In 'Romeo and Juliet' Shakespeare uses many forms of love to great effect. It transforms characters, including Lord and Lady Capulet, Lord Montague, Paris, Romeo, and Juliet; breeds hate; over comes great barriers; and makes characters unbearably miserable or tremendously happy.
The first scene the audience sees it that of the fighting between a group of Capulets and Montagues. Even this is caused by love; this time the families' love for their name and their honour. I think Shakespeare used the fight for the first scene to shock the audience, to demonstrate how the fights are "bred of an airy word", and to show how much the Capulets and the Montagues hate each other.
At the start of the play, Lord Capulets' love for Juliet is demonstrated when he arranges a profitable marriage for her, but is still a bit reluctant to let her go. "My child is yet a stranger in the world, She hath not seen the change of fourteen years.
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Romeo and Juliet with Friar Laurence
Romeo and Juliet, Act I-Scene_3. Lady Capulet and ...Let two more summers wither in their pride Ere we may think her ripe to be a bride."
Romeo is miserable with infatuation for the unattainable Rosaline in Act 1 Scene 1. Shakespeare shows the audience this with Pertrarcan sonnets, "???????", which would have been instantly recognised by the audience of the time. Lord and Lady Montague are very worried about their "heavy son", but leave it up to Benvolio to sort it out.
At the end of the play Lord and Lady Capulet and Lord Montague realise that not talking to their children and not finding out how they felt, lead to their deaths.
In Act 1 scene 3, the audience is shown that Juliet feels love is something that happens in marriage and isn't too keen; She tells her mother that marriage...