Love

• Romeo and Juliet


  Widely regarded as one of the greatest love stories ever told
• Theme of love


  Interwoven into every scene in the play, different forms of love are explored
• Forms of love explored

  • Unrequited
  • Elevated and holy
  • Physical
  • Linked with violence and death
• Unrequited love


  Portrayed through Romeo's infatuation with Rosaline, his love is one-sided and she doesn't feel the same way
• Oxymorons used by Romeo


  • "O brawling love, O loving hate"
  • "feather of lead"
  • "bright smoke"
  • "cold fire"
  • "sick health"
• The oxymorons suggest Romeo's inability to comprehend what is in front of him and his overall confusion on love
• The oxymorons also reinforce Romeo's immature and impulsive character
• Juliet's description of Romeo

  "too rash, too unadvis'd, too sudden, too like the lightning"
• The asyndetic listing and simile encapsulate Romeo's reckless and impulsive character
• Religious imagery


  Used to portray the pure and chaste love between Romeo and Juliet, contrasted with sexualised imagery in Act 5 Scene 3
• Consummation of Romeo and Juliet's love

  Symbolised by Romeo drinking from a round vial (allusion to female sexuality) and Juliet killing herself with a phallic dagger
• The consummation of their love connects them physically, mentally and spiritually
• Physical love


  Exemplified in the play, contrasting the emotional and physical aspects of love
• Mercutio's description of Rosaline's body

  • "I conjure thee by Rosaline's bright eyes,/By her high forehead and her scarlet lip, /By her fine foot, straight leg, and quivering thigh"
• Friar's view on love

  "Young men's love lies not truly in their hearts, but in their eyes"
• The Friar's view contradicts the more romantically idealised conventions of the time, perhaps cloaking the play in irony
• Nurse's sexualised view of Romeo


  • "his leg excels all men's"
• The Nurse's view contrasts with Juliet's emotional attachment to Romeo, suggesting their love transcends conventional ideas
• Juliet's oxymorons describing Romeo

  Commenting on his physical attributes and external beauty, perhaps reflecting a superficial view of love
• Juliet's reference to "buying the mansion of a love"

  Likening the consummation of marriage to the possession of a mansion, suggesting the objectification of women and love as a business transaction
• Link between love and violence/death

  The passionate love of Romeo and Juliet is unsettled by the violence and conflict, but this actually fuels and makes their love more powerful
• Violence and intimacy


  • Sampson and Gregory describe acts of violence and rape with a "naked weapon", juxtaposing intimacy and violence
• Use of sonnet form


  • Conventionally used to depict love, but Shakespeare uses it to describe death and feud, with blood-filled imagery
• Friar Lawrence's description of Romeo and Juliet's marriage


  • "violent delights"
• Juliet's prophetic words

  • "my grave is like to be my wedding bed"
• The intersection of violence/death and love characterises the drama as a tragedy