Notes on Rome and Juliet Part
Two
The way Juliet discusses her own sentiments and the reasons for them is
instructive. "Too reckless, too unadvised, too quick," she says of their
romance, "too like lightning, which ceases to be ere one can say "it lightens.
But later in the same scene, she says, "My bounty is as wide as the sea." My
love for thee is as deep as it gets; the more I give to thee, the more I have;
both are limitless."
The lightning is over in a flash, but the sea is infinite.
Juliet also famously refers to her "true love's passion," a phrase that conflates
two concepts.
This play is chock-full of lewd jokes, most of which are spoken in prose by the
Nurse or Mercutio, so it's not like Shakespeare didn't understand the concept
of sex without love.
Are Romeo and Juliet pretending to be in love in order to justify their sexual
desires? Is it possible that Juliet became tired of Romeo?
Romeo could possibly be a little bit intense, like sword-fight-murder intense.
Despite Juliet's furious rejection of Paris, the man her father wishes her to
marry, he appears to be a nice gentleman who, in many ways, is a better
match for her than Romeo
As a result, Romeo and Juliet's flirting is based on the traditions of courtly
love, a medieval concept that is still prevalent in the Renaissance and
supports love at first sight and forsaking all for love.
Most importantly, as Romeo and Juliet obviously do, you are not expected to
sully courtly love with sex or marriage. All these purportedly amorous Italians,
like Petrarch and Dante, are meant to sit around and pine and be miserable
for the rest of their Edith Wharton –ing lives, yet all they ever did was write
poems.
So you might view the first two acts of Romeo and Juliet as a comedy — she
falls in love with the wrong boy, and they have to figure out what to do.
Two
The way Juliet discusses her own sentiments and the reasons for them is
instructive. "Too reckless, too unadvised, too quick," she says of their
romance, "too like lightning, which ceases to be ere one can say "it lightens.
But later in the same scene, she says, "My bounty is as wide as the sea." My
love for thee is as deep as it gets; the more I give to thee, the more I have;
both are limitless."
The lightning is over in a flash, but the sea is infinite.
Juliet also famously refers to her "true love's passion," a phrase that conflates
two concepts.
This play is chock-full of lewd jokes, most of which are spoken in prose by the
Nurse or Mercutio, so it's not like Shakespeare didn't understand the concept
of sex without love.
Are Romeo and Juliet pretending to be in love in order to justify their sexual
desires? Is it possible that Juliet became tired of Romeo?
Romeo could possibly be a little bit intense, like sword-fight-murder intense.
Despite Juliet's furious rejection of Paris, the man her father wishes her to
marry, he appears to be a nice gentleman who, in many ways, is a better
match for her than Romeo
As a result, Romeo and Juliet's flirting is based on the traditions of courtly
love, a medieval concept that is still prevalent in the Renaissance and
supports love at first sight and forsaking all for love.
Most importantly, as Romeo and Juliet obviously do, you are not expected to
sully courtly love with sex or marriage. All these purportedly amorous Italians,
like Petrarch and Dante, are meant to sit around and pine and be miserable
for the rest of their Edith Wharton –ing lives, yet all they ever did was write
poems.
So you might view the first two acts of Romeo and Juliet as a comedy — she
falls in love with the wrong boy, and they have to figure out what to do.
