Types of Love in Romeo and Juliet essay PDF

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This is a comparative essay on the types of love in Romeo and Juliet....

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Ashleigh campbell Julia Atkinson May 28, 2020

Types Of Love Contrast Essay Based off of William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet The book Romeo and Juliet exemplifies many different examples of types of love, a few of them being: friendship, romantic love, parental love, unrequited love, and love of family honour. In this essay I want to talk about 2 of the 5 types of love stated above which are romantic love and love of family honour. These two types of love, although are different, are also the main drivers of the plot in this book. Romantic love is the reason this story is a story, and love of family honour is what causes most of the challenges Romeo and Juliet face throughout the story. Romeo and Juliet’s romantic love for each other is exemplified throughout the story to be unattackable by the Capulet’s and the Montague’s love of family honour. The first type of love that I am going to talk about from this story is romantic love which is illustrated throughout the story between Romeo and Juliet. Romantic love means; “The type of love is a mutual attraction, and full of passion.”(the types of love in Romeo and Juliet lesson). Romeo says, “Thou canst not speak of that thou dost not feel. Wert thou as young as I, Juliet thy love, and hour married, Tybalt murdered, footing like me, and like me banished. Then mightst thou speak, then mightst thou tear thy hair and fall upon the ground as I do now.” (III,iii,64-69) This quote exemplifies that the romantic love that Romeo and Juliet have is worth dying with rather than to live without. Love also brings great amounts of passion which people express in

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various ways, one being through speech, this is how people can express their feelings to the person who they love. In this case Juliet says, “Or, if thou wilt not, be but sworn my love, and I’ll no longer be a Capulet.” She is expressing her love to Romeo in a way that shows she will give up who she is just to be with him, if that is not passion I do not know what is. These two quotes show me that both Romeo and Juliet express love for each other on multiple occasions, proving they both love each other a great deal. The next type of love that I will talk about is love of family honour which is established in both the Capulet’s and the Montague’s. Love of family honour means; “respect to uphold family honour and integrity.”(from the types of love in Romeo and Juliet lesson) Whenever people think of love they think of positive actions, but in the case of the story Romeo and Juliet, love of family honour is demonstrated through a majority of violent acts. Tybalt says, “Boy, this shall not excuse the injuries that thou hast done me. Therefore turn and draw.”(III,i, 37-38) Tybalt said this in not defence to himself, but to defend his family because Romeo disrespected them when coming to their dinner. As much as most of the love of family honour is displayed violently there are also some occasions when it is rather a peaceful remark. Capulet says, “Take no note of him. It is my will, the which if thou respect, show a fair presence and put off thee frowns.”(I,iiiii,70-73) Capulet had the opportunity to have his nephew kill Romeo for disrespecting their dinner, yet he chose to honour his family’s dinner party and to not make a fuss in respect to his family. The next thing that I will be talking about is the similarities that these two types of love have in this story as well as in general. Both of these types of love show that the people who feel love for their family’s honour as well as romantic love will sacrifice themselves for this love. We

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see this in these parts of the story, “O Romeo, Romeo Mercutio is dead.”(III,i,28), “Thy drugs are quick. Thus with a kiss I die.” (IIIII,iii,130). Both of these quotes show people dying for people dying of both romantic and love of family honour, both sacrificing themselves to express their love. There is also evidence that both types of love can cause major conflict which ends in tragedy in the story. The following parts of the story display conflict caused by the two types of love, “Hang thee, young baggage! Disobedient wretch! I tell thee what: get thee to the church o’ Thursday, or never look me in the face.” (III, iiiii,160-162), “O calm dishonourable, vile submission! All a stoccata carries it away. (Draws his sword) Tybalt, you ratcatcher, will you walk?” (III, i, 44 - 46) Both of these situations were in result of a type of love, the first quote being when Juliet wouldn’t marry Paris because she loves and is already married to Romeo, the second quote being when Tybalt disrespected Romeo and Mercutio stood up for Romeo. Those are the most prevalent similarities between the two. The final body paragraph of my essay will be covering the differences in Romeo and Juliet. The first major difference that I see is that romantic love shows sexual desire where there is none in love for family honour. Romeo says to Juliet, “And none but fools wear it. Cast it off!” He says this to Juliet to try and convince her to sleep with him, portraying his sexual desire for her. As well as the fact that love for family honour you are more raised to think like this, where as romantic love is more so just circumstantial to whom you meet. In the prologue it states, “Two households, both alike in dignity, (in fair Verona where we lay our scene) from ancient grudge breaks new mutiny,” This shows that the grudge the Capulet’s and Montague's had for each other is much older than the love Romeo and Juliet have, proving that you are pushed/ born into love

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of family honour. Those are the most prevalent differences this book illustrates from my perspective. The love that Romeo and Juliet share is what brings together the families that once were enemies. Montague says at the end of the story, “For I will raise her statue in our gold, that whiles Verona by that name is known, there shall no figure at such rate be set as true and faithful as Juliet.”(IIIII,iii,315-318) Montague says this quote from one of the last pages of the play, it resembles that the anger the two families had has been overpowered by the love Romeo and Juliet shared. Love is what can guide us to do things that we might have never even dreamed of doing before the intoxicating drug love is introduced to us . Love of family honour, funny enough can sometimes without knowing drive families apart. Love is a truly powerful thing that works in many ways that shape our life into what it is.

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