Studying Romeo and Juliet: Shakespeare's Tale of Immature Love

Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet is one of the most famous love stories of all time. Even those who have not read the play are aware that it is a romance, and feel that it is a portrayal of an ultimately true love. However, upon close inspection of the play, there is quite a bit of evidence that suggests Romeo's affection for Juliet is not really a "true love" between a man and a woman, but rather a boyish and immature love. Romeo's immature concept of love is found throughout the play.

In Act I, Scene I, we are first made aware of Romeo's initial "love" for Rosaline, a girl who does not return his affections. Romeo, acting distraught that she will not love him in return, childishly cries to Benvolio that Rosaline "hath forsworn to love; and in that vow/ do I live dead, that live to tell it now" (I.i. [pg 8]). He therefore is stating that he is ready to die for loving Rosaline - which is the exact same attitude he takes at the end of the play with Juliet. He kills himself over Juliet; and yet, in this earlier scene, swears that he would kill himself for Rosaline. This raises serious doubts as to whether his love for Juliet is a true love, or merely the same flighty love he feels for Rosaline.

Indeed, there is another striking similarity between Rosaline and Juliet in Act I, Scene II. When Benvolio tries to persuade Romeo to go to Capulet's party to meet other women and get over Rosaline, Romeo grows highly upset and angrily yells, "Transparent heretics, be burnt for liars!/ One fairer than my love!" (I.ii. [pg 11]). Here, he calls Benvolio and other friends heretics for saying that anyone could be above his Rosaline.

By mentioning heretics, he draws a religious reference, and so places Rosaline in the place of a goddess or saint. This is exactly the same imagery he uses just a little later when he tells Juliet, "If I do profane with my unworthiest hand/ this holy shrine... my lips two blushing pilgrims, ready stand/ to smooth that rough touch with a tender kiss" (I.v. [pg 21]). Again, if he is using the same imagery to describe both Rosaline and Juliet, we must question if he truly feels Juliet is a saintly true love, or if she is merely a replacement, no better or less than, Rosaline.

There are other characters in the play who notice Romeo's immature concepts of love, and who plainly tell the audience that his love is not a true love. Firstly, Romeo's friend, Mercutio, speaks of this, albeit indirectly, in Act I, Scene 4. Mercutio seems to be talking only about dreams in his lines:

"...dreams; which are the children of an idle brain,
begot of nothing but vain fantasy,
which is as thin substance as the air,
and more inconstant than the wind,
who woos even now the frozen bosom of the north,
and, being anger'd, puffs away from thence,
turning his face to the dew-dropping south. (I.iv. [pg 18])"

However, he is actually referring to Romeo's "inconstant" and so untrue love. We can easily imagine that he refers to Rosaline as the "frozen bosom of the north," as she will not return Romeo's love, and her heart is frozen to his advances. Juliet, then, is the warmer "dew-dropping south" who Romeo suddenly turns to. It should be noted that Mercutio plainly states that Romeo's love is not true, but rather is born of an "idle brain" and comes from "nothing but fantasy... as thin... as the air." Romeo's love is then artificial, thin, shallow and more a capricious fantasy than a true feeling for Juliet.

This capricious nature of Romeo's immature love is also recognized by Friar Laurence. In Act II, Scene 3, the friar learns that Romeo no longer loves Rosaline, but has fallen for Juliet. In a speech that sounds both sad and accusing (towards Romeo), the friar states that "young men's love then lies/ not truly in their hearts, but in their eyes" (II.iii. [pg 32]). He therefore sees that Romeo's feeling for Juliet is not from his heart or deeper emotions, but merely a physical attraction (and so an immature love). He also reproaches Romeo with the line "And art thou changed? Pronounce this sentence then: / women may fall when there's no strength in men." When Romeo tries to dodge this "guilt trip," the friar seems to side with Rosaline, when he states that Rosaline "knew well/ thy love did read by rote and could not spell" (II.iii [pg 33]). In other words, Rosaline declined Romeo because she was wise enough to recognize that his affection for her was nothing but a boyish infatuation, not a real, true love. The fact that Romeo can only "read by rote and could not spell" is a direct reference to his immaturity, as it portrays him as a schoolboy who has heard of the concept of love, but has not learned what love is really about.

So we can see, throughout the play, that Romeo's feelings for Juliet are based on an immature concept of love. He (and Juliet) may truly believe that what they have is a deep, lasting and true love. However, Romeo's actions speak otherwise, as his friends, and even Rosaline, quite clearly realize. It is ironic, then, that Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet is often thought of as a story of true love, and not a tale of misguided, immature youth who fall victim to their own childishness.