English Homework - Representations of Love in Romeo and Juliet

In Act 1, we are already made aware that there can be multiple representations of love. Based on what we know of Romeo at this point in the play, how does Shakespeare represent love through the character of Romeo.

Shakespeare uses many different techniques to represent love through the character Romeo in the play. Shakespeare is representing love as a very important part of life by using Romeo and showing that he is very in love with a girl that doesn’t love him back. Shakespeare represents love in the play through the character Romeo as disheartening. This gives us the idea that when you fall in love to hard it can make you very upset. This is shown when Shakespeare shows that Romeo wants to be alone and doesn’t want to be around anyone which gives us the idea that when you fall in love and they don’t love you back, it can make you extremely depressed. Shakespeare uses imagery to show how Romeo is feeling when he finds out that the girl he is obsessed with doesn’t love him back which gives us a clear image in our head of his feelings at this time. Shakespeare shows us that the character of Romeo only loves physical beauty in a girl and he believes that the girl he loves physical beauty is going to waste. This makes the audience question why Romeo would fall so hard for someone based purely on how beautiful she is. This also impacts the way we view the love that Romeo has for girls in the play. Throughout the play the theme of love is clearly represented through the character of Romeo.