Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet: Emotional Voices of Love

Explore the ways writers present emotional voices of love in Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet” and selected poems from the English Literary heritage
A work synonymous with the themes of intense love and tragedy, Romeo and Juliet is perhaps William Shakespeare’s most famous play. Written over 400 years ago in 1595, the play was extremely popular with its contemporary, Elizabethan audiences, and the centuries since have only augmented its initial successes. In an age where English and European literature flourished, the play was perhaps one of the most famous and celebrated. Notably one of the first of Shakespeare’s plays to be performed outside of England, it was also one of the most popular in his day, as well as being the most performed Shakespearean play ever, tied with Hamlet. Based on an epic narrative poem written 30 years earlier by fellow Englishman Arthur Brooke, Shakespeare adapted and intensified the story, as well as changing the portrayal of the two main characters; Romeo and Juliet. In the original poem the couple were portrayed in accordance to the social situation of the time, where they would have been vilified for defying their families. Shakespeare instead portrayed them in a much more sympathetic light, where their love transcended social conforms and eventually led to the reconciliation of their two feuding families. This love is presented to the audience via various tones and themes throughout the play. These form an “emotional voice” which portrays Romeo and Juliet’s love in a specific and complex way. By comparing the emotional voice featured in Romeo and Juliet to ones from other works both contemporary to Romeo and Juliet, as well as poems written since and some of Shakespeare’s other works we can see how social context, the writer’s situation and other factors can all affect the emotional voice features in a play, poem or sonnet.
Although best known for his plays, William Shakespeare was an extremely prolific writer of all kinds of literature. In a 30 year career Shakespeare wrote over 100 sonnets. One of these is Sonnet 130. Written in a time where the love was sonnet was an essential component of the courtship between a man and a woman, Sonnet 130 is a break from the traditional Petrarchan love sonnet of the period, which was created by famous Italian poet Francesco Petrarca in the 14th century. In Sonnet 130, Shakespeare mocks and satires the Petrarchan love sonnet and indeed the courtly routines of the time. Characteristic of the Petrarchan love sonnet (which by Shakespeare’s time in the late 15th and early 16th centuries had become almost clichéd and overused) were grand, sweeping metaphors and similes, as well as personification, imagery and elaborate comparisons. Shakespeare includes many of these features in Sonnet 130 but instead of using them to compliment or praise something, he uses them to poke fun at the romantic norm, as well as to highlight how realistic and sincere his love for his mistress is. At first glance, the emotional voice in Sonnet 130 is cynical and wry; Shakespeare knows openly admits the flaws of his mistress, and does not try to hide them or to endeavour the reader towards her. However, if the poem is read into more seriously, one can see that the writer’s emotional voice is sincere and true. Several aspects of this are mirrored in Romeo and Juliet. Although the play is centred around his love with Juliet, at the beginning of the play Romeo loves another-Rosaline. Initially this love with Rosaline seems to grip Romeo’s heart, and when she rejects him, he falls into a deep melancholy. His courtship of her is a more traditional, more conformed one than his courtship of Juliet. Romeo’s love of Rosaline is similar to the kind of love that Shakespeare mocks in Sonnet 130: one which isn’t false, but nothing like the sincere true love between Romeo and Juliet. The features of a Petrarchan sonnet (namely metaphors, elaborate imagery and other devices) can also be found in the early part of Romeo and Juliet’s courtship, where Romeo compares Juliet to the sun, says that his love for her enables him to do anything and uses many other metaphors which the first, cynical voice of love in Sonnet 130 would deem clichéd and overused. On the other hand, the second, sincere love (which features at the end of Sonnet 130) can be found in the same balcony scene, where Juliet asks Romeo to avoid such clichéd normality, and whether his love for her in sincere.
Another work famous for its vivid and distinct emotional voice of love is English poet John Clare’s 18th century work “First Love”. Written by Clare about his first and only true love-a woman called Mary Joyce, who was the daughter of a wealthy land owner. Clare, who is today known as the “greatest labouring class poet that England has ever produced” was rebuked by her which cause a lasting melancholic effect on both his poetry and his life, although he later married and had 6 children. In contrast to Shakespeare’s Sonnet 130, where the emotional voice looks outwards towards other people and general society at the time, and gently satires the courtships of others, Clare’s “First Love” looks inwards towards the author’s own emotions and responses to love. Describing in detail Clare’s love, the poem’s tone is far more intense than Sonnet 130, “First Love” was written for Mary Joyce in an attempt to woo her. This difference in atmosphere between the two works could perhaps be explained by the extreme difference in the two poets lifestyles and situations. Sonnet 130 was written in the 1590s or early 1600s, when William Shakespeare was one of England’s premier poets and writers. “First Love” was written early in the 19th century, when John Clare was a farm labourer, being rejected by his true love. This rejection could have led to a kind of desperation in Clare’s works, whereas Shakespeare’s enduring successes could have lent him the outward looking composure which can be found in Sonnet 130. Despite the numerous cultural, social and historical factors which set Clare and Shakespeare’s Romeo apart, there are some aspects of their love which can be seen to be quite similar. Like Clare, Romeo felt bitter rejection early on which left him in a melancholy and depressed state (albeit for a much shorter period, and which was later assuaged by his true love for Juliet). Like Clare, Romeo is separated from his true love by a social division; in Romeo’s case the Capulet-Montague feud, in Clare’s case the vast social gulf. This affinity is reflected in the similarities between Romeo’s initial courting of Juliet and “First Love”. Both feature rhetorical questions, metaphors and similes, and elaborate imagery. The excited, desperate and intense emotional voice of “First Love” is mirrored in Romeo’s speeches and statements early in his courtship (for example, II.v.95, Romeo describes Juliet as a “holy shrine”, and then details his “lips, two blushing pilgrims, ready stand, To smooth that rough touch with a tender kiss”. The emotional voices of the two works have a marked similarity.
