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Shakespeare depicts the love in ‘Romeo and Juliet’ in many ways. Their love is portrayed by images of light and dark and juxtaposed against death. Romeo and Juliet's love is associated with sight and appearances; love at first sight. After all, the love of Romeo and Juliet is portrayed as of another world and heavenly. They are ‘star-crossed lovers’, with their destiny predetermined; they and other humans have no control instead the control lies with fate and God. We are revealed this in the opening prologue, the chorus refers to the main characters as ‘star-crossed lovers’ a fantasy to the belief the stars and planets have the power to control the events on earth.
In this scene of the play, Shakespeare draws attention to the first conversation between Romeo and Juliet, a Christian metaphor. Using this metaphor, Romeo manages to convince Juliet to let him kiss her, “thus from my lips, by thine, my sin is purged”. The religious connotations of the conversation clearly imply that their love can only be described through the vocabulary of religion, that pure association with God. In this way, their love becomes associated with purity and holiness. But there is another side to the present association of private love and religion. Romeo compares Juliet to a picture of a saint that ought to be he has for Juliet revered, a role that Juliet is willing to play. Romeo and Juliet’s love seems always to be opposed by the social structures of family, honor, and therefore the civil desire for order.
When Romeo and Juliet first meet, they speak only fourteen lines before their first kiss. These fourteen lines make up a shared sonnet, showing their harmony and connection, representing how perfectly they are made for each other, a soul connection, which was seen to be foolish in the Elizabethan era as they were only seen to marry for money and power.
A sonnet is perfect and often used to write about love. Encapsulating the instant of origin of Romeo and Juliet’s love within a sonnet, therefore, creates an ideal match between literary content and formal style. The use of the sonnet, however, also serves a second, darker purpose. The play’s Prologue is also a sonnet of an equivalent rhyme scheme as Romeo and Juliet’s shared sonnet. If you remember, the Prologue sonnet introduces the play, and, through its description of Romeo and Juliet’s eventual death, also helps to make the sense of fate that permeates Romeo and Juliet. The shared sonnet between Romeo and Juliet, therefore, creates a proper link between their love and their destiny. With a single sonnet, Shakespeare finds a means of expressing perfect love and linking it to a tragic fate.
After the Capulet party, in Act Two, Scene Two, Shakespeare presents the all-consuming nature of love, again, as both characters are so overwhelmed with their feelings for each other. They express themselves passionately and we are shown just how much it has consumed them; to such extent that they are rebelliously ignoring their families feud, and going against their parents’ wishes. The audience can perhaps see the warning of the dangerous nature of love as they anticipate the foreshadowed dark consequence of their forbidden love.
Romeo and Juliet are alone on the balcony in the Capulets land, Shakespeare chooses this location to show the extent of love Romeo has for Juliet, as we, the audience, know that it is forbidden as the two families are in an ancient feud, and it is an exceedingly foolish move for Romeo to be doing; this shows us how much he is willing to risk to be with his love, Juliet. “O blessed, blessed night I am feared, being in the night, all this is but a dream”. Romeo knows it is reality, but still refers to the moment as a dream-he believes Juliet is a goddess; too good for him, he puts her on a pedestal. Juliet is willing to give up everything for Romeo “deny thy father and refuse thy name” she is even prepared to give up her family name and her family for him, ironic as in the end she loses them to her death, suicide in order to be with Romeo. Shakespeare uses things that the audience relate to; family and the bloodline of the family were important in the Elizabethan era, so Juliet declaring that she will not be reluctant to leave her family and home to run away proves how much she loves Romeo and is willing to give up for him.
Shakespeare uses the phrase “Juliet is the sun”, the imagery here demonstrates the strength of Romeo’s feelings of his devoted love. When comparing Juliet to the sun, he indicates that he associates her with life, perhaps implying that he cannot live without her. This exaggerates the consuming nature of love, foreshadowing the idea that when Juliet is found to be ‘dead’ Romeo sees no point in living, resulting in his death at the end of the play.
At the end of the play, we witness the tragic death of the two lovers. Their suicide is dramatically structured by Shakespeare, drawing attention to the impetuous nature of Romeo as he makes rash decisions based on a consuming feeling of love. If Romeo was not so consumed by his feelings, he would have perhaps thought more carefully about his actions and Juliet would have awoken, allowing the two to be reunited. Through these events, Shakespeare clearly foreshadows the consequences of their love from the very start of the story however, although Shakespeare presents the destructive nature of love in the deaths of the two lovers, the focus is revived on the impact their love has. The main theme in this story is love, it overcame all, Romeo was driven by love, and passion, through all the deaths in the play and Romeo’s short thought decisions, they were all driven by love. In Act Five, Scene Three, the audience witnesses the ultimate immeasurable power of their love, as it demonstrated in the end to end the ancient feud between Montague and Capulet households. Despite the tragedy, the play ends with Verona being bought to peace because of their profound love, here Shakespeare makes a powerful suggestion that love is in fact stronger and can overcome all hate and conflict.
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