Love in Romeo and Juliet

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Explore in detail Shakespeare’s portrayal of love in Romeo and Juliet, with specific reference to act 1. Shakespeare started Romeo and Juliet with a prologue with the structure of a sonnet. This revels that the theme of the play ‘love’ and ‘star crossed lovers’ meaning that Romeo and Juliet are meant and will meet during the play. You can also tell from the prologue that there will be a strong link between love and fate. You are also shown straight away that the play is going to be a tragedy. This is an affective way to start Romeo and Juliet because you are tolled straight away what the play is about; the fact that Shakespeare started the prologue as a sonnet is to a very effective technique as a sonnet is formally know as being a love poem starting with a problem and then ending with the solution. Shakespeare begins with two bawdy characters (Samson and Gregory) conversing and making crude sexual comments. This is the most basic portrayal of love as lust. This is good stage craft as there is contrast with more romantic movements. I think that Shakespeare did this to keep peoples interest in the play (mainly the groundlings) so more people will come and see the performance and so he then earns more money. The first mention of Romeo is when Montague and Benvolio are talking about his miserable state after being turned down by Rosaline; from the quote ‘with tears augmenting’ depicts Romeo as an over emotional self-obsessed character. Montague’s opinion of Romeo is that he is ‘black and portentous’ which links to the death threat. This is a good way to introduce Romeo as you then know that he deeply believes in love at first sight. Romeo’s entrance shows us that he is unrequited lover that shows us again he is very depressed. This once again proves to us that Romeo deeply believes in falling in love and once fallen there’s no going back. Love is
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