Love And Sight In Romeo And Juliet

Margaret Wolfe Hungerford once said, “Beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder”. The meaning of this quote is that beauty exists only in the mind of the person that contemplates it. This correlates with the beginning of the love shared by the main characters in Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare. Born from opposing families, Romeo and Juliet fall in love, but cannot be together because of their family feud. Their love begins from the moment they meet, and just upon looking at each other, they instantly fall in love. ¨Sonnet 148¨, also written by William Shakespeare, shows love and sight in a different light. Love is shown from a negative aspect, while the love of Romeo and Juliet are shown as a beautiful thing. Sight gives love many different

In Shakespeare’s “Sonnet 148”, the speaker is clearly a man that is in love, but seems to think of love in a negative way. He feels that love itself is tricking him and clouding his judgment. He sees his love as far better than everyone else sees her to be. He states, “O ‍me, what eyes hath love put in my head/ Which have no corresponde‍nce with true sight!” (1-2). This shows how the speaker thinks he is being robbed of the sight of reality. He is blinded by his love, and does not know how to see the truth. He uses a desperate and somewhat regretful tone; he says that his love does not correspond with “true sight”, and that all he sees are lies. Love often highlights the better attributes of a person, and hides their flaws, which is exactly what happens to the speaker. He idealizes the woman he loves and sees her to be far better than she actually is. This is also demonstrated in the line,“Love’s eye is not so true as all men’s” (8). This further proves the difference between sight with love and without. Sight with love ignores flaws, while sight without gives a clear view of imperfections. The eye of “all men’s” sees the truth about the woman that the speaker is in love with, and she isn’t as amazing as he sees her to be. “Love’s eyes”, in other words, the speaker’s eyes, have a judgment that is

Love can cause illusions and false realities that enhance the idea of perfection that does not really exist. Juliet’s idea of Romeo being a man of wax is questioned when Juliet learns that Romeo killed her cousin, Tybalt. She is conflicted as to whether she should hate Romeo or not for killing someone in her family. She exclaims, “Oh, that deceit should dwell/ In such a gorgeous palace!” (III II 91-92). She compares Romeo’s physique to a “gorgeous palace” but says that inside it, lives “deceit”. Clearly, there is a negative connotation in Juliet’s words, showing that Romeo is not as he seems. His imperfections are not visible to her at first, and her love for him deceives her into thinking he is a really amazing man. As the story progresses, the mirage that love creates starts fading. Juliet says, “Beautiful tyrant! Fiend angelical!” (III II 81) - the oxymoron depicts her conflicting emotions. Tyrants are rarely described as being beautiful. Similarly, a fiend is not an angel. Love, although a beautiful sentiment, has the ability to disguise reality to fit expectations.
Finally, love and sight have a direct relation with each other. Being blind due to love and love being deceptive are the basis of this relationship, along rare ¨love at first sight¨ moments. Love can cloud judgment and keep one from seeing reality. Every so often, a rare occurrence can happen when one can feel love in an instant and feel it