The Truth And Nature Of Love English Literature Essay

Romeo and Juliet is a play about love. In the play Romeo and Juliet there are many scenes exploring love. In Shakespeare’s play Romeo and Juliet he attempts to show “the truth and nature of love”. Shakespeare gets what he wants from the play by showing different types of love throughout the play. For example, he shows courtly love, physical love and romantic love.

Author Brooke wrote an earlier version of Romeo and Juliet in 1562. Shakespeare read the poem and made changes and published his version of Romeo and Juliet in 1595. He made the play better by changing some scenes around.

Shakespeare version of the play is a tragedy but has elements of humour and romance in it. The changes that Shakespeare made to his play were the time scale from at least nine months to four days. Shakespeare also changes, how old Juliet was going to be. He changed her age from being 16 to 13. He did this to show that women can mature from a young age. This is what made the play more interesting to read about. The reason that it was interesting to read is because this is what used to happen in Shakespeare time. He makes Juliet seem more impressive, strong and independent as for a women her age in the play.

In Elizabethan times in 1595 the women did not chose who they could love and get married to they would be forced to get married to someone they did not even love. This would be called an arranged marriage these days. Marriages were often for the family or for finance. Marriages were seen as very desirable for women and it was considered strange for women to be single and not married. When the play was being made women were not allowed to play the role of Juliet as the women at that time were not allowed on stage. Juliet was then played by a boy.

In the olden times the men or the fathers were always the lord of the household. Women would need to be taken care of, first by their fathers and brothers and then by their husbands. The husbands would then be the lords of the house and the wife.

There are many types of love in the play; one of the types of love that Shakespeare explores is courtly love. Courtly love is the type of love which is rigid. Shakespeare shows this in the play by Romeo going on how much he loves Rosaline. In the play Romeo asks Rosaline to be his lover but she refuses. This is showing chastity and not taking Cupid’s love. ‘One fire burns out another burning’: Benvolio is trying to get Romeo to forget about Rosaline, he does not believe that courtly love is for real.

In the play Romeo is going on how beautiful Rosaline is and that there is no other girl as beautiful as her. He says this as if it is not even real. ‘One more fair than my love the all seeing sun ne’er her match since first the world began’. In this quote the love that is seen is Courtly love. You can tell this by Romeo over acting and thinks that Rosaline is the most beautiful girl which he has ever seen. Mercutio goes on about ‘If love is rough with you, be rough with love.’ Mercutio is a man which does not like anything to do with love and he is trying to make Romeo get rid of the ridiculous love he has for Rosaline. Mercutio also goes on ‘Prick love for pricking and you beat love down.’ In this quote he is trying to make good use of the love so just use it as you are together and forget about the real love.

The way Benvolio and Mercutio try and make Romeo forget about Rosaline shows that they want him to find love but one that will last. Also a relationship that is real and he loves her as much as he says. As the love is not real for Rosaline.

Another type of love that Shakespeare goes into is the physical type of love. Rude jokes in Elizabeth times were really popular. In almost all of the plays that Shakespeare has written he has put in the very rude type of jokes concerning physical type of love.

For example Shakespeare has a Capulet character in the play say: ‘I will push Montague men to the wall and thrust his maid to the wall.’ The thing he Capulet is trying to say is that they want to take women and rape them. Shakespeare has used physical (sexual) type of love in this type of rude joke. This is a cheap way of making love.

In addition, the theme of romantic love was shown though the play. This is the way the whole story is mainly about love so Shakespeare has shown many types of loves. However, Shakespeare shows mostly Romantic love as that is what mainly the play looks at. Romeo is first with Rosaline and then with Juliet. Romeo says many romantic things to Juliet mostly. His first ever love was with Juliet. As Romeo and Rosaline did not really get to meet up and talk to each other it was just attraction love. Also Romeo did not know Rosaline as well as he knew Juliet.

In the play Romeo tells how he really feels about Juliet. ‘Did my heart love till now? Forswear it, sight! For I ne’er saw true beauty till this night.’ This is true love and the real example of nature of love. This is shown by the way Romeo changes the way he says things to Juliet. Romeo also shows hurt in romantic love by expressing his feelings. ‘”Jests at wounds that never felt a scar…” This shows that he is deeply in love and does not have a choice but to marry the love of his life and cannot live without Juliet anymore. After they meet again they arrange something so that they can get married as they cannot afford to live without each other. ‘By holy marriage: when and where and how

We met, we woo’d and made exchange of vow,; but this I pray,

That thou consent to marry us to-day.’ This is where they have agreed to get married. After that they do not want to live without each other Shakespeare shows this in a way that they have to go throw all these adventures and die in the end with the love they had for each other this is a “the truth and nature of love”.

In conclusion Romeo found the truth and nature of love but then had to die because of it. This showed the readers and watchers that Romeo did really find the truth and nature of love. Overall I think that Shakespeare succeeded in showing what is the truth and nature of love as he gave us to examples of how the love did not work out for Rosaline but worked for Juliet. This is a really good way as they get to show how love is for truth and how you will find it one day as Romeo found in Juliet’s heart. They both ended up killing themselves as there love was too much for them to stay alive for without each other.