Falling in love can be a wonderful thing, especially when
you are young and have so much left to offer the world. It can be magical if it
ever gets to a point where you feel you literally cannot live without that other
person; but that isn’t necessarily a good thing. In Shakespeare’s Romeo and
Juliet, he wants us to see how much Romeo and Juliet can’t live without each
other. Love is somewhat about dependence but if you start to rely on one person
too much it can end badly for both people. Juliet’s love for Romeo frees her
from the trapped life she has been living, but the force of her dependence on
Romeo ties her too strongly to him and destroys any hope of real independence
she has, which ultimately leads to her death.
Juliet’s
love for Romeo emotionally frees her from the trapped life she has been living.
Before Juliet meets Romeo she is mostly alone. She sits on her balcony looking
at the stars. She basically has no friends except the nurse, who is an old
lady. Although Shakespeare shows the audience that Juliet is trapped I don’t
think that she realizes she’s trapped until Romeo comes to “free” her. Juliet
was actually a pretty obedient child before she fell in love. She didn’t really
argue with her parents. She does what she is told for the most part, and she
comes when she is called. Juliet is obviously still a teenager and has a lot to
learn, but overall she knows what is expected of her. Juliet also never really
thought of marriage until her mother brings it up to her. For example Lady
Capulet asks Juliet what her disposition to be married is and Juliet answers
“It is an honor that I dream not of.” (1.3.71) This shows Juliet really had no
intention of marrying yet, but when she meets Romeo she wants to marry him as
soon as she possibly can. Juliet also shows her obedience to her parents once
again when her mother asks her if she can accept Paris’s love. Juliet then
answers “I’ll look to like, if looking liking move./But no more deep will I
endart mine eye,/ then your consent gives strength to make it
fly.”(1.3.103-105) Here she is basically saying although I don’t think about
Paris like that I’ll be polite and talk to him, but I won’t do anything more
than you ask me to. Everything changes when Juliet meets Romeo. She goes from
this quiet obedient girl who is living a trapped life, to a free rebellious
open person who is willing to give up everything for one man. For instance
Juliet says to herself during the balcony scene “Deny my father and refuse thy
name,/or if thou wilt not, be but sworn my love, and I’ll no longer be a
Capulet.” (2.2 37-39) She is saying that she is willing to disobey her father
and even give up her name for Romeo. The change you see in her after meeting
Romeo is drastic. It seems like she was hiding all those feelings inside and
now she has a reason to set all of them free. Juliet is suddenly changing her
beliefs and ready to move on with her life, or so it seems.
It
may seem like Juliet’s love is a good thing, and it is in the beginning but
then it goes down hill. The force of Juliet’s new found love makes her too
dependent on Romeo, which ruins her changes of any actual independence. Even
though Juliet is free on the inside she is still trapped by her parents, but
even more importantly her heart is trapped in Romeo’s hands. Juliet suddenly
becomes overly dependent on Romeo. She is constantly waiting for him on her
balcony at night when he comes to her. She is always wanting him and needing
him. At first you think it’s new love and she’s light and a carefree teenager,
but something changes in her and it goes from sweet young love, to the kind of
love where you are literally willing to give up everything for one person. Not
just your name but even your life. After they meet for the first time Juliet is
constantly saying how she would die for him. For example she says “Give me my
Romeo and when I shall die,/ take him and cut him out in little stars,/and he
will make the face of heaven so fine that all the world will be in love with
night and pay no worship to the garish sun.” (3.2.23-27) She is basically
saying that when she dies she wants him to die too because she can’t live
without him. She’s also saying when they die she wants all the world to focus
on night, which sort of represents Romeo throughout the play, and to pay no
attention to the sun, which is associated with her. Juliet also says “For Romeo
is exiled./He made you for a highway to my bed,/But, I a maid die
maiden-widowed./Come chords-come nurse./ I’ll to my wedding bed, and death, not
Romeo, take my maidenhead.” (3.2.146-150) The overall idea here is that she
wants to die if he is not alive and we as readers know that this is what
actually happens. Once you become too dependent on someone it ruins your
chances if being free. At first Juliet feels emotionally freed, but after a
while she is just putting herself in an equally bad situation as she was in
before. If she truly cannot live without him then she cannot find herself and
explore new aspects of the world that a normal young girl might be able to do.
Juliet
is so dependent on Romeo towards the end that she kills herself because of him.
Juliet has a rollercoaster of emotions throughout the play. By the end, though,
she has aged for all the wrong reasons. Instead of being the carefree girl we
saw at the beginning, by the end everything goes wrong for her. Even before
Juliet knows Romeo’s name she is tied to him. As the play progresses so does
her love for him. By the end of the play Juliet is willing to do everything and
anything just so she can be with him.
Juliet wants nothing more than to run away with Romeo so she can spend
the rest of her life with him, even if that means never seeing her family
again, or even taking a mysterious potion to trick her parents. When Juliet finds
out that Romeo is dead and actually then kills herself after him, it just
reinforces the idea that being tied to someone too strongly can prove destructive.
Juliet will go to all lengths to ensure her love with him, even if that means
stabbing herself. When Juliet decides to take the potion she says “Romeo,
Romeo, Romeo!/Here’s drink/ I drink to thee!” (4.3.59-60) If you actually think
about it, taking that potion was a little crazy. Honestly by the end Juliet
goes a little insane. She forgets to think, all she can think about is him and
dying for him. At the very end when she pulls out the dagger and says “Then
I’ll be brief,/O’ happy dagger this is thy sheath./ There rust, and let me
die.” (5.3.174-175) she is being extremely impulsive and after she kills
herself it’s obviously too late. It’s really tragic to think about a 13 year
old girl with such a life ahead of her killing herself. When you become overly
obsessed with someone you can convince yourself you could die for them—with
Romeo and Juliet it just happened to actually be the case.
Romeo
and Juliet is a depressing love story with a tragic ending. Although some parts
show the sweetness of young love it also shows the terrible things that can
happen when two people can become overly devoted. When you love someone so much
at such a young age, that you believe you would die for them, it can turn out
badly. I think that Juliet and Romeo had a special love that may have lasted
forever if they had taken it a little slower. If you become too dependent on
someone else then it can result in destruction. Romeo and Juliet has lots of
hidden messages about love, fate, devotion, dependence, destruction, and so
much more. These characters will go down in history and this story will always
be known for its tragic ending but it’s also known for its messages about what
love can do to you and how you even begin to handle it. Juliet is an
interesting girl with tons of layers to her. Although she ruined her changes at
independence she proved that true love never fails despite the consequences.
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