In distinct contrast to the emotional voices of “First Love” and Sonnet 130, as well as the tones of Romeo and Juliet’s intense and sincere courtship is the view of love as a superficial thing; which is based on the physical not the mental or spiritual. A key character in Romeo and Juliet, that of Mercutio (Romeo’s staunch ally and companion) holds this view, and the emotional voice whichhe projects throughout the play is a cynical, almost shallow opinion of love. From the very beginning of the play Mercutio acts as a sort of “counter-Romeo”, whose opinions of love are opposite to Romeo’s in every way. Mercutio emphasises the sexual side of love, often referencing sex in his lines. This provides both a contrast to Romeo’s more serious and sombre views on love as well as a comic relief for the audience. Even in Shakespeare’s time, Mercutio was an extremely well received character, and he was one of the few who retained that popularity into some of the periods in the following centuries when Shakespeare’s works fell somewhat in eminence. In the 16th century (when Romeo and Juliet was written), the norms of love and relationships were drastically different to the ones today. Marriage was seen as a political tool, and more often than not, people married for convenience more than love. As well as this, life expectancy was much shorter and women married much younger (early teens) to accommodate this. The original, Elizabethan audiences would have been more accustomed to the cynical side of love, and (as well as Romeo and Juliet’s unusual marriage of intense love) they would have found Mercutio’s blatant puns and innuendos extremely funny. In a period where the theatre was the only dedicated form of public entertainment, Mercutio would have been a comic element that probably wouldn’t be allowed in modern theatres. His puns, if translated into a modern context probably wouldn’t be approved of in a contemporary theatre. For example, (II.i.23-26), his innuendo “Twould anger him, To raise a spirit in his mistresses circle” references........... These references and puns work to create an emotional voice which is both frank, emphasises the sexual side of love and adds a light edge to the otherwise sombre love content.
A work written almost in parallel with Shakespeare’s is Andrew Marvell’s “To His Coy Mistress”. Written only half a century after Romeo and Juliet in the 1650s, the poem is considered to be one of Marvell’s best works, as well as one of the best “carpe diem” poems ever written. The poem centres around a man (presumably Marvell himself) trying to persuade a woman with whom he is already involved, to consummate their relationship. A prime example of a seductive piece of literature, “To his Coy Mistress” uses devices such as elaborate imagery and metaphors, as well as structural techniques, bringing across an air of persuasive eloquence. Witty and intelligent line such as “The grave’s a fine and private place/But none I think there embrace” are juxtaposed to intense and disturbing imagery (for example “My echoing song; then worms shall try/That long preserv’d virginity”) to create an atmosphere of urgency. Marvell also uses personification to intensify the poem, lines such as “But at my back I always hear/Time’s winged chariot near”, which combine to with much lighter metaphors and innuendos to create an ever changing pace and tempo. Rhyming couplets throughout the poem also add to this feeling of a fast rhythm. Whilst “To his Coy Mistress” is a poem, the structure is not dissimilar to that of a persuasive speech or argument. Each stanza features a different approach to the subject; the first describes an ideal situation, whilst the second focuses on the conflict or problem of time and the final stanza details a solution. Much like the intro, argument and conclusion of a persuasive speech this structure would have been extremely effective. The urgency in many of the lines is carried across in the overall emotional voice of Marvell’s work. This is similar to the emotional voice, at times, in Romeo and Juliet. The overall sense of time and the urgency with which the male protagonist (Marvell or Romeo) tries to persuade their respective lovers are present in both works. The emotional voice of “To his Coy Mistress” also proposes the quickening of his relationship, as do both Romeo and Juliet (for example, Romeo proposing marriage after only a few days). There are several key differences between the emotional voices of “To his Coy Mistress” and Romeo and Juliet. Whilst Romeo and Juliet’s love is driven by emotion, Marvell’s love is driven more by lust (at least in “To his Coy Mistress”). The emotional voice of the 18th century poem, which advocates living in the moment, seizing in the day applies not just to courtship but to everyday life as well. This sentiment is echoed in Romeo and Juliet, where the