Infatuation In Shakespeare's Romeo And Juliet

Live, Laugh, Crush Infatuation can be defined as “puppy love” or “the temporary love of an adolescent” (Word Net). Therefore, this concludes that many adolescent relationships are short-lived. For instance, William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet is frequently called a true love story, but really, the two protagonists, Romeo and Juliet are merely infatuated. First, in most relationships, true love takes time to develop, and Romeo and Juliet only know each other for a couple of days when they decide to marry. Furthermore, Romeo and Juliet constantly refer to each other’s looks, rather than to their true personality, which is a clear sign that they are simply infatuated. Finally, Romeo and Juliet are too young and naïve for their bond to be
true love. Indubitably, Romeo and Juliet’s relationship is not true love, but just infatuation. To commence, in most cases, true love takes time to fully develop. However, Romeo and Juliet only know each other for a couple of days when they decide to marry. “It is too rash, too unadvised, too sudden, too like the lightning,” (2. 2. 118-119) for their love to be true. Because Romeo and Juliet only know each other for a couple days, their relationship is not developed enough to call it true love. If Romeo and Juliet would slow down a bit and actually give some time for their bond to grow, it would give Romeo and Juliet a chance to get to know each other better, so their love would be genuine. Additionally, Romeo and Juliet’s bond does not grow enough to call it true love because right after Romeo sleeps with Juliet, he completely disappears and brings their relationship to a halt. If Romeo was really in love with Juliet, he would “let [himself] be ta’en, let [himself] be put to death” instead of completely isolating her. Their relationship can not evolve into true love if Romeo and Juliet are separated for a long time, so therefore their “love” is only infatuation. Lastly, Romeo is just dumped by Rosaline the same day he meets Juliet. Since “Rosaline, that [Romeo] didst love so dear, [is] so soon forsaken” (2.3. 66-67), it does not give Romeo enough time to fully recover from being hurt. Thus, there is not enough time for Romeo and Juliet to fully develop their relationship because he is still grieving over his loss of Rosaline. Clearly, Romeo and Juliet did not have enough time to expand their relationship, so for this reason, Romeo and Juliet are only infatuated. The second reason why Romeo and Juliet are purely infatuated is because they constantly refer to each other’s appearance, instead of their true personality. Initially, when Romeo first sees Juliet, he immediately starts rambling on about how he “ne’er saw true beauty till this night” (1. 5. 53) instead of talking to Juliet and learning about her personality. Romeo and Juliet are not really in love if they only talk about how beautiful the other person is. If they would actually take the time to learn new things about each other so they can develop their bond, their relationship would actually be true love. Moreover, Juliet is no different from Romeo since she also talks grandly of Romeo’s beauty. When Romeo kills Tybalt, Juliet calls him “[a] serpent heart, hid with a flowering face!” (3. 2. 73). Even though Romeo kills her own cousin, Juliet still refers to Romeo’s handsomeness, instead of grieving over Tybalt. This shows that Juliet also bases her bond a 3 with Romeo on his appearance, especially since in this case, Romeo just kills her cousin. Lastly, even when Juliet is laying in the tomb, apparently dead, Romeo still refers to Juliet’s beauty, asking her “why art [she] yet so fair?” (5. 3. 102). In Romeo’s last moments with Juliet, he is blinded by Juliet’s beauty, even though she is said to be dead. This clearly shows Romeo’s infatuation for Juliet since he wastes his last moments with Juliet to talk about her beauty. Evidently, since the couple bases their “love” on looks, their relationship is merely infatuation. The last reason why Romeo and Juliet are merely infatuated is because they are so young and naïve.
First, Juliet “is not [even] fourteen [yet]” (1. 3. 15), when she marries Romeo and fully devotes herself to him. Romeo and Juliet’s relationship can be called “puppy love” (WordNet Search 3.0), since they are only adolescents. Also, Romeo and Juliet can not say that they are truly in love because they are very inexperienced when it comes to love. Secondly, Romeo is only a couple of years older than Juliet, so his affection for Juliet is just “the temporary love of an adolescent” (WordNet Search 3.0). He even admits to Friar Laurence when he is banished from Verona, that “wert [Friar Laurence] as young as [Romeo], [with] Juliet [as his] love…then mightst thou speak” (3. 3. 65-68) Romeo is a very young teenager and therefore, his relationship with Juliet is just infatuation. Thirdly, Romeo and Juliet are young and naïve because after they spend a night together and Romeo has to leave, they are confident that they will see each other again. Romeo “doubts it not” (3.5. 52) and acts very naively since he knows he is banished, but he still thinks he will see Juliet again. Romeo and Juliet think they know all about love, but in truth, they do not, since they are simply teenagers. Romeo and
Juliet’s naivety is a reason why they are simply infatuated because it shows how young and inexperienced they are. Seemingly, Romeo and Juliet are simply two young and naïve adolescents that are only infatuated. It would seem that Romeo and Juliet should be called a love story since it is a play about two young lovers who “fall in love” at first sight.
However, it is the complete opposite. Primarily, there is not enough time for Romeo and Juliet’s relationship to develop into true love, so therefore it is just infatuation. Furthermore, Romeo and Juliet constantly refer to each other’s appearances instead of their true personality, which is a clear sign that they are only infatuated. Finally, Romeo and Juliet are only naïve adolescents who have not really experienced true love. Hence, their relationship is degraded to infatuation. In conclusion, it is very interesting why some readers call Romeo and Juliet a love story, since it really is not. If Shakespeare gave Romeo and Juliet more time to develop their relationship, maybe more readers would be convinced that Romeo and Juliet is a true love
story.