Angeles Martinez
804
Romeo and Juliet Essay
Fate
and Destiny, these are things people in love tend to think when they’re
together. They believe when they think they meet that right person-or when they
do meet them-that it was fate. It was their destiny to meet each other. Of
course, it’s not uncommon when you love someone; you want to be committed to
them. You don’t want them to leave you, so you obviously do they best you can.
Fate or destiny, they drove you to your special person and you want to be
committed to them. Love is a special thing, it’s almost like war, it’s easy to
start, hard to fight, and you never forget it. But sometimes, there are people
who don’t think love is special-well they might but they don’t treat it that
way. When they meet a “Special person”-they think they’re the one, that fate
meant to put one and one together, but
was soon as they meet someone else-boom! The 1st person wasn’t fate,
it was this one. Yes, this happens in regular love but with some it happens
just too quickly, because they just need someone to love, and they don’t care
who it is, just as long as they have someone. In William Shakespeare’s Romeo
and Juliet, Romeo is one of those people, they think they know love; they
fall in and out of love too quickly because they just need someone. This is
what makes Romeo so sure about his love with Juliet is the right thing, that
they’re star-crossed lovers, fate meant it to happen, but on the other hand,
it’s not so sure. William Shakespeare
portrays Romeo as a character who just needs someone to love, and will fall in and
out of love in a snap, making him an uncommitted character.
In Romeo and Juliet’s first act, it was clear that Romeo was “committed” to Rosaline, a woman who had chosen the path of a nun. Romeo was in so love with Rosaline, he was really depressed when he found out she had Diana’s-the goddess of virgins and the moon-path. His father-Lord Montague—had said “The Shady curtains from Aurora’s bed/away from light steals home my heavy son/And private in his chamber pens himself/shuts up his windows, locks fair daylight out/And makes himself an artificial night.” (1.1.139-143.) Night represents a dark-place, in night there is no light which represents happiness and sunshine to some, by making himself an “artificial night” in his room, he’s chasing away all the light and happiness. Benvolio, Romeo’s cousin comes in, asking Romeo why he is so upset, Romeo tells him it’s because of Rosaline, how she could never love him because of her decisions and how it hurts him. Benvolio says Romeo should stop mourning, stop locking himself in his room, and forget about Rosaline “by giving liberty unto thine eyes/Examine other beauties.” (1.1. 234-235) But Romeo insists he cannot forget someone he’s so madly in love with, that is so beautiful, “other beauties” cannot outshine her. “Show me a mistress that is passing fair;/ what doth her beauty serve but as a note/where I may read who passed that passing fair?/Farewell. Thou canst not teach me to forget.” (1.1.243-246.) Romeo insists that Benvolio will not be able to “I’ll pay that doctrine or else die in debt” (1.1.248) because he is so in love with Rosaline that she is his everything, even if she cannot love him back. Rosaline will always the great swan to Romeo’s heart.
In
the next few scenes, Romeo and Benvolio attended a party, in an attempt to help
Romeo meet new beauties. At a Capulet party, Romeo meets Juliet, and it’s love
and first sight. The two star-crossed lovers are madly in love with each other
by the end of the party, and during the party Romeo and Juliet had kissed, even
if they had thought it to be a sin. “Sin from my lips?/ O trespass sweetly
urged!/Give me my sin again.” (1.5.120-121) Even when Romeo had found out
Juliet was a Capulet, and she had found out he was a Montague, both lovers
still went on loving each other, trying to push past their family feuds and
expectations. Romeo had finally met a
new girl, someone who actually loved him back, and she was willing to do
anything for him, and he for her, but he had forgotten Rosaline, the girl who
he was really depressed about, the girl who he said he’d never forget, and gone
to Juliet, who he was ready to marry and die for. After the party, when he was
forced to leave, he doesn’t leave ;0but comes back, and when Juliet asks him if
he’s “Romeo, and a Montague?” (2.2.64-65) Romeo had replied “Neither, fair
maid, if either thee dislike.” (2.2.66) All Montagues and Capulets take pride
in their name, making the other side know clearly that they are of this group
and better than the other, but here is Romeo, ready to say he is not Romeo
Montague for a Capulet girl he had just met. With Rosaline, he had never really
done anything this big, he loved her and wasn’t ready to give up his name for
her, he was just ready to mope about not being with her. Now Juliet, a girl who
he hardly had known for a week, he was ready to give up everything for her.
