by Drew Price

Created on: February 03, 2009

At a glance Romeo and Juliet may seem like a somewhat typical love story. Boy meets girl. They fall in love. They die because they cannot live without each other. Sounds touching right? Wrong! Romeo and Juliet has more to do with hate than it does true love. In the play, Shakespeare suggests how misguided love can actually lead to tragedy. In order to explore the theme of love in the play we must explore the nature of the love that is portrayed in this play through the main characters, and take into consideration the comments made about love by other characters.

The play opens with a bit of exposition in that reminds the audience of the "ancient grudge" that exists between the Montagues and the Capulets. At this point in the play Romeo is convinced that he is in love with a girl named Rosaline. However he explains to Benvolio how this Rosaline will not be harmed by cupid's arrow and she "hath Dian's wit. Shakespeare's audience would know that Dian is the goddess of chastity and therefore would conclude that Rosaline has chosen to live a life of chastity. This is crucially important information, because it provides the audience with an idea of Romeo's idea of love. In Romeo's opinion love is something that simply occurs when one is struck with one of Cupid's arrows, rather than an emotion that develops when two people connect with each other and grow together over time. Or, as the Friar puts it later in the play, the foundation of Romeo's love is not in his heart but in his eyes. Because of Rosaline's dedication to living a chaste life, we can only assume that she and Romeo have not really had a relationship. Romeo may have seen her in a public place and developed a crush which quickly grew into an unhealthy infatuation that comes to an all too abrupt end when Romeo meets his "true" love Juliet.

Meanwhile, Juliet a teenage girl is introduced to the audience not one who is overly concerned with love at all. In fact, her mother, who would like to see Juliet marry the young, and rich, nobleman Paris, asks her about her how she feels about marriage to which she replies "it is an honor I dream not of." These are the words Juliet speaks very day she becomes engaged! So how is it that Juliet is able to become so overwhelmed with the power of love in such a short amount of time? They meet each other at a costume party, a party that Romeo has snuck into so that he could watch Rosaline from across the room. However, before he has a chance his eyes stumble upon Juliet and

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