The play opens up with Romeo crazy about Rosaline. He says ?She hath forsworn to love, and in that vow do I live dead, that live to tell it now?. He says roughly the same thing about Juliet, ?Ha, banishment! Be merciful say ?death??? Later he was quick to change his mind saying ?Did my heart love till now?? Clearly Romeo is willing to die for anyone that is beautiful since he?s basing his love off of Juliet?s looks rather than her personality. There is no such thing as love at first sight.
Juliet
and Romeo have only two conversations before they marry. Even Juliet?s father mentions that ?She hath not seen the change of fourteen years?Ere we may think her ripe to be a bride?. Juliet hasn?t experienced much of anything, especially love. This relationship happens suddenly, and Juliet must have been overwhelmed by emotion. She was also being forced into another marriage to Paris, so she didn?t really have much of a choice.
Juliet and Romeo make references to death throughout the play. Saying they would rather die for each other was just an expression. When it came down to it Juliet and Romeo acted in haste and weren?t thinking straight. Their emotions got the best of them and fatal consequences followed. Romeo is merely switching his infatuation from Rosaline to Juliet. Rosaline won?t have anything to do with him, and Juliet was the next best thing. Had Romeo married Rosaline things would have turned out different.
Friar Laurence is startled to find that Romeo is keen on Juliet. He too found this a little ironic since earlier he had been pining for Rosaline. He marries them not because he thinks that they are in love, but to try and solve the two families? hatred toward one other.
Romeo and Juliet is a romantic but thrilling tragedy full of action and mystery. Infatuation rules the day, catching anyone who gets in its sight including Romeo. The paragraphs above imply that it was infatuation between the two lovers not love as it?s perceived to be.