Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare is a classic love story-tragedy revered by many anglicists and casual readers alike. Romeo is your typical teenage boy who is into girls and who thinks he knows all there is to know about love. Romeo’s story gets more complicated when he ends up falling for two girls throughout the story. The first was a nun named Rosaline and the second was Juliet who is a member of Romeo’s rival house. Part of the reason that many scholars consider Romeo and Juliet a masterpiece are Romeo’s ardent poems where he professes his love for Rosaline and Juliet. However, looking deeper into these poems shows us that Romeo’s concept of love is very skewed and is based purely on looks alone. As shown when he was able to drop her after seeing Juliet just once, Romeo’s love for Rosaline was purely based on her looks. Shakespeare hints that Romeo’s love for Rosaline was beauty based when Romeo calls it “the devout religion of mine eye.” Romeo calls his love a religion meaning that it is love which is guiding his life. Romeo says that his religion is of his eye meaning …show more content…
After saying that Rosaline was the most beautiful girl who ever lived on page 33, Romeo explained that he “ne’er saw true beauty” until he saw Juliet. This shows that Romeo is fickle and can determine his love for someone on weather or not they are pretty. On page 69, Romeo compares Juliet to the “Rising Sun.” This is significant because a sunrise is pleasing to look at, and that is what Romeo thinks Juliet is, something pleasing to look at. Also on page 69, Romeo says that Juliet’s “vestal livery [virginity] is but sick and green” and that it should be cast off. Here, Romeo is saying that it is a bad thing that Juliet still is a virgin and that her virginity should be removed (presumably by him). This then shows that Romeo is motivated by having sex with Juliet and is not in getting to know