The different kinds of affection portrayed in Romeo and Juliet
It is
not surprising that the theme of affection pervades the play Romeo and Juliet, one of Shakespeare’s
most famous romantic tragedies. But the
affection felt by different characters is as diverse in range as it is in the
depth of the emotion felt. Here we will
discuss the ways Shakespeare explores these different kinds of affection in some
of his characters; from the deep and genuine love felt by Romeo and Juliet for
each other, to the complex and turbulent emotions shared between Juliet and her
parents; and also the doting, if misguided affection shown to Juliet by her
nurse and similarly to Romeo by Friar Lawrence.
There is also the lively and playful affection of the three young men:
Romeo, Mercutio and Benvolio, for each other and the more questionable
affection of Paris for Juliet and Romeo for Rosaline which should be briefly
considered.
When we
first meet Romeo, he appears to be deeply in love with Rosaline and suffering
the heartfelt pain of rejection that is gently mocked by Benvolio and later by
Mercutio. The fact that Romeo’s love for
Rosaline is forgotten the instant he sees Juliet, shows that this initial affection
had no real depth and is probably provided by Shakespeare merely to act as a
contrast to the real thing, when it arrives.
His exaggerated and highly poetic description of Juliet’s beauty ‘too
rich for use, for earth too dear’ and his declaration: ‘Did my heart love till
now? Forswear it, sight!/For I ne’er saw true beauty till this night’ (I,5) leads the audience to wonder at its
suddenness and question the sincerity of Romeo’s emotions.
However Shakespeare
probably presented Romeo in this way because he is young, passionate and
headstrong and needs the steadying influence of Juliet’s profound and genuine
love to provide the right balance, like yin and yang. Together they complete each other and leave
the audience in no doubt about their need for each other. Their first conversation is a love duet which
is formal in language and musical in its harmony and intricacy. The metaphor of devotion and prayer expresses
the tenderness they feel for each other, and the imagery of a pilgrim standing at
the shrine of a saint, where lips should be used in prayer, not kissing, is
very moving. The seriousness of Romeo’s
religious imagery must quickly dispel any doubts the audience might have about
the sincerity of his affection.
Juliet
is no less quick to fall in love with Romeo ‘My only love sprung from my only
hate!’ (I,5) but, young as she is,
the depth of her affection is clear.
Juliet does not hide behind hyperbole and the playful artifice of
courtly love but speaks plainly of her feelings in direct contrast to Romeo’s
elaborate language: ‘Fain would I dwell on form, fain, fain deny/What I have
spoke, but farewell compliment.’ (II,2).
She begs a straight answer from Romeo ‘If thou dost love, pronounce it
faithfully;’ and admits she is ‘too fond’, meaning foolish. The way Juliet’s language is controlled seems
to be a deliberate device to show her sincerity and directness, leaving the
audience in no doubt of the depth and totality of her affection.
Not
presenting the subsequent wedding on stage is a clever dramatic device employed
by Shakespeare to keep the audience focused on the quiet and sincere declaration
of their love at the end of Act 2, and the inevitability of their deaths caused
by this ‘death-marked love’ (Prologue). Despite their youth, Shakespeare clearly
intends his audience to be in no doubt about the depth of affection felt by the
‘star-crossed lovers’ (Prologue).
Whilst
Paris’s unrequited love for Juliet could be said to mirror Romeo’s infatuation
with Rosaline, the similarity between them ends there. Paris speaks plainly of his interest in
Juliet and his affection is tinged with rationalism, if not self-interest:
‘Younger than she are happy mothers made’ (I,2)
he responds to Capulet’s objections that Juliet is too young for marriage. Nevertheless, despite his rational nature, he
is gentlemanly and sensitive in all his dealings, explaining to Friar Lawrence
in Act 4 Scene 1 ‘I little talked of love,/for Venus smiles not in a house of
tears’ when explaining the haste for their forthcoming marriage. And, unlike Romeo’s passion for Rosaline, he
remains steadfast in his affection and desire, behaving like a devoted husband
to the end and vowing ‘The obsequies that I for thee will keep/Nightly shall be
to strew thy grave and weep’ (V,3).
There can be no doubt that Paris would have been a worthy husband for
Juliet, despite his sober temperament.
Perhaps
the most interesting and complex affections shown in the play are the
parent-child ones, in which I also include Nurse and Friar Lawrence. We do not see Romeo with his parents but
their love for him is not questioned.
Indeed Romeo’s banishment is more than Lady Capulet can bear and causes
her to die of grief, showing her intense love.
In contrast, however, we do see Juliet with both her parents and witness
their changing affections for each other.
In Act 1
Scene 2, Capulet leaves the audience in no doubt about his affection for Juliet
and the place she holds in his heart: ‘Earth has swallowed all my hopes but
she;/She’s the hopeful lady of my heart,’ he tells Paris. Despite his reservations about her youth, he
has no real objections to Paris’s suit and makes it clear he will not stand in
his way providing marriage is what Juliet wants: ‘woo her, gentle Paris, get
her heart/My will to her consent is but a part’ (I,2), showing he holds her
happiness dear and will not force her to do anything against her will. In the early stages of the play, Capulet
could not be portrayed as a more affectionate father, which makes the contrast
in his behaviour in Act 3 Scene 5 all the more shocking.
