The characters in Romeo and Juliet each have different views about love, as evidenced by the following collection of quotes:
In Act 1 scene 1, Romeo tells Benvolio how he feels about love with "Love is a smoke raised with the fume of sighs." According to Romeo, love is something ethereal; like smoke, you can see, smell, maybe taste love, but you can't hold onto it. In this quote when Romeo uses the words "smoke," "fume," and "sighs," he creates an image of gray, stinky air that makes you feel down (sigh.) So at the beginning of the play, Romeo does not like love. This is because he thinks he is in love with Rosaline, who will have nothing to do with him, and that makes him feel very sad.
Later in Act 1 scene 1, Romeo goes on to say, "Is love a tender thing? it is too rough, / Too rude, too boisterous, and it pricks like thorn." Romeo is still hating on love, saying that for him, being in love is rough, rude, and boisterous (noisy, energetic), and then he compares love to a thorn. Most people compare love to the beautiful rose flower and its scent, but not Romeo. He thinks about the painful part of the rose, the prickly thorn.
Lord Capulet, in Act 1 scene 1, believes that love is an important part of marriage. He instructs Paris to court Juliet and if she agrees to the marriage, he will give his consent:
But woo her, gentle Paris, get her heart,
My will to her consent is but a part;
An she agree, within her scope of choice
Lies my consent and fair according voice.
Later on in the play, Capulet seems to change his mind when he insists that Juliet accept his choice of husband for her.
Lady Capulet also wants her daughter to fall in love with Paris, but she considers love to be superficial. If Paris is handsome enough, then her daughter should love and marry him: "Read o'er the volume of young Paris' face, / And find delight writ there with beauty's pen;" Through this quote, Lady Capulet compares Paris to a book. If it has a nice cover, it is a good book. According to Lady Capulet, one CAN judge a book by its cover.
Later, in Act 1 scene 5, when Romeo begins to fall in love with Juliet, he also focuses on physical attractiveness: "Did my heart love till now? forswear it, sight! / For I ne'er saw true beauty till this night." In other words, "How could I have loved Rosaline? This girl here (Juliet) is the only beautiful girl I've ever seen!"
Juliet is a little less rash when it comes to love. While Romeo falls for her the moment he sees her, Juliet wants to give their love a little time to see if it is true. In Act 2 scene 2 (the balcony scene) she says:
O, swear not by the moon, the inconstant moon,
That monthly changes in her circled orb,
Lest that thy love prove likewise variable.
This quote shows that Juliet is aware that like the waxing and waning moon, sometimes love can come and go. A few lines later, she says, "This bud of love, by summer's ripening breath, / May prove a beauteous flower when next we meet." This shows that she wants to give their love time to grow, like a flower bud that grows into a flower. This quote also gives us a valuable insight into Shakespeare's feelings on young love: a flower, while beautiful, lasts a short time. Juliet comparing their love to a flower tells the audience that their love, too, would only last a short time.
Friar Lawrence, perhaps the most sensible character about love, says that Romeo's quick move from loving Rosaline to loving Juliet proves that young love is superficial:
Is Rosaline, whom thou didst love so dear,
So soon forsaken? young men's love then lies
Not truly in their hearts, but in their eyes.
This means that young men fall in love with physical beauty. We know Romeo fell in love with Juliet because of her beauty, so Friar Lawrence is correct in this statement.
Friar Lawrence also warns,
These violent delights have violent ends
And in their triumph die, like fire and powder,
Which as they kiss consume:
He means that when we rush into love too quickly, it is going to die. He compares a pair of hasty lovers to fire and gun powder. When they meet, the cause a brilliant explosion which is glorious for a moment but then gone. The fire and gun powder will also be gone, which is what he means by "as they kiss consume." This is another example of foreshadowing: when Romeo and Juliet have consummated their love, they will be gone.
You can read the entire text of Romeo and Juliet , and you can also access our modern translation, explanations of certain terms, and some important quotes. Click to find eNote's Romeo and Juliet materials.
No comments:
Post a Comment