Many people in the world believe that Romeo and Juliet is a tragic story about two people in love. However, those are the people who have not read the, and have only seen the movies. Romeo and Juliet were never actually in love; they were in lust. One thing that most people do not know is that Romeo liked a different girl at the beginning of the play. The other girl, Rosaline, refuses to return his love, which causes him grief, and makes him a love sick young man. He even goes as far as to say, “This love feel I, that feel no love in this” (1. 1. 172) to express how much he hurts.
At first, he does not tell his friends of his love for Rosaline, and none of them know until Benvolio figures it out, asking, “The fair Rosaline whom thou so lov’st? ” (1. 2. 85) His friends make fun of him and his idolism of Rosaline, and at one point, Mercutio, Romeo’s best friend, does this by saying, “I conjure thee by Rosaline’s bright eyes, by her high forehead and scarlet lip…” (2. 1. 20-21) to which Benvolio quickly says, “An if he hear thee, thou wilt anger him” (2. 1. 24) stating that if Romeo hears Mercutio making fun of Rosaline, he will be angry.
However, Romeo seems to be a quick rebounder, and goes after Juliet, just moments after saying his heart is full of lead because he is so sad about Rosaline not loving him. Now let us flip over the other half of the relationship. Juliet, a mere girl of thirteen, believes she is in love. She thinks that the initial physical attraction she feels towards Romeo, must be the amazing “love” she has heard so much about. But, as Lord Capulet said, “My daughter is yet a stranger in the world” (1. 2. 8), saying how Juliet is too young for love or marriage.
The Nurse even puts in her two cents, saying, “I can tell her age unto an hour” (1. 3. 13), and meaning that she’s still so young that you won’t have any difficulty telling her age. Now, maybe some people think that Romeo and Juliet were in love because of their instant reaction to one another. However, those people do not realize that what Romeo and Juliet experienced, was hormonal lust, not love. Both Romeo and Juliet were at the times in their lives where they had hormones flowing through them, faster than a bullet. During their first meeting, all hey can talk about are hands and lips, “Have not saints lips, and holy palmers too? Ay, pilgrim, lips that they must use in prayer. O, then, dear saint, let lips do what hands do; They pray — grant thou, lest faith turn to despair. ”(1. 5. 105-109) alluding to the fact that they want to kiss and hold each other.
In 1 Corinthians 13:4 it says “Love is patient, love is kind”(NIV). Romeo and Juliet however, are not patient. They got married the day after they met, and that night it shows how impatient Juliet actually is. “O, I have bought the mansion of a love, but not possessed it; and though I am sold, not yet enjoy’d. (3. 2. 26-28) And again a few lines down, where she says, “As is the night before some festival to an impatient child that hath new robes and may not wear them. ” (3. 2. 29-31) Though people are not able to love the same way as God, love should still work the same way. Romeo and Juliet, though a great play, was not really about love. The love that was between the two, was fake, and a sham. With reading and understanding it, people can see that Romeo and Juliet were not truly in love and that the play was a message to not run into love too quickly.
