Love or Lust
LOVE OR JUST LUST
Romeo and Juliet is shown as a great “love” story by Shakespeare, but in my opinion it is clearly set up as a story of “lust” . Romeo is madly in love with Rosaline at the beginning of the story, as the story progresses, he falls in love with Juliet at first sight. Juliet a very young girl does not know the meaning of love, and what it should be to fall in love, she subsequently falls in loves with Romeo based on his looks. Both, Romeo and Juliet were never meant to succeed in being lovers, not only because their families were at war with each other, but because they knew nothing of true love and what life is really like in the grown up world.
My first example of why I think this “love” story was more of a “lust” story is because at the beginning of the story, Romeo was heartbroken that Rosaline wasn’t into him. Romeo was only in love with Rosaline based on her looks, rather than what her personality had to offer. An example that shows that Romeo loves Rosaline because of her physical appearance is when Romeo tells his cousin Benvolio that the women he loved was beautiful, “A right good markman! And she’s fair I love” (I: i, 203) telling me that Romeo was only after Rosaline for her looks. There is nowhere in that line that states that Romeo loved Rosaline for anything else but her looks. Romeo was only physically attracted to Rosaline and he only wanted to have a physical relationship with her because she was the most beautiful woman he had ever seen.
Romeo then crashes the Capulet’s big feast party, where his eyes get introduced to Juliet. Romeo’s intentions were to go to the Capulet’s house to see Rosaline but the minute he sees Juliet he falls in love with her and forgets all about Rosaline like it never happened. Romeo is young and doesn’t know the meaning of love. Romeo’s love is all based on physical appearance. He doesn’t know what love actually is because he is too young and naïve to know the true meaning of love. “Did my
Romeo and Juliet is shown as a great “love” story by Shakespeare, but in my opinion it is clearly set up as a story of “lust” . Romeo is madly in love with Rosaline at the beginning of the story, as the story progresses, he falls in love with Juliet at first sight. Juliet a very young girl does not know the meaning of love, and what it should be to fall in love, she subsequently falls in loves with Romeo based on his looks. Both, Romeo and Juliet were never meant to succeed in being lovers, not only because their families were at war with each other, but because they knew nothing of true love and what life is really like in the grown up world.
My first example of why I think this “love” story was more of a “lust” story is because at the beginning of the story, Romeo was heartbroken that Rosaline wasn’t into him. Romeo was only in love with Rosaline based on her looks, rather than what her personality had to offer. An example that shows that Romeo loves Rosaline because of her physical appearance is when Romeo tells his cousin Benvolio that the women he loved was beautiful, “A right good markman! And she’s fair I love” (I: i, 203) telling me that Romeo was only after Rosaline for her looks. There is nowhere in that line that states that Romeo loved Rosaline for anything else but her looks. Romeo was only physically attracted to Rosaline and he only wanted to have a physical relationship with her because she was the most beautiful woman he had ever seen.
Romeo then crashes the Capulet’s big feast party, where his eyes get introduced to Juliet. Romeo’s intentions were to go to the Capulet’s house to see Rosaline but the minute he sees Juliet he falls in love with her and forgets all about Rosaline like it never happened. Romeo is young and doesn’t know the meaning of love. Romeo’s love is all based on physical appearance. He doesn’t know what love actually is because he is too young and naïve to know the true meaning of love. “Did my