To her
parents, Juliet is portrayed as a dutiful and obedient daughter. In Act 1, Scene 3 Juliet responds to her
mother’s request to consider Paris as a prospective husband with real respect:
I’ll
look to like, if looking liking move;
But
no more deep will I endart mine eye
Than
your consent gives strength to make it fly – which shows her complete obedience and deference
to her mother, and which contrasts so radically with Juliet’s rebellious
outburst in Act 3 Scene 5: ‘Now by Saint
Peter’s Church and Peter too,/He shall not make me there a joyful bride.’
What
happens to provoke the hostility of both her parents and turn affection to
hatred is her new-found love for Romeo and her secret marriage. Juliet was never as close to her mother as to
her nurse and Lady Capulet is shocked by the change in her daughter and her angry
declaration that she will not marry Paris. ‘I would the fool were married to her grave,’
(III,5), she then tells her husband.
Perhaps the tragic irony of her reaction is necessary to warn the
audience of what is to come, as parental curses are usually ominous and
Shakespeare’s audience would have picked up on this.
Juliet’s
new-found confidence in defying her parents’ wishes only brings misery to her
and hastens her tragic end. Her enraged
father seems to bear no resemblance to the affectionate parent presented in Act
1. His barrage of insults leaves the
audience reeling and wondering whether his earlier affection was genuine or
not. What is clear however is their effect
on Juliet. She is torn between her conflicting
feelings of affection and duty towards her parents and her profound love for
Romeo, and the audience can only feel sympathy for her impossible situation.
If
Juliet hoped to find comfort in her nurse, she could not have been more
disappointed. There is no doubt the nurse
has a great affection for Juliet, but she is not a sensible woman and her
actions and language throughout the play show this. In fact Nurse’s affection for Juliet is more
damaging than helpful, even though it is genuine. Her ideas about love are coarsely sexual and
bear no resemblance to the deeply romantic feelings Romeo and Juliet share for
each other. For this reason she cannot
offer Juliet the comfort she needs and shocks her with her suggestion of
marrying Paris compared to whom ‘Romeo’s a dishclout’. Her simplistic assertion:
I
think you are happy in this second match,
For
it excels your first, or if it did not,
Your
first is dead, or ‘twere as good he were
As
living here and you no use of him (III,5) shows just how little comprehension the nurse
has of the deep affection and commitment of true love. All her advice to Juliet must now be
questionable and prove the part she played in bringing about the secret
marriage to be extremely ill-judged. A
wiser person would have seen this and acted differently. While she was governed by her silliness, and
despite her genuine affection for Juliet, she was clearly being ruled by her
heart and not her head and consequently helped bring about the play’s tragic
conclusion.
Of
course responsibility should also fall on Friar Lawrence’s shoulders, not least
because he was an educated man and should have counselled Romeo more
carefully. His introductory soliloquy lets
the audience know that he is a good and kind man, but his incredulous
exclamation when Romeo tells him that Rosaline is suddenly forgotten for his
new ‘heart’s dear love’ (II,3), suggests that he should have acted more
cautiously. Instead his affection for
his pupil and his desire to ‘turn your households’ rancour to pure love’ (II,3),
make him a party to the ensuing tragedy.
If he had heeded his own advice ‘Wisely and slow, they stumble that run
fast’ (II,3), he might have been a
better friend. Again, before he marries
them, he tells Romeo to ‘love moderately,’ because ‘Too swift arrives as tardy
as too slow’ (II,6) All this
foreshadowing is acutely relevant to the tragedy, but it demonstrates the
friar’s scepticism about love or affection and also that he was not actually
capable of exercising moral judgement in matters of the heart and practising
what he preached.
The last
demonstration of affection worth mentioning is between the young men,
especially Romeo and Mercutio. This is
most evident in the scene immediately after Romeo’s wedding. Curiously, despite their friendship and
strong affection, Romeo does not confide in his friends that he has married
Juliet, which encourages them to continue their affectionate teasing about
Rosaline. It also precipitates the fateful fight scene in Act 3, Scene 1, as it
is probably Mercutio’s affection for Romeo as much as his quarrelsome spirit
that prompts him to seize the opportunity to fight Tybalt after Romeo ignores
the latter’s insults, which nobody understands.
Romeo’s attempt to break up the fight results in his friend’s death and
his all-consuming passion to avenge this.
All reason flown, Romeo’s grief at the loss of his best friend drives
him on to kill Tybalt even as he predicts the outcome: ‘This day’s black fate
on moe days doth depend,/This but begins the woe others must end’ (III,1).
Affection
and love drive us to incredible lengths.
It drove Romeo, Juliet, Mercutio, Paris and Lady Montague to their
premature deaths, yet in each case the type of affection was slightly different
and manifested in different ways; all of them ultimately destructive. It is often said that there is a fine
distinction between love and hate and it may be this that Shakespeare intended
his audience to consider as the prince, in his final speech, proclaims: ‘See what a scourge is laid upon your
hate,/that heaven finds means to kill your joys with love!’ (V,3). The
different kinds of affection that permeate the play in the end hold everyone
remaining to account.
No comments:
Post a Comment