Romeo And Juliet Theme Of Love

In this essay I will be exploring how Shakespeare illustrates the theme of love in Romeo and Juliet with particular reference to Act one scene five and Act two scene two. The play has multiple types of love shown throughout, however in this piece I will be focusing on Romantic love, more specifically, the love between Romeo and Juliet. I find this category of love to often be more vividly expressed in writing, with the use of additional poetic techniques. Act one scene five begins with servants conversing and progresses on to a conversation between Capulet, Tybalt and Romeo. Romeo’s first speech of the scene holds many types of imagery and poetic terms to portray emotion. Line forty-three clearly supports this statement,

At the time this play was written, Religion played a bigger part in people 's lives. Nearly all would have been religious and it would greatly affect their decisions in life. In act one scene five, line ninety-five, Romeo says, ‘If I profane with my unworthiest hand this holy shrine, the gentle sin is this: My lips, two blushing pilgrims, ready stand’ Romeo is comparing Juliet to a statue of a saint and referring to himself, (his lips) as a pilgrim. Juliet replies in a flirtatious manner, ‘Good pilgrim, you do wrong your hand too much, which mannerly devotion shows in this. For saints have hands that pilgrims’ hands do touch, and palm to palm is holy palmers’ kiss’ Juliet states that a true pilgrim should only be using his lips during prayer, of course in a jocular

At this point, Juliet is unaware of his name and demands that the nurse tells her. ‘His name is Romeo, and a Montague, The only son of your enemy’ Juliet is clearly quite distraught and replies with a very emotional line, ‘My only love sprung from my only hate’. The contrast of love/hate, in my opinion is very powerful. It illustrates Juliet’s raw emotions and feelings for Romeo. She continues to add, ‘Too early seen unknown, and known too late’. Juliet is telling the nurse that she saw him and fell in love before she knew who he was. Love at first sight. ‘Prodigious birth of love it is to me that I must love a loathed enemy’. This sentence is very important as it shows an emotion that we have yet to see from Juliet, anger. Juliet refers to love as a monster for making her fall in love with an enemy. ‘Prodigy’ in modern times, often refers to a precocious youngster. In Shakespeare’s time, it would refer to something abnormal. Juliet is clearly expressing her love for Romeo but also her hate for love