The story of Romeo and Juliet is possibly the most beautifully constructed display of ideological love the world knows today. Ideological because it is the essence of a form of love not known to modern man. Richly woven in the prejudices and social conflicts of the late Renaissance era, it reflects popular misconceptions of what love really is. Several stories of similar context have been made and reworked over time, such as Tristan and Isolde and the cult-movie West Side Story, and although there is debate as to what form of the story came first, Romeo and Juliet is largely accepted as the epitome of love-tragedy. Looking more closely at the character of Romeo, we need to ask though: what type of person was a
He and why did he fit the profile of the condemned lover so well? To analyze his character, it is necessary to understand the Italy into which he was born.
Written in the 1500’s, William Shakespeare explored as much the Renaissance city as he did the characters. The Renaissance (re-awakening or re-birth) was indicative of a new school of thought, a time when all moral obligations and previously Dark-Age thoughts were being irreconcilably challenged. The Renaissance in Italy was a time in which historians and writers were most active, sparking a new wave of literacy in the Italian world, said to be the father of Renaissance Europe.
Literature was beginning to be written in the vernacular as opposed to the high-Latin, which often had eliminated ordinary people from writing due to the social status surrounding those who wrote in Latin (Hutchinson, 2006). It stands to reason thus that old social values at the time were also challenged. For instance, in the case of castes and social class barriers as seen in Romeo and Juliet, more emphasis was being placed on the value of the ‘common’ person than had previously been explored. Looking at Romeo as a character, his obvious insistence on flouting the norms of social practice reflected the rebellious nature of the Italy he was born into, the Italy of Renaissance thought-freedom.
Questionable in this story, however, is whether Romeo’s source of love was true, or based on lust-driven infatuation. When considering firstly the fact that Romeo had been in love with Rosaline prior to his meeting Juliet, this sheds a shadow of doubt upon his true intentions with Juliet. In Act I Scene I we already see the Capulet-Montague squabble breaking out as Benvolio, Romeo’s friend and Tybalt, Lady Capulet’s nephew decide to make war in the public streets, which appears to be not an unusual scene. The scene of tension already draws the attention to the true situation of conflict between the families. Also in Act I Scene I, we see a melodramatic Romeo lamenting his love for Rosaline:
“Alas, that love, whose view is muffled still,
Should, without eyes, see pathways to his will!
Where shall we dine?” (Romeo, Act I Scene I).
In effect, Romeo is quite selfish, his actions are about himself and this does not bode well for the futures of anyone involved with him. His actions are hasty, without much thought given to what the consequences of his actions will be. It could be postulated that his love either for Rosaline or for Juliet could not be terribly realistic. As he marries Juliet, they have not known each other long, but rather caught up in the impulses of attraction, Romeo decides that to marry Juliet before she can be forced to marry Paris would be the answer to the problem.
Yet in Act I Scene IV, Romeo is invited to a dinner which Rosaline will be attending, so infatuated with the idea of Rosaline, it is Juliet who catches his eye, putting a fair amount of doubt on his true emotions for Rosaline in the first place. After having wooed Juliet with the usual affectations, he discovers she is a Capulet and again the attention is drawn to the terrible woes of his life:
“Is she a Capulet?
O dear account! my life is my foe’s debt.” (Romeo to Benvolio, Act I Scene V).
Comparing for instance, Romeo’s character to that of Shakespeare’s Hamlet, it can be seen that many of Shakespeare’s men were rather selfish in nature. Where Romeo is intent on getting what he wants, regardless of the circumstances or consequences, Hamlet goes forth and loses everyone that is precious to him with the exception of Horatio in a selfish tirade against his step-father. Romeo also makes conjectures that he has not thought about, wishing in Act II Scene II, that he could change his name and no longer be a Montague, also stating:
“I have night’s cloak to hide me from their sight;
And but thou love me, let them find me here:
My life were better ended by their hate,
Than death prorogued, wanting of thy love.” (Romeo to Juliet, Act II Scene II)
This is not only foolish, but filled with the carefree nature of youth, Romeo is not thinking about the bigger picture, but more or less about what he wants from Juliet. Bearing in mind that he met Juliet the night before, there is not much logical change that he is in fact ‘in love’, but more infatuated with the beautiful Capulet when only the night before he was harping the same professions of Rosaline.
As a character, Romeo is a little scattered. He strikes the reader as being filled with idea’s about love and romance and though obviously driven by these emotions, he does not stop to think that the consequences may be grave for his actions. Juliet is incapacitated by the same emotions of youth, which make the situation volatile. Romeo had had a dream which had posed itself as an omen surrounding this particular event, but instead of seeing it as a warning, his emotional entanglement with Juliet rules above the logic of his mind.
He not only puts himself at risk, but also his other loved ones or Juliet’s. This is with particular reference to his murder of Mercutio, which put Juliet in a particularly difficult situation of having to choose between Romeo and her family. Romeo is not in actual fact the type of person who is worthy of as much acclaim as he has been given. His actions, along with those of Juliet, have been romanticized over time. Although his flouting of social norms of the period may have questioned the harshness of social realities, the personal meaning of his actions were devastating and in the end…tragic.
Sources
Hutchinson’s Encyclopaedia of World History. 2006. “Renaissance”. Web.
Shakespeare, William. “Romeo and Juliet”. Shakespeare’s Homepage. Web.