Romeo and Juliet

A constant theme of infatuation progressively is displayed throughout Romeo and Juliet, starting with an innocent desire for true love, and ending in death. Romeo and Juliet are the main characters that display the obsession through dialogue. The first sign of infatuation began with Romeo. He claimed, “love, whose view is muffled still, should without eyes, see pathways to his will” (Shakespeare 20). Romeo is obsessed with the idea of love, and is convinced that love controls you. He ends up getting confused and makes statements about how love is “heavy and light”, “bright and dark”, “hot and cold,” (Shakespeare 20). These oxymoronic assertions show that Romeo is infatuated with the idea of love, even though he hasn’t even really experienced true love yet considering he is only a teenager. Going onto scene II, the infatuation progresses. Now Romeo and Juliet have met and fallen in love within a day. Juliet proclaims, “…if thou wilt not, be but sworn by my love, and I’ll no longer be a Capulet” (Shakespeare 80). The great desire for love has escalated to the point of pure infatuation. Romeo and Juliet already want to get married even though they have just met. This shows that they do not know of true love, but they are just strongly attracted to one another. In act 3, Juliet’s desire for Romeo intensifies, and she beings to go against the people she truly loves the most – like her mother, father, and the Nurse. She confuses genuine love with infatuation and chooses to be with Romeo instead of making the right choice and listening to her parents. Juliet says, “myself have power to die” (Shakespeare 206). She believes that killing herself would be better than being apart from Romeo. In act 4, she talks to the friar and once again brings up the idea that death would be more preferable than being away from her “true love.” She holds up a knife and says, “I long to die if what thou speak’st speak not of remedy” (Shakespeare 212). She is desperate in the face of