At the beginning of Act 1, Romeo is mourning the fact that
Rosaline, a girl he is in love with, does not want to marry him. Shakespeare conveys the
turmoil which love causes and the state of Romeo’s mind, with the use of oxymoron’s such
as ‘Oh loving hate’ in Act 1 scene 1. This imagery is used throughout the act by Romeo
in his attempt to describe his love for Rosaline and it works very effectively as it
takes the audience or reader back and forth with Romeo’s love for Rosaline and his
despair that she does not love him back thus conveying the confusion that Romeo
feels.
You also realise throughout scene 1, that Romeo is
obsessed with the idea of being in love, instead of actually being in love, which comes
to light when he first sees Juliet and then he realises what true love is. His immediate
love for Juliet shows Romeo as fickle and insincere as soon as he sees Juliet he asks
‘Did my heart love till now?’ suggesting that he forgets about Rosaline instantly. This
shows that he changes his mind extremely quickly from being eternally in love with one
girl one moment to a different girl not long after. However, you realise that his love
for Juliet goes much deeper than that of his love for Rosaline and this is shown when
Romeo recites a sonnet Juliet conveying his immediate love for
her.
Romeo also uses a lot of hyperbolic language and
imagery while describing his love for Rosaline, suggesting that she is ‘killing him’ as
she has sworn not to marry. This theme is used throughout the act, especially when he
first meets Juliet, as although he has only just met her he compares her to a ‘saint’
and a ‘shrine’. This hyperbolic language helps to show Romeo’s passionate character as
he exaggerates his love to such an extent and it conveys how deeply Romeo is affected by
love and by what surrounds him suggesting that beneath his impulsive, some what shallow
and over the top exterior he is extremely sensitive and younger than he is
perceived.
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