Natural Love In Romeo And Juliet

Shakespeare's play, Romeo and Juliet, is a tragic love story that focuses on natural and supernatural love. Two families, the Capulets and the Montagues, are on opposite sides of a blood feud. Romeo, a Montague, falls in love with Juliet, a Capulet. Many events, involving the friar, Friar Lawrence, Mercutio (Romeo’s friend), the Price, Paris (who Juliet’s parents want her to marry), and Tybalt (Juliet’s cousin), lead to the eventual death of the two lovers. In this play there are two different forms of love, natural love and supernatural love. Natural love has to do with blood, family. Supernatural love goes beyond that, it’s love that goes beyond death, for example, the love of god. The characters in Romeo and Juliet all have their own stances
However, his type of love is completely different from Romeo and Juliet’s love. His love is based on Christianity, the love of God. When it comes to human love, he only know how to use reason and logic to solve the problem, which largely causes the death of Romeo and Juliet. The main reason he decided to marry Romeo and Juliet was because he wanted to end the two family’s hatred towards each other, and not because Romeo and Juliet love each other. “In one respect I’ll thy assistant be, / For this alliance may so happily prove / To turn your household’s rancor to true love.” (97-99) This quote supports the fact that the friar used only his logic and reasoning to come to a conclusion about something. The families of Romeo and Juliet believe only in natural love. Proof of this is that they force Juliet to marry Paris, or else they’ll kick her out of their family. “An you be not, beg, starve, die in the streets, / For, by my soul, I’ll ne’er acknowledge thee.” (204-205) When Juliet objects, her father, Lord Capulet, is furious: “Doth she not count her blessed, / Unworthy as she is, that we have wrought / So worthy a gentleman to her her bride?” (148-150) Both Romeo and Juliet’s parents don’t care about who they love, as long as they marry someone with high standards and money, and a high-ranking
Also, when it comes to making a decision, Lawrence uses logic and reasoning while Romeo largely only uses instinct. Romeo doesn’t stop to think of consequences, he just follows his gut feeling, while the friar’s plans are too risky. If the friar gave Juliet better advice, she wouldn’t die, and if Romeo didn’t decide to go kill Tybalt Juliet also wouldn’t be dead. To conclude, the characters in Romeo and Juliet all have different views on love. Romeo and Friar Lawrence believe in supernatural love, while Mercutio and the parents believe only in natural love, and Juliet has a bit of both. The characters’ weaknesses on their views on love eventually leads to the famous tragic ending of Romeo and Juliet. “For never was a story of more woe than this of Juliet and her Romeo.”