Comparing Love For Rosaline In Shakespeare's Romeo And Juliet

Romeo’s love for Rosaline is affecting him in more way than it should. Romeo believes that his love for Rosaline is true even though she does not love him back. Romeo believes that he will forever feel sorrow because Rosaline does not love him back. Romeo’s unreturned love is affecting his decisions. He thinks that he should not have fun since Rosaline does not love him back and he almost does not go to the Capulet party. The extreme level of sorrow that Romeo is feelings is indicative of the type of person he is. Romeo states, “He that is stricken bling cannot forget, the precocious treasure of his eyesight lost. Show me a mistress that is passing fair, what doth her beauty serve but as a note. Where I may read who passed that passing fair?

He is trying to tell Benvolio that if he were taught to forget he would not be able to, teaching is to learn something and to forget it would be contradicting the whole idea of teaching. Romeo also states, “This is love feel I, that feel no love in this.” This is another example of a paradox. Romeo says he is in love but he does not feel love. You cannot love unless you feel love. This shows that Romeo is confused about what he thinks of love. In the article, “What is love? Five theories on the greatest emotion of all” Julian Baggini speaks of how love can be misguided like in Romeo 's situation. He only loves Rosaline for her appearance. Baggini further states, “Without the passion, it is mere dedication. Without nurturing, even the best can wither and die.” Romeo feels like he has nothing to live for because his love does not love him back. Romeo feels like nothing if he is not loved back because he feels that he needs to be nurtured and loved back. So I do not believe that Romeo is acting like the typical person would. He is so distraught in his own interpretation of love that he cannot see it for what it truly is and it is confusing and hurting