Loyalty In Shakespeare's Romeo And Juliet

865 Words4 Pages

Would you rather love someone with no one supporting this love, or have people support you without loving who you want to love? This is what Romeo and Juliet face in the play Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare. Throughout the play, many types of loyalties come into conflict. These types of loyalty conflicts include love, family and friends of the Capulet and Montagues. Love loyalty is the first of three types of conflict shown in the play. Towards the beginning of the play, Romeo is in love with a girl named Rosaline. But Rosaline has decided to be chaste, which means she's not interested in Romeo or anyone else romantically. Benvolio asks Romeo if Rosaline really plans to stay that way, and Romeo says yes. Romeo is upset because he thinks Rosaline is too beautiful and smart to be without a husband. “Benvolio: Then …show more content…

Romeo: She hath, and in that sparing [makes] huge waste; For beauty, starved with her severity, Cuts beauty off from all posterity. She is too fair, too wise, too wise, too fair, to merit bliss by making me despair. She hath forsworn to love and in that vow, “Do I live dead, that live to tell it now” (Shakespeare, 1.1.225-232). Having this mindset on the girl that he wants to be with is an inconsistency in his loyalty to her. He is unloyal as he wants her to go against a rule that she lives by, just for him. Romeo doing this is also not real love as he just met this girl, and didn't even get to know her yet. Romeo soon becomes unsuccessful in trying to be with Rosaline. Romeo begins to move on and continues living his life, and he hears about a cavalry party that he wants to go to. Romeo sneaks into a Capulet party to get his mind off of another girl named Rosaline, who he loved before