Throughout the course of the play, the audience witnesses Romeo’s metamorphosis from adolescence to adulthood because of his love for Juliet and unfortunate involvement in the Capulet-Montague feud. We watch him transform from a character to be mocked and ridiculed into a tragic hero. Initially, Romeo is presented as a Petrarchan lover, a word derived from the Italian poet, Petrarch, meaning a man who is in in love with the idea of being in love. This term is shown through Romeo’s amorous affections towards to the unresponsive Rosaline through dramatic expressions in his sonnets. He woefully cries over his unrequited lover, Rosaline, describing his state of mind through oxymoron’s like “O brawling love…O loving hate”. His exaggerated language
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Shakespeare uses Mercutio’s blunt nature to place emphasis on Romeo’s role of a blind lover. Romeo is fanciful and fashionable as a young lover with idealistic concepts of love as he is only able to express his love for Rosaline through figurative language; describing his state as “nor mad, but bound more than a mad man is: shut up in prison, kept without any food, whipped and tormented…”. He denies on numerous accounts that love has made him delusional, but on the contrary, it’s the “religion” of his eye. The passionate response he gives when rejecting Benvolio’s advice to replace his love for Rosaline with that of another, highlights his immaturity and inexperience as a lover. However, it is not until Romeo lays eyes on Juliet that he becomes aware of how artificial his love for Rosaline was as he questions, “Did my heart love till now? Forswear it, sight! / For I ne’er saw true beauty till this night”. He can now distinguish between his love for the two women as he describes Juliet as “a holy shrine” who “doth teach the torches to burn bright”. His use of religious imagery shows his advancement to a more spiritual understanding of love from the inflated, hyperbolic descriptions of his love for Rosaline. It also emphasizes on the wonder and spiritual purity of his new
Shakespeare uses Mercutio’s blunt nature to place emphasis on Romeo’s role of a blind lover. Romeo is fanciful and fashionable as a young lover with idealistic concepts of love as he is only able to express his love for Rosaline through figurative language; describing his state as “nor mad, but bound more than a mad man is: shut up in prison, kept without any food, whipped and tormented…”. He denies on numerous accounts that love has made him delusional, but on the contrary, it’s the “religion” of his eye. The passionate response he gives when rejecting Benvolio’s advice to replace his love for Rosaline with that of another, highlights his immaturity and inexperience as a lover. However, it is not until Romeo lays eyes on Juliet that he becomes aware of how artificial his love for Rosaline was as he questions, “Did my heart love till now? Forswear it, sight! / For I ne’er saw true beauty till this night”. He can now distinguish between his love for the two women as he describes Juliet as “a holy shrine” who “doth teach the torches to burn bright”. His use of religious imagery shows his advancement to a more spiritual understanding of love from the inflated, hyperbolic descriptions of his love for Rosaline. It also emphasizes on the wonder and spiritual purity of his new