Romeo and Juliet is well known for being a short but well written story of love at first sight and the hardships that two teenagers face due to their families past. The whole story is written with a quick pace, one important thing after another that affects the whole plot. Out of all the characters, Romeo seems to fit this description to the tee.
Romeo is the epitome of emotional and frivolous. He is solely ruled by his emotions and rarely stops and thinks of his actions. Shakespeare does a very good job of showing this by describing how Romeo feels before and after the Capulet party. First he is woeful, mourning after Rosalie and wishing she would take him back, but then he sees Juliet. Mere seconds go by and Rosalie is out of Romeo’s head and heart, and replaced with young Juliet.
That has got to be the quickest recovery of unrequited love. Ever.
By doing this, Shakespeare shows just how emotional Romeo is, and begins to show who Romeo truly is. A mere teenager who lives in the moment and wishes nothing more than to be with Juliet.
Another trait of Romeo’s is his loyalty. Throughout the whole story Romeo is faithfully followed by his two friends, Mercutio and Benvolio. Both Mercutio and Benvolio urge Romeo to forget Rosalie and return to being the normal, cheery Romeo he used to be. Romeo could have rudely declined the invitation to the party, but he put his troubles aside to please his friends. Also, when Tybalt kills Mercutio, Romeo is enraged. Blinded with fury of his friend being slain, he kills Tybalt without a second thought. This really shows that although he was brooding over his own problems, Romeo couldn’t let someone do something to his friends and get away with it.
One final trait that Romeo portrays very well is his compulsive behavior. The guy just doesn’t stop and think. All throughout the story he is very hurried and does things in a rush. Shakespeare demonstrates this trait when Romeo meets Juliet, suddenly falls in love and looks for her after the party. Very dashingly, he comes to her balcony and tries to win her over, and it kind of works. But it is so sudden! He barely just met her and he’s already confessing his heart. Granted, he’s really good at coming up with things on the spot, but it was obvious that it was not planned. It was the first thing that popped in his head, and did it mindlessly.
Overall, Romeo turned out to be an O.K character. He came off at first like a fickle boy in love, but as the story progressed, he developed into a man who just wanted to love Juliet and live a happy life with her. It’s sort of saddening, knowing that Romeo would have become more mature and thought things through in the future, but once again, his compulsiveness and brashness led him to take the fastest way out of his misery. He thoughtlessly killed himself, thinking that it would finally bring him happiness and be together with Juliet forever.
You liked Romeo in the end? I liked him best in the middle, when he was kind and a tad more thoughtful about Juliet. I think he's a better person happy than sad.
ReplyDeleteHe was emotional and compulsive indeed! I like your observations on his loyalty, as this isn't often discussed, but it is definitely a strong characteristic of Romeo's.
ReplyDelete