feeling of attraction between the two main characters is not true love. The setting of this play is the streets of Verona, Italy, during a time when arranged marriages at the age of 14 were socially acceptable. Two young teens, Romeo and Juliet, were convinced that they had feelings for each other, but acted more out of lust than anything else. Lust is defined as “a very strong sexual desire”, and it becomes more apparent as the
The act of falling in love was an experience and privilege that was rare to come by in the society Romeo and Juliet live in. The blessing of marriage was used as an enhancement on one’s social status unlike how our society uses it to celebrate love. As the audience is exposed to more and more of the plot and events that happen in Shakespeare 's Romeo and Juliet, one realizes that love is never formally described or exposed in the play, it is more a shallow feeling that is hiding behind its truth which is infatuation. Romeo has himself, along with the audience for a short period of time believing that he is in love with Rosaline. However,
Juliet is to be married as “The valiant Paris seeks [her] for his love”(686) and Romeo feels depressed. Juliet doesn’t truly want to be married to Paris and when Romeo comes along and says he loves her, Juliet uses this as an excuse to be ineligible to Paris. At their young ages of 13 and 16 both, don’t truly know love and can’t effectively associate their feelings. The friar feels that"[Romeo’s] love did read by rote, that could not spell'"(707). Romeo is only repeating what he has heard about love, not genuinely understanding what he is saying. He acts impatient and brash, quickly jumping at any chance to say he is in love thinking it will bring him happiness. Moments before he saw Juliet, Romeo claimed that he was deeply in love with Rosaline, although when presented with someone who he deemed as more beautiful he’s questions if, "[his] heart [did] love till now?...For [he feels he has] ne'er saw true beauty till this night" (pg 692). If he had truly been in love with Rosaline then seeing another girl wouldn't have changed his mind, but as he is so young he isn't able to understand that what he felt for both, Juliet and Rosaline was lust. Teenagers act irrationally, based solely on emotion, Romeo and Juliet are too caught up in their feelings to take a step back and consider their
Romeo labels his feelings towards Juliet as “love”, although he has not gotten the opportunity to learn about her personality. This indicates that what he feels about her was entirely formed by her physical beauty rather than genuine feelings. Evidently, sexual desires seemed to be his ulterior motive for marrying her, instead of committing to love, care, and cherish her till death do them apart.
Romeo and Juliet are not in love they are just in lust because their main concern in the relationship is having intercourse. When they get married Juliet only thinks about when he is going to come and have intercourse with her. “I wish the sun would hurry up and set and night would come immediately. When the night comes and everyone goes to sleep, Romeo will leap into my arms, and no one will know. Beauty makes it possible for lovers to see how to make love in the dark” (III.ii.1-6). In general, if your main concern in a relationship is having intercourse, you are not in love. For example teenagers who date each other just to have intercourse, are likely to not love each other because they went into the relationship to have intercourse instead of looking for someone they actually love. Therefore since, Romeo and Juliet's main concern is having intercourse Romeo and Juliet are not in love.
Don’t you hate it when something doesn’t turn out the way you wanted it to? When you care so deeply about something and sacrifice so much just so that it can happen, but despite it all, ends in ruins. This is the theme of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. In this tragic tale, two fated lovers risk everything, even life itself, to be with one another. They go against family, friends and fate to be together. Had premonitions in the play been taken more seriously by key characters, tragedy could have been avoided.
In the first scene of Act one there is the servants Sampson and Gregory talking about sexual love. As they both talk about taking girls virginity. They both sound arrogant as they talk as if it is through experience. To them the thoughts of taking a girl’s virginity seems a joking matter.
For this anthology about love I have chosen, and mainly centred around the topic of love that is forbidden. With this type of love, comes many struggles and questions that I’m sure must go through the minds of people in this situation. This is what happens with Romeo and Juliet in the Play written by William Shakespeare in 1591. It will be a romance that will strongly challenge them, but as we see it will not break the bond of love they have for each other. In this task I will try to describe the pain, happiness, frustration, forgiveness, anger, and joy through a collection of shorts texts that come with the topic of persecuted, and forbidden love.
The definition of lust is having a strong desire for someone. Romeo and Juliet had more of a lust than love for each other which led to many selfish, impulsive and heartbreaking decisions made in the play "Romeo and Juliet". Based on their actions and the decisions they made, led to the death of themselves, which was heartbreaking for their families. Also, the bad choices they made that just made up love and death when they made those choices. Them loving each other led to people they loved get hurt in the process. They were in the families of the Montagues’ and Capulets’, two feuding families. Many people were hurt and killed, making this one of the most well-known and tragic plays throughout history. In William Shakespeare's dramatic play, "Romeo and Juliet", the star-crossed lovers' selfish and impulsive decisions result in the deaths of themselves, their family and friends.
What is love? Is it an object? Is it a feeling? Is it even attainable? Love is everything, it is an object, it is an emotion, and it cannot be bought, stolen, given. Love can only be found. Love is discovered in the most unthinkable places during the most unimaginable times. It can never be predicted who you fall in love with or when you do but all you do know is that you are in love and you would give anything for that person, and for your love to always stay resilient through all other obstacles and distractions. In Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, Montague’s and Capulet’s are know and expected to hate each other until the miracle of love presented its self. Romeo is a Montague and Juliet is a Capulet. They both fell in love when
In 'Romeo and Juliet', Shakespeare portrays different aspects and types of love in many ways. The obvious love is the fateful love between Romeo and Juliet although the play also displays platonic love, maternal love and aspects of adolescent love.
Some people believe there is someone in the world that is their true love while others believe that you fall in love with a person after getting to know them. Romeo and Juliet, a pair of star-crossed lovers are believed by some to have been true love. While there is no proof of this, it is hard to believe in instantly falling in love with someone. What Romeo and Juliet had was not true love but merely infatuation because Romeo was impulsive, Juliet was inexperienced and they had spent a limited time together.
What is love? This definition from Dictionary.com states that love is “a feeling of warm personal attachment or deep affection, as for a parent, child, or friend”. Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet is by far the best love story because of all the different types of love that are present. There are many different forms of love in the play, but, the ones that show the most are unrequited love, friendship, and romantic love.
In the early stages of Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare conveys love in many different ways. Love is shown as being imperfect, such as bawdy love, unrequited love and fatherly and maternal love, this contrasts greatly to Romeo and Juliet’s pure, perfect and requited love, and makes it seem all the more true before it is shown to be deadly.