Shakespeare portrays love in Romeo and Juliet in many ways. Their love is portrayed by images of light and dark and is juxtaposed against death, and he sets next to Romeo and Juliet the love associated with sight and appearances. In all, their love is of another world.
The love of Romeo and Juliet is portrayed as otherworldly and heavenly. They are "star-crossed lovers", with their destiny pre-determined; they and other humans have no control. Instead the control lies with fate and God. The lovers are "fortune's fools". This dependency on fate and otherworldly powers lend their love a sense of being something heavenly, "hanging in the stars". With their love, they are able to rise above their world and everyone else. Their love is a means to escape the world of reality and to create their own world of darkness. This world of darkness is their consequential deaths, because their love is "death-marked".
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Romeo and Juliet with Friar Laurence
Rosaline in Zeffirelli's Romeo and Juliet, one of ...Their love is too passionate and powerful to remain in their world, ruled by family hate and violence.
Shakespeare describes love in terms of sight and appearances. Romeo and Juliet's love is blind, they first meet at a ball, where Romeo is "covered in an antic face" and Juliet's identity is unknown to him. Their first meeting is love at first sight. Romeo has "ne'er saw true beauty till this night" and this shows their love's dependency on sight. During their second meeting at the balcony, Juliet asks Romeo to "doff thy name", as names are also a type of disguise and mask. Romeo in turn replies that he is hidden "from their sight", so that his appearance is seen only by Juliet, who has the "mask of night" on her face. Despite both of them admitting that they love each other, their love is...