Romeo refers to love early on because he thinks he is in
love with Rosaline. He offers these words that portray love with allusion
through images of smoke and
fire:
Love is
a smoke raised with the fume of sighs;
Being purged, a fire sparkling in
lovers' eyes;
Being vex'd a sea nourish'd with lovers' tears:
What
is it else? a madness most discreet,
A choking gall and a preserving
sweet.
What makes this
definition of love equal to hell is the fact that love does nothing but kill, which can
lead to hell. It also shows love as a paradox, once attained, it drives someone almost
insane. This is from Act I, scene ii.
Later, in scene iv,
Romeo and Mercutio are talking about going to the Capulet's feast. Romeo doesn't want to
go because Love is weighing him down. Here is their
conversation:
MERCUTIO
You
are a lover; borrow Cupid's wings,
And soar with them above a common
bound.
ROMEO
I am too sore enpierced with his
shaft
To soar with his light feathers, and so bound,
I cannot bound
a pitch above dull woe:
Under love's heavy burden do I
sink.
MERCUTIO
And, to sink in it, should you burden
love;
Too great oppression for a tender
thing.
ROMEO
Is love a tender thing? it is too
rough,
Too rude, too boisterous, and it pricks like
thorn.
MERCUTIO
If love be rough with you, be rough with
love;
Prick love for pricking, and you beat love
down.
Romeo paints the
picture of love that it is excruciatingly painful. This is the problem of Hell. There is
to be extreme pain. Romeo is living a hell on earth for having to exist without
Rosaline's love.
I hope that is helpful. Maybe another
editor can think of another specific place which refers to Hell more directly. I have
had to work figurative examples for you.
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