Romeo and Juliet Compare

Romeo and Juliet Compare-Contrast Brad Herring 12/12/12 Period 1

In William Shakespeare’s play, “The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet”, the type of love that the two main characters share for each other plays a big part in their horrible tragedy. Although Shakespeare portrays the two youths as experiencing strong first love attraction for each other, Romeo’s passion and love prevails as the more sincere of these two star-crossed lovers. Throughout the story, Juliet falls in love with Romeo because of what she observed in his actions and words, while Romeo loves Juliet solely because of her beauty. Romeo is the one responsible for naively rushing the relationship with thoughtless haste, thus creating an untimely end.

“O, swear not by the moon, the inconstant moon, that monthly changes in her circled orb, lest that thy love prove likewise variable.” Juliet explains to Romeo in Act 2: Scene 2 lines 109-111 because she wants the strong love to be real between them, not something that is constantly changing and moving. She even fakes her own death in so that she can be with Romeo, proving that she deeply loved him and would’ve done anything to be with him. Juliet is an erotic lover because she is fully prepared and ready for love and the risks it will come with, but is not anxiously searching for someone to love her back. She also idealizes love and this does eventually lead to her downfall.

“Beauty too rich for use, for Earth too dear! Did my heart love till now? Forswear it, sight! For I ne’er saw true beauty till this night.” This quote from Romeo in Act 1: Scene 5 lines 45-51 shows that the only thing he is looking for in a woman is her looks, not what he thinks about her on the inside. Romeo is a maniac lover, he is anxious to fall in love, and he becomes completely obsessed and tries to create problems just to intensify feelings in the relationship. Romeo is constantly imagining his future with Juliet and tries to force her to love him more with his words and becoming more and more possessive of her. He is totally convinced that life without his woman would be hardly worth living, making Romeo’s love for Juliet unbreakable, eventually leading to his death.

With unbridled love, lust, and fearlessness these two fall into a relationship for two distinct types of passionate motivation. For this teenage male, conquering his ambition to share sincere love, contrasts with Juliet’s attempt to escape a predestined marital arrangement by Lord Capulet. Their hastened relationship blossoms and withers too quickly by their own impatience and immaturity. To sum up Shakespeare’s tragic poem, the terrible death of the two lovers results from their fear of family grudge and need for someone to reinforce the missing love that the family’s feud has taken from the two youth. They are tragic heroes because of their endless love for each other leads them to an unknown suicide pact.