Saturday, October 15, 2016

How does Shakespeare present Romeo's attitude toward love?

Shakespeare presents Romeo's view of love as that of a hopeless romantic.
Romeo loves the idea of love, but he doesn't actually know what love is; in fact, Romeo mistakes lust for love. The reader may wonder why that is; the reason being that Romeo is quite immature and wishy-washy. In the first two acts the reader observes Romeo's declaration of love for Rosaline, followed by his infatuation with Juliet, and then his subsequent dismissal of his affections for Rosaline. Romeo's view of love is naive and evidently life-threatening.


Shakespeare presents Romeo as a character in love with love. When we first meet him, he is mooning around dejectedly over his unrequited love for Rosaline. He is not sleeping, wandering around at night, and worrying his father so much that he consults with Romeo's friend Benvolio about his son's behavior.
When Benvolio proposes that they go to the Capulet's masquerade ball looking for other pretty Veronese girls, Romeo declares forcefully that no woman in the world could ever compare to Rosaline. Naturally, once at the ball, he is immediately bowled over by Juliet's beauty, forgetting Rosaline and falling head-over-heels in love with Juliet. That is Romeo in a nutshell: a young man over-the-top in his passion for passion.
Shakespeare shows Romeo to be a person who finds it difficult to restrain his desires. For example, after he falls in love with Juliet, he has to marry her the next day, despite theirs being a forbidden love. The friar tries to warn Romeo to tone it down, but he is at the mercy of his feelings, which will lead to a tragic end.

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