Szaniszlo Anne-Marie

Faculty of Letters, Languages and Literature

English-German, year II

Romeo and Juliet

Romeo and Juliet’s attitude towards love
When it comes to love, everyone has their own personality trait. These characteristics are
unintentionally shaping the outcomes that occur after the mindset is fully formed. As a result,
several sad events are shaping up as a result of this. Shakespeare's tragedy set in the sixteenth
century in “fair Verona”, Romeo and Juliet depicts a wide range of human emotions, from
love to sorrow. The disparities between the characters in love are also sculpted, therefore their
attitudes toward love also present differences. When it comes to love, the portrayed scenes
provide the most insight into the character's thoughts and feelings. In this case, the most
crucial aspect in creating their outlook is their diverse mindset and attitude, which led to a
different kind of experience. The attitude of both the characters in Shakespeare's play has an
impact on how the other characters express their views.

On the one hand, Juliet exhibits a passionate and committed approach toward love, with her
perspectives being both gratifying and affectionate. Shakespeare shows us that Juliet's idea of
love is finding her significant one and doing everything she can provide for them until the end
of time. Juliet is characterized as naïve because she is only 12 years old and therefore does not
understand the true meaning of love. A crucial element is shown at the beginning, when she
encounters Romeo for the first time. They have just met and are already conversing in
rhymes. This matter denotes the possibility of love at first sight. According to this concept,
when Romeo speaks in rhymes, Juliet employs the same wordplay. This is the embodiment of
what it means toward being a "soulmate."

The most romantic scene in literature, the balcony scene, is the most representative scene that
represents real love. The balcony scene occurs in a walled garden that is private and secluded.
Even if balconies did not exist in those times and there was only an addition to English
literature, these walls are symbolic since they represent the hurdles that isolate Romeo and
Juliet, and they are tall, symbolizing the perils they get through by seeing each other, despites
what their families want. The Balcony scene itself is not emotional, with countless cases of
love, but it also bears undertones of fate or what might occur in the future. This scene is the
strongest portrayal of Romeo and Juliet’s attitude toward love. Here, Juliet shows her
empathy for Romeo by emphasising the danger in that he might be. The scene begins with
Juliet communicating to herself on her balcony. Romeo is not entirely aware that he is in
jeopardy and that he could be caught at any moment. This not only demonstrates his love
towards Juliet, but it also compounds to the scene's suspense. He had completely forgotten
about his previous feelings for Rosaline at this point, with whom he clearly was in love with
at one point. Shakespeare uses the most forceful and grim imagery to convey the blooming of
the lover's attitude in the balcony scene. The scene in which both lovers proclaim their
passion to each other and plan to get married, as advocated by Juliet, is a quintessential
Shakespeare scene. More to express about their platonic love is that this emblematic scene
takes place at night, which would be an emerging matter of their attitude regarding their
emotions. Set to start with this premise, it is shown that their love is veiled from the hostile
world, and as pure as it is, it has encompassed both protagonists in an endless embrace.

The scene when Romeo executes Tybalt is the most emblematic reflecting Juliet's attitude
toward the sentiments she has towards him. Although if he had done something terrible, she
can instantly forgive him. More to the core, she is shaken by the sentence singled out to his
beloved Romeo. Her loyalty is symbolized by the circumstance she created with her blind
love. She is seen to be devoted to Romeo thus, she can already value him over all else in her
life, regardless of the fact that he has done terrible things in his life. When she consumes the
sleeping potion desperately, she despises her approach toward love once more.
Notwithstanding her fears and knowledge of the dangers, she managed to muster the courage
to drink it. This can only signify that her devotion for Romeo is guiding her in confronting her
darkest fears. She is willing to die for the sake of her love.

Juliet's love is clearly reflected when she stabs herself with Romeo's weapon because he is
deceased. He passed away next to her, not knowing that, in fact, she did not kill herself. "This
is thy sheath, there rust and let me die," she spoke without hesitating. (V, III, 175). Despite
being young and having many opportunities to live on, she decided that she had no future
without him, blinded by the love she had had all these times. Juliet learnt from her love that
she cannot be fulfilled without Romeo in her life. Juliet's attitude regarding love was the
primary culprit of this tragedy, yet she was too overwhelmed by its embrace.

On the other hand, Romeo is a sinner in need of a saint to guide him in defeating his demons
and then becoming a better person. Romeo's reaction to the idea of love highlights his
ingenious and flamboyant personality. When he says "misshapen chaos... well-seeming
forms!" (I, I, 184) he is resembled as bewildered and nearly enraged by love. Throughout the
play, Shakespeare portrays Romeo's love as intense. However, whenever it comes to Rosaline,
this could vary beyond destruction to more heavenly, when it comes to Juliet. He employs a
vocabulary that is generally identified with worship. Romeo is more smitten with the concept
he is got of love than with the love itself. In the first act, he points out the fact that Rosaline
does not reciprocate his love. "O brawling love, O loving hate!"(I, I, 180). The repetitive "O"
generates a gloomy sound, reflecting Romeo's despondency. Throughout the play, he is
having a miserable internal struggle with images which aren't really related with the concept
of love. Romeo's heart has been shown to be uncertain of what he desires and refuses to
embrace it. On the other side, the metaphors he employs to describe Juliet evoke religious
connotations and reverence, with him referring to her as a "holy shrine" and his lips as "two
blushing pilgrims" when they first meet (I, III, 106). The purity of his love for Juliet is
emphasized in this image. As a consequence, Juliet is a divine figure to him, deemed worthy
of eternal praise. In terms of his love, the fact that he chose to love the enemy's daughter had a
significant impact on the play, with Juliet serving as the light and love of his life. Romeo's
concept of love, on the other hand, reflects the play's elegance. He refers to love as being
something to be conquered, as with “Cupid’s arrow” (I, I, 217).

Whereas Juliet had no interest in males at the opening of the play, Shakespeare indicates that
she is young and unconcerned about marriage. When she meets Romeo, however, she
becomes enchanted by him, contradicting what is claimed about her at the beginning of the
play. Until the end, they both lived as if they were superior to others because they appeared to
have their own world, while the rest of the world died away. Shakespeare illustrates a love
that happened so suddenly and passionately that neither character had time to ponder their
actions. Their story commences with a platonic love resemblance. They get married and they
consume their love by sleeping together. This shows the trust Juliet has in Romeo and how
truly in love she is with him by her willingness to sleep with him. She grew from a heroine
who had no interest in men to one who was married and in love. Their love is filled of desire
and sensuality, implying Juliet's character is maturing and awakening. The audience can
certainly recognize how much they loved each other after Juliet realizes Romeo is dead and
kills herself with the "happy dagger" (V, III, 174-175). Until this point, their love had been
questioned as being mere lust.
It is well known that William Shakespeare has no particular notion of love. He saw love as
unjust, irrational, unpredictable, and unmanageable. Romeo and Juliet's love is so intense in
his play that the only thing that can convey it is their death. Romeo and Juliet develop as
characters and in their perspectives toward love throughout the play, whereas the concept of
love emerges from lust.

To conclude, Shakespeare's play Romeo and Juliet's approach toward love can be defined as
pure, with the characters developing an idea of love that happens so swiftly that they can no
longer have faith they can live without each other.

Shakespeare, William (1597), ed. by Barbara A. Mowat and Paul Werstine (2011), Romeo
and Juliet. Folger Shakespeare Library¸ Simon & Schuster
https://www.shakespeare.org.uk/ Romeo and Juliet - Character summaries from
Shakespeare’s timeless love story
https://www.bbc.co.uk/ Love in Romeo and Juliet