Romeo is one of the three main characters in Shakespeare’s famous tragedy Romeo and Juliet.
Romeo has often been shown as a tragic hero, where his emotions translate to impulsive actions and drive the action forward. He causes all the problems and tragedies in the play: Tybalt’s death, Romeo’s exile and eventual suicide along with Juliet, all in accordance with the way he was feeling. His journey of emotions is very interesting in accordance with each act, as his feelings define his actions and his actions-often- define the play. Making his journey entertaining to see, and the play filled with more suspense.His emotions however are what make him a loved character, his relatability in his romances can be linked to so many lives in the audience and people understand him. They love him for it.
However, amongst all this relatability, I believe the text can prove a more fickle and more immature courtly lover.
He treats women as objects to love, not people, he loves with his eyes and not his heart. He refuses to love moderately and ultimately believes that Juliet is his one true purpose. His name itself portrays this; Romeo translates to ‘wanderer’, a trait overlooked in most analytical pieces as he believed he had no purpose after Rosaline. He wanders for someone to love after Rosaline and finds it in Juliet.
Therefore, I believe that I can present a more sinister Romeo in this essay, a fickle and immature Romeo. Who cheats himself and fate, and of true love.
At the beginning of the play, Romeo’s wandering and depressive personality was portrayed perfectly with the quote from Lord Montague “With tears augmenting from the fresh morning dew adding to clouds more clouds with his deep sighs”.
This pathetic fallacy/metaphor demonstrates how Romeo wanders in a whirlwind of depression after his loss of Rosaline, he adds sorrow to sorrowful weather and wanders with no purpose or happiness. This once again links to Romeo’s wandering persona in his name as without something to love, he is nothing. A phrase demonstrating this would be ‘more clouds with his deep sighs’.
This pathetic fallacy illustrates how Romeo’s sorrow is enough to add yet more sorrow to the clouds that surround him. He cannot actually do that but it does deliver on demonstrating his depression with the technique where the weather reflects the mood with depressing clouds.
However, I believe this is not Romeo’s actual feeling towards the loss of Rosaline, I think Romeo could be interpreted as a narcissist in this scene, as surely Romeo couldn’t be so depressed about Rosaline as he says so. Not enough for Lord Montague to exaggerate his personality in that way, whilst Romeo may be upset that he lost something to love; his mood must be exaggerated in some way. This once again shows Romeo’s more malicious side as a character.
Romeo, whilst being possibly loved in this act by a modern day audience for his emotion in love, I believe in the 1600’s, Romeo would have been an unpopular character in the midst of this statement. Especially amongst men, as his lack of masculinity and such emotion in a time where a man was expected to dominate women and refuse to show emotion and enjoy fighting.
As Romeo expresses sadness and actually exaggerates his sorrow. It is possible his lack of relatability as a character would have made him unpopular in Elizabethan theatre at the time.
When Romeo meets Juliet however, we see him full of life. He has found a purpose, to love Juliet as much as possible. For he has seen her face and loves her more than he has ever loved anyone. This proves his shallow nature as a lover, for he loves only with his eyes and not his heart.
Also, when you read between the lines of his poetic soliloquy in the balcony scene, he leaves us to question the legitimacy of his supposed infatuation with Juliet. He does this with his use of the blason, a typical form of love poetry in Elizabethan times when men courted women. The poem describes a woman’s physical features, and was used for them to love the person who read it.
He uses the blason when he says “The brightness of her cheek would shame those stars.”
Whilst, this may seem romantic, the metaphor leaves us to question how genuine Romeo’s love is for Juliet. For whilst he poetically describes her looks, he fails to acknowledge her as a person. This could be interpreted to illustrate how shallow a lover Romeo really is. His lack of maturity when courting women, treating them as objects to admire (using the blason) and not appreciating them as people. A phrase proving this is ‘brightness of her cheek’, this is a perfect example of the blason as he describes the redness of her cheeks. Proving his fickleness and immaturity as a lover. For in this phrase, he is describing his love for the redness of Juliet’s cheeks, not the love he harbors for Juliet. Proving Juliet is just another object to admire and to love.
In modern times, this would be viewed as horrible and Romeo’s popularity would drop (if people took notice) however, this would be perfectly acceptable behaviour in Elizabethan times, it may have even increased Romeo’s popularity amongst men who viewed the play. It proves that he is masculine in his own way, yet his devotion as a lover must be questioned with this phrase.
Later in the play, when Romeo kills Tybalt, he adopts an angry and reckless persona where he acknowledges his emotion in previous acts and concludes to fight his violent thoughts with violence linking to the key theme of violence in the play. However Romeo cannot be presented as a masculine character for whilst his actions are certainly violent, it is just a way to vent all his sorrow and depression of Mercutio’s death. His lashing out is a pivotal moment in the play because now, the tragedies change course and move forward down a different emotional path.
This is shown through the quote “Fire eyed fury be my conduct now”. In this quote the words ‘fire eyed fury’ illustrate my point better as it reflects Romeo’s anger as he decides that he is to transform this sorrow into hate .
By expressing the change in emotion has altered his actions. He has been blinded by the proverbial ‘red mist’ and has decided to fight Tybalt with the most angry and fiery vigor he can muster. Romeo’s feelings have caused him to do this, it is not his typical personality. I believe that Romeo’s anger has come from his feeling of deep hate. Linking to his personality of impulsiveness and lack of thought.
In a modern day theatre, Romeo would be viewed as barbaric, for such an erratic change in mood would startle the audience and would maybe decrease his popularity. However, here I believe in this act Romeo-even nowadays-has been judged by Elizabethan standards, he would be viewed as honourable for defending his friend and a much more masculine character. People have kept to that viewpoint, so Romeo remains as an intact character after his most violent act.
Even though these actions should make a modern audience view this more somberly as the violence cannot relate to the audience as Romeo’s previous phrases and emotions could have done.
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