Comparing The Different Types Of Love Evident In Romeo And Juliet Essay, Research Paper

Comparing the Different Types of Love Evident in Romeo and Juliet

?True love is like ghosts,”claims Fran?ois, Duc de La Rochefoucauld, “Which

everyone talks about but few have seen”. What is true love? Is it idealistic

love or physical love, mature love or paternal love. Well kiddies, it is all

that are listed here for each has its own place in the Shakespearean play Romeo

and Juliet.

Physical love, which Mercutio believes in, is well explained in his Queen

Mab story. Queen Mab, an English folk tale fairy was said to bring the dreams to

men and her child is the midwife to men’s fantasies. Mercutio wants just the

physical part of love, that is, sex. This is evident in his queen mab story:

?O, then, I see Queen Mab hath been with you.

She is a fairie’s midwife, and she comes

In shape no bigger than an agate-stone

On the fore-finger of an alderman,

Drawn with a team of little atomies

Over men’s noses as they lie asleep;

Her waggon spokes made of long spinners legs,

The cover of the wings of grasshoppers;

Her traces of the smallest spiders web;

Her collars of the moonshine’s watery beams;

Her whip of cricket’s bone; the lash of film;

Her waggoner a small grey-coated gnat,

Not half so big as a round little worm

Pricked from the lazy finger of a maid:

Her chariot is an empty hazle-nut

Made by the joiner squirrel, or old grub,

Time out o’ the fairies’ coachmakers.

And in this state she gallops night by night

Through lovers brainsand then they dream of love;

O’er the courtier’s knees….?(ActI Scene iiii lines 62-73)

Mercutio tells this story because that is the way he feels about love; which is

All that he is in it for is the sex. It is not important to him to wait and let

the relationship advance with age it is important that he gets what he wants

fast. Physical love is defined as the act of sex or sexual intercourse.

Romeo, on the other hand believes in idealistic love. This is when

everything should be perfect and . This is evident in the scen where Romeo is at

the Capulet household and Juliet and him are on the balcony. ?By love, that

first did prompt me to inquire; He lent me counsil and I lent him eyes. I am no

pilot; yet, wert thou as far As that vast shore wash’d with the farthest sea, I

would adventure for such merchandise.?(Act II Scene ii Lines 80-84) This is also

evident in this statment: ?I have Night’s cloak to hide me from their eyes; And

but thou love me, let them find me here. My life were better ended by their

hate.? (Act 2 Scene 2 Lines 75-78)

Friar Laurence, on the otherhand, believes in paternal love. This is

evident in the following: ?That’s my good son…? (Act 2 Scene 3 Line 47) and ?

… He loves Romeo as a son…? (Page 99, Scene Summary) Paternal love is the

love that a father has for for a son or daughter. The friar really cares for

Romeo.

There are Many types of love portrayed in the Shakespearean play Romeo and

Juliet. These types of love can still be noticed around in the world today. One

of the less comon ones around is idealistic love. Maybe that is what true love

is.