Another
thing Romeo was ready to do for Juliet was marrying her. When the Nurse and
Romeo are talking-a few scenes after the balcony scene-Romeo says to the nurse:
“Bid her devise/Some means to come to shrift this afternoon/And there she shall
at Friar Lawrence’ cell/Be shrived and married.” (2.4.182-186) Back in the time
of William Shakespeare in order to be wed, a necessity is required. That necessity
is to post a banner for 3 “special” Sundays in a row, announcing this marriage.
In this case too, if the ones wanting to be wed are under a certain age, they
need to have permission from their parents, approving of this marriage. Romeo
and Juliet get married, but they do follow the requirements. Instead they meet
up and Friar Lawrence marries them like that, no approval, no banner, nothing. By
the afternoon, the newlywed couple is happily with each other, and Romeo is
certain that he is ready to die for Juliet.
After
Tybalt’s death Romeo is banished from Verona, clearly this a problem for the
young lovers. Though, they make a plan. The plan was plain and simple and led to
being happy together. But as their always is in young love, or love overall,
there were obstacles to be presented. For one, Juliet’s mother and father
presented Juliet to a “privilege.” The privilege is that Juliet is to be wed to
Paris by Thursday, a few days from then (They also don’t get a proper
marriage...). The plan of Romeo and Juliet need at least a few weeks, or maybe months to be carried out successfully. Juliet had wanted her mother to “Delay this
marriage for a month, a week/or, if you do not, make the bridal bed/in that dim
monument where Tybalt lies.” (3.5.210-213.) But her mother cannot, so off to
Friar Lawrence goes Juliet for an answer to prevent this marriage. They get an
answer, but something goes wrong-again. The messenger who was supposed to
telling Romeo everything that happened in Verona, the plan that Friar Lawrence
and Juliet had, the guy was not aware of, so in the end he had told Romeo-who
had poison with him-that Juliet was dead. Romeo rushes back to Verona,
depressed to hear about his wife and wanting to see her. When he does, he plans
to join her in death, so he takes the poison and drinks it! “Here’s to my love.
O true/apothecary/Thy drugs are quick. Thus with a kiss I die.” (5.3.119-120.)
Romeo dies, and in the end Juliet actually dies, and like it had said in the
beginning, the prologue, love had killed the star-crossed lovers.
As
in the begging, Benvolio had kept his doctrine, clearly he had not predicted
for it to happen like this, but he gave Romeo a girl to fall in love with, and
one who could love him back. Though, the story of Juliet and her Romeo is
sweet, Romeo wasn’t a committed character. Romeo had fallen too quickly out of
love with Rosaline and in love with Juliet. He didn’t know the girl, and had
fallen for her looks, assuming her personality was amazing for him. But on the
first night the lovers had met, Romeo had said “O, wily thou leave me so unsatisfied?”
(2.2.132) He had wanted more from Juliet on that first day, even when he knew
their love was a sin, a thing that shouldn’t have happened. When Romeo had told
Friar Lawrence of this proposal to Juliet, the Friar had said: “Holy Saint
Francis, what a change is here!/ Is Rosaline, that thou didst you love so
dear,/ so soon forsaken? Young men’s love then lies/ Not truly in their hearts,
but in their eyes./ Jusu Maria, what a deal brine/Hath washed thy sallow cheeks
for Rosaline!/ How much salt water thrown away in waste/ To season Love, that
of it doth not taste!/ The sun not yet thy sighs from heaven clears,/ Thy
groans yet ringing in mine ancient ears./ Lo, here upon thy cheek the stain
doth sit/of an old tear that is not washed off yet/ if e’er thou wast thyself,
and these woes thine/thou and these woes were all for Rosaline/And art thou
changed? Pronounce this sentence/then/ Women may fall when there’s no strength in
men.” (2.3.69-85.) The Friar, who had given them an improper marriage, had
stated that Romeo was going too fast as well. That they should really fall in
love instead of rushing into marriage, he also knows that Romeo has moved on
too quickly. He had Rosaline in a dear bundle to his heart, but as soon as he
met Juliet he had dropped it, replacing Rosaline too quickly. But, Romeo had
not listened, he was too in love with Juliet, and he wanted to be her husband
now, so they could live properly together, and no one was really going to stop
them-except fate.
In
the end, Romeo and Juliet had been able to escape their family feud and
expectations, they had escaped to death, not being able to live without one
another. Romeo had died for her and it was sweet, but he had rushed in too
quickly, and in the end, he’d paid for it, and like the Prince had said: “For never was a
story more woe/Than this of Juliet and her Romeo.” (5.3.319-320.)
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