Romeo And Juliet
What does Romeo and Juliet have to say about love in Act 1?
In the dictionary, love is described as being a strong feeling of affection towards another person. In our society, love can either be seen as something inexistent and completely imaginary, or something truly magical that everyone wants to experience at least once in their lives. In Romeo and Juliet, love is recognized as being the main theme as it is at the base of the whole storyline; however, Shakespeare intelligently shows distinction between different types of love that can either be inspiring and intriguing or offensive, violent and inappropriate.
From Scene 1, in the first few lines, we already notice many expressions with sexual references, for instance “Therefore I will push Montague’s men from the wall, and thrust his maids to the wall”, said by Sampson indicating that he was going to rape young Montages women. Another example of this could be “Me they shall feel while I am able to stand” which refers to Sampson’s sexual life. This portrays from an early stage of the play the more carnal aspect of Verona’s society, which is from the start very sexist and violent. This foreshadows the first type of love that we will encounter in the text: a sexual love. In my opinion, I don’t think this should be categorized with other types of love, but it should be considered more like an attraction or sometimes even like a powerful form of violence: “Ay, the heads of the maids, or their maidenheads – take it in what sense thou wilt” refers to the Montague’s ladies’ virginities that are bound to be taken by Sampson. This kind of appeal is represented to be in contrast with the romantic views of love. It is often illustrated by Mercutio, the Nurse and other minor characters such as Sampson and Gregory. Shakespeare chose to depict this contrast to balance Romeo and Juliet’s magical love. The reason why I think the word appeal would be more appropriate is because men refer to women as objects, with symbolisms
In the dictionary, love is described as being a strong feeling of affection towards another person. In our society, love can either be seen as something inexistent and completely imaginary, or something truly magical that everyone wants to experience at least once in their lives. In Romeo and Juliet, love is recognized as being the main theme as it is at the base of the whole storyline; however, Shakespeare intelligently shows distinction between different types of love that can either be inspiring and intriguing or offensive, violent and inappropriate.
From Scene 1, in the first few lines, we already notice many expressions with sexual references, for instance “Therefore I will push Montague’s men from the wall, and thrust his maids to the wall”, said by Sampson indicating that he was going to rape young Montages women. Another example of this could be “Me they shall feel while I am able to stand” which refers to Sampson’s sexual life. This portrays from an early stage of the play the more carnal aspect of Verona’s society, which is from the start very sexist and violent. This foreshadows the first type of love that we will encounter in the text: a sexual love. In my opinion, I don’t think this should be categorized with other types of love, but it should be considered more like an attraction or sometimes even like a powerful form of violence: “Ay, the heads of the maids, or their maidenheads – take it in what sense thou wilt” refers to the Montague’s ladies’ virginities that are bound to be taken by Sampson. This kind of appeal is represented to be in contrast with the romantic views of love. It is often illustrated by Mercutio, the Nurse and other minor characters such as Sampson and Gregory. Shakespeare chose to depict this contrast to balance Romeo and Juliet’s magical love. The reason why I think the word appeal would be more appropriate is because men refer to women as objects, with symbolisms