Character analysis of Romeo
At the beginning of the play, Romeo pines for Rosaline, proclaiming her the paragon of women and despairing at her indifference toward him. In reference to Rosaline, it seems, Romeo loves by the book. Rosaline, of course, slips from Romeo’s mind at first sight of Juliet. But Juliet is no mere replacement. Romeo’s love matures over the course of the play from the shallow desire to be in love to a profound and intense passion. One must ascribe Romeo’s development at least in part to Juliet. Her level-headed observations, such as the one about Romeo’s kissing, seem just the thing to snap Romeo from his superficial idea of love and to inspire him to begin to speak some of the most beautiful and intense love poetry ever written.
Love compels him to sneak into the garden of his enemy’s daughter, risking death simply to catch a glimpse of her. Anger compels him to kill his wife’s cousin in a reckless duel to avenge the death of his friend. Despair compels him to suicide upon hearing of Juliet’s death. Such extreme behavior dominates Romeo’s character throughout the play and contributes to the ultimate tragedy that befalls the lovers. Had Romeo restrained himself from killing Tybalt, or waited even one day before killing himself after hearing the news of Juliet’s death, matters might have ended happily.
My response: I think that the person who wrote this has two different opinions about Romeo. They think that one part of Romeo matures and becomes true and sensible where as the other part stays youthful and often foolish. The writer says that Romeo's love tunrs from just a desire to be in love "... to a profound and intense passion." However they also believe that Romeo's lack of maturity and the trait of just acting on sudden impulse does not change and leads to some terrible consequences. So the writer does not have one opinion but has two. He/she thinks thaqt part of Romeo changes and part of him remains the same.
At the beginning of the play, Romeo pines for Rosaline, proclaiming her the paragon of women and despairing at her indifference toward him. In reference to Rosaline, it seems, Romeo loves by the book. Rosaline, of course, slips from Romeo’s mind at first sight of Juliet. But Juliet is no mere replacement. Romeo’s love matures over the course of the play from the shallow desire to be in love to a profound and intense passion. One must ascribe Romeo’s development at least in part to Juliet. Her level-headed observations, such as the one about Romeo’s kissing, seem just the thing to snap Romeo from his superficial idea of love and to inspire him to begin to speak some of the most beautiful and intense love poetry ever written.
Love compels him to sneak into the garden of his enemy’s daughter, risking death simply to catch a glimpse of her. Anger compels him to kill his wife’s cousin in a reckless duel to avenge the death of his friend. Despair compels him to suicide upon hearing of Juliet’s death. Such extreme behavior dominates Romeo’s character throughout the play and contributes to the ultimate tragedy that befalls the lovers. Had Romeo restrained himself from killing Tybalt, or waited even one day before killing himself after hearing the news of Juliet’s death, matters might have ended happily.
My response: I think that the person who wrote this has two different opinions about Romeo. They think that one part of Romeo matures and becomes true and sensible where as the other part stays youthful and often foolish. The writer says that Romeo's love tunrs from just a desire to be in love "... to a profound and intense passion." However they also believe that Romeo's lack of maturity and the trait of just acting on sudden impulse does not change and leads to some terrible consequences. So the writer does not have one opinion but has two. He/she thinks thaqt part of Romeo changes and part of him remains the same.
