Romeo and Juliet are widely regarded as one of the greatest love stories ever told. In this article we will explore in more detail how love is presented in Romeo and Juliet. Shakespeare tells the story of two young people so in love that they would rather die than live without each other. The theme of love is woven into every scene of the play, the different forms of love are also explored by Shakespeare. Shakespeare presents love as complex and ever-changing through his use of oxymorons. He contrasts the purity of first love with the passionate, uncontrollable force of emotion and, furthermore, thoughts and feelings of infatuation against lasting love and marriage. It uses existing conventions, as well as its own elaborate language and imagery, to further present love as unrequited, elevated and holy, physical, and linked to violence and death. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay Unrequited love is depicted through Romeo's infatuation with Rosaline; instead of bringing him joy, he becomes depressed because his love is one-sided and she doesn't feel the same way. In Act 1 Scene 1, Romeo uses a series of oxymorons to express his emotions about love. "O quarrelsome love, O amorous hatred." The verb "brawl" is used here as an adjective and has connotations of fighting, which emphasizes the conflict within the work. The oxymoron between 'fight' and 'love' represents the contrast between the love of Romeo and Juliet with the quarrels and violence of the family feud. It also foreshadows the amount of violence that will occur over the course of the show between the families and ties into the important theme of the coexistence of love and hate. Romeo's endless list of oxymorons from "lead feather", "bright smoke", "cold fire" to "sick health", suggests Romeo's inability to understand what is in front of him and his general confusion about the Love. In addition to this, it strongly alludes to Romeo's immature and inexperienced character, and his tendency to make hasty decisions. This is reinforced when Juliet says in Act 2, scene 2, "too rash, too reckless, too sudden, too like lightning", the asyndetic list is based on the simile which encapsulates Romeo's character as someone reckless and impulsive. Furthermore, although we can see the relationship between Romeo and Juliet as one of mutual love, the inability of each to clearly discuss their relationship without the use of oxymorons at odds with their speeches makes their love seem paid. Religious love becomes more apparent the presentation of love as we progress through the show and events such as the marriage between Juliet and Paris become more and more relevant to the plot. The pure and chaste religious imagery of Romeo and Juliet's meeting is contrasted with Act 5 Scene 3, where the imagery becomes sexualized. In many cultures, sex is a way to consummate a marriage and thus complete the unification of a couple. In the work, the couple is united in death and the sexual image symbolizes the consummation of their unity in the afterlife. Romeo drinks to death from a round phial which in Elizabethan times was an allusion to female sexuality. This combines with the action of Juliet killing herself with a dagger, a phallic symbol which could also be seen as representing a reconsummation of the marriage. This highlights how they had a love that was transcendent and capable of connecting them on three levels; physically, mentally and spiritually. The fact that the two lovers die together also cements their eternal devotion to each other, andfurther presents their relationship, and the theme of love, as entirely based on religion. Emotional and physical love is strongly contrasted by Shakespeare and the concept is exemplified at various points in the play. In Act 1Scene 4, Mercutio says that if 'love is hard on you, be hard on love'. This alludes to the sexual nature of love which is physical and not pure. This also suggests that love can also be "harsh" emotionally, which is evident in how Romeo suffers from unrequited love. In Act 2, Scene 1 Mercutio subverts the conventions of Romantic poetry when he describes Rosaline's body. He lists the parts of his body saying; "evokes you by Rosaline's bright eyes, by her high forehead and scarlet lip, by her beautiful foot, straight leg and trembling thigh." This shows that Mercutio is reducing what was previously a love-filled romance for Rosaline to nothing more than a sexual description of her body. Next, the friar shows his lack of emotional understanding in this scene by saying that "the love of young people is not truly in their hearts, but in their eyes", essentially ignoring the idea that love can be something that comes from Heart. This could be seen as Shakespeare shedding light on the superficial nature of love, perhaps cloaking the entire work in irony and showing a new vision of love, which contradicts the more romantically idealized conventions of the time. This idea is further explored as the friar says that Romeo was only "adored" by Rosaline. This form of sexual love is not just focused on men. The Nurse checks Romeo's body and comments that his "leg excels that of all men." The Nurse's sexualized view of Romeo contrasts with the emotional attachment Juliet feels towards him. This could be seen as Shakespeare pointing out how Romeo and Juliet's love transcends conventional ideas of love that we see in Lady Capulet, the Nurse, and Mercutio. As a result, Shakespeare's depiction of love appears to be not only emotional, but physical and highlights the impulsiveness of Romeo's actions in the play as he quickly switches between Rosaline and Juliet seemingly due to their physical attraction. The passionate love of Romeo and Juliet is troubled by the violence and conflict that takes place in the play. However, while some may think that conflict corrupts their love, it actually fuels it and makes it more powerful. The fusion of love and violence is what characterizes the drama as tragedy. Love is connected to violence and death in many other ways within the work as well. In Act 1 Scene 1, Sampson and Gregory describe acts of violence and rape with the use of "a naked weapon." The word "naked" fills the description both with sexual ideas of intimacy, but also highlights an idea of ​​truth. The juxtaposition of this term with the expression "weapon", which has connotations of violence, highlights once again how there is an overlap between love and hate. It is said together with the desire to "drive Montague's maids to the wall" and to rape the women. Rape can be seen as violence that infiltrates what should be an act of love and intimacy. The use of the sonnet form which was conventionally used to represent love is used by Shakespeare to describe death and feud. It uses blood-filled imagery of “civilian blood makes the hands of civilians impure,” which highlights how this comedy is contained within ideas of love but has just as much to do with hatred and strife. Romeo and Juliet's marriage is described as a "violent delight" by Friar Lawrence. This