Love

The Theme in the Work

Love enters the play already glued to hatred. In scene 1 of Act I, Romeo answers the brawl that has just ended with paradoxes, and what he feels for Rosaline is the language of a poet, a ready formula for a woman no one sees. In scene 5 of Act I, on seeing Juliet, he forgets Rosaline; the two speak in lines of pilgrim and saint and kiss, until the Nurse reveals that each belongs to the enemy house.

In the garden, in scene 2 of Act II, the two exchange vows, and Juliet fears that everything is too fast; Romeo's name is the obstacle. In scene 5 of Act II, the wait for word shows Juliet impatient, and in scene 6 of Act II their joy, in Friar Laurence's cell, cannot be put into words, while the friar asks for moderation.

After the banishment, love is what sustains each of them against the house and the law. In scene 5 of Act III, the two part at dawn, and Juliet refuses the marriage to Paris. In scene 3 of Act IV, she drinks the potion as a toast to Romeo, and in scene 3 of Act V the two die: Romeo drinks the poison after kissing Juliet, and she kills herself with his dagger. The Prince reads the whole as heaven killing the families' joys with love.

After the parting, love also shows itself in what Juliet and Romeo say of each other. In scene 2 of Act III, Juliet hears that her husband killed her cousin and calls him a serpent under a face of flowers, but when the Nurse wishes shame on Romeo, she rebukes her, asks whether she will speak ill of the man who is her husband, and concludes that what kills her is not Tybalt's death but the word "banished." In scene 3 of Act III, Romeo, fallen to the ground, draws his sword against himself when the Nurse says Juliet weeps for his name; the friar stops him, reminds him that Juliet is alive, and proposes that he spend the night with her, and only then, with the ring the Nurse brings, does Romeo revive. In scene 3 of Act V, before drinking the poison, Romeo bids farewell to his own eyes, arms, and lips, which look and embrace for the last time and seal with a kiss the pact with death, and she, waking and seeing the empty cup in his hand, kisses him in the hope of finding a little poison still on his lips.

The love of Romeo and Juliet never appears outside the pressure of the two houses: every scene of tenderness is also a scene of hiding, a message, or a farewell. The play shows what this love costs in a world that does not let it exist in daylight.

Where It Appears

• Scene 1 of Act I: Alone with Benvolio, Romeo says he suffers for a woman who has sworn chastity and will not accept forgetting her, and, looking at the brawl just over, exclaims "O brawling love! O loving hate!"
• Scene 5 of Act I: At the Capulets' ball, Romeo sees Juliet and forgets Rosaline; the two talk in lines of pilgrim and saint and kiss, until the Nurse interrupts them.
• Scene 2 of Act II: In the Capulets' garden, Juliet laments from the window that Romeo bears the name of a Montague, and he reveals himself and exchanges vows of love with her.
• Scene 5 of Act II: Juliet waits, impatient, for word from Romeo through the Nurse, who takes three hours, and at last hears that she must go to Friar Laurence's cell, where a husband awaits her.
• Scene 6 of Act II: In the cell, Romeo tells the friar that no pain cancels the joy of a minute with Juliet, and when she arrives the two say that their joy cannot be put into words.
• Scene 5 of Act III: At dawn, Juliet tries to keep Romeo in the room, and the two part under a dark foreboding of hers.
• Scene 3 of Act IV: Alone in her room, Juliet fears the potion will fail, sees Tybalt's ghost, and drinks, toasting Romeo: "Romeo, Romeo, Romeo, here is the drink! I drink to you."
• Scene 3 of Act V: Romeo kisses Juliet and drinks the poison; she wakes, refuses to flee, and kills herself with his dagger, and so the two die in the Capulet tomb.

Passages

Love is born of hate, and Juliet says so on discovering who he is:

Love is in a hurry, and Juliet wants messengers swifter than light:

Before drinking, Juliet toasts Romeo: