Love Lessons in Romeo and Juliet
Love is powerful, and the passion that comes from it can lead to actions made rashly. Such love is exemplified in William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. Shakespeare uses the idea of love to exemplify how one can be blinded by love, the dangers that come with love and the realization that love doesn’t necessarily always lead to happiness. The first instance of what love teaches in this play is that Romeo and Juliet were both blinded by love. When they fell in love, they did not always consider anything else happening around them, but their focus and main thoughts consisted of each other. The first time Romeo saw Juliet, he fell deeply in love. “O, she doth teach the torches to burn bright!/ It seems she hangs upon the cheek of night/ …Did my heart love till now? Forswear it, sight!/ For I ne’er saw true beauty till this night.” (I.v.43-52). Foolish Romeo, who introduced himself as a sad, flowery character and thought of nothing but Rosaline, had now blocked out every previous thought of Rosaline and his vision then consisted of nothing but Juliet. He was completely blinded by Juliet’s beauty and did not fear to approach. Next, Juliet, who was then deeply in love with Romeo, could not see any problem with Romeo other than his name. “My only love sprung from my only hate!/ Too early seen unknown, and known too late!/ Prodigious birth of love it is to me,/ That I must love a loathed enemy.” (I.v.137-140). Juliet knew that there were many interferences between herself and Romeo that could further enrage the feud between the rivaled families, she was blinded by love and she did not use his title as a Montague as an excuse to not love him. Lastly, Romeo demonstrated that he had such a strong focus on Juliet. “But, soft! What light through yonder window breaks?/ It is the east, and Juliet is the sun./ Arise, fair sun, and kill the envious moon,/ … See, how she leans her cheek upon her hand!/ O, that I were a glove upon that hand,/ That I might touch that