The Different Types of Love in "Romeo & Juliet"

There are many types of love that are portrayed in Shakespeare's play "Romeo & Juliet". One of them being sincere, dignified love that both the main characters, Romeo and Juliet, have for each other. Although it seems that Romeo and Juliet do love each other with true, whole-hearted love, it does seem that they want to rush things in their relationship, for instance they fall in love, get married and die together within six days! Then again maybe they want to rush things because they do indeed share unfeigned love for each other and don't want to be away from each other for even a single minute.

"If thou dost love, pronounce it faithfully;

Or if thou think'st I am too quickly won,

I'll frown and be perverse, and say thee nay,

So thou wilt woo, but else not for the world" .

During the sonnet in Act 1 Scene 5, Romeo and Juliet exchange their feelings for each other as if Romeo was a pilgrim and Juliet was an angel. The sharing of lines shows how close they are to each other, and it seems as if no one else in the room exists. The sonnet ends in their first kiss.

"My lips, two blushing pilgrims, ready stand

To smooth that rough touch with a tender kiss."

"O then, dear saint, let lips do what hands do:

They pray, grant thou, lest faith turn to dispair."

Even when Romeo sees Juliet lying dead in the tomb in Act 5 Scene 3, it seems as if Romeo is prepared to die as he looks over his wife's lifeless body.

"Call this a light'ning? O my love, my wife,

Death, that hath suck'd the honey of thy breath,

Hath had no power yet upon thy beauty".

Another type of love in "Romeo & Juliet" is the lustful desire that Romeo had for Rosaline at the very beginning of the play. During his first appearance in the play, Romeo is love-sick, acting very oddly throughout. He acts as if he's extremely miserable, but whether or not he enjoys it or not is another question. Love makes him equally happy and it does sad. He expresses his feelings of the two conflicting states in a number of paradoxes/oxymorons.

"Feather of lead, bright smoke, cold fire, sick health".

From what we've gathered from Romeo, the only reason he's interested in Rosaline is because he thinks he'll be able to use her for his own sexual delectation, although this is not reciprocated.

The nurse is also another character who shows another sort of love in the play, although it is totally unique and different to any other character in the play. She sees love more like a joke, adding witty sexual innuendos whenever she can during the play, especially towards Juliet when she's talking with her about Romeo.

"I am none of his flirt-gills, I am none of his skains-mates,

And thou must stand by too and suffer every knave to use me at his pleasure!".

Towards the end of the play, when Romeo has been banished from Verona, the Nurse questions whether Romeo and Juliet will ever be with each other again, and requests that Juliet marries Paris instead. This shows that the Nurse doesn't believe in true, meticulous, sincere love, only in lust and deceptiveness. She lacks morality, and I think she's the kind of woman who never really had a single man at any one time. She was always up for a "quick fix" when was younger.

Finally, another character in Romeo & Juliet who shows different kinds of love and emotion is Juliet's father, Lord Capulet. At the beginning of the play he shows his loving and concerned side, insisting that Juliet marry his dear friend, Paris in two summers' time.

"She hath not seen the change of fourteen years;

Let two more summers wither in their pride".

Lord Capulet then changes from a loving, caring father to a "dictator" so to speak, as he says to Juliet that she is his property. He then becomes angry as Juliet disobeys him by refusing to marry Paris, because she is in deep love with Romeo. During the end of the play he shows an amount of sadness after his beloved daughter, Juliet, commits suicide.

"O heavens! O wife, look how our daughter bleeds!

This dagger hath mistane, for lo his house

Is empty on the back of Montague,

And it mis-sheathed in my daughter's bosom!"

In conclusion there are many different kinds of love shown in "Romeo & Juliet". Each characters wording expresses what kind of love they portray, in effect this can then judge and decide what kind of character they really are on the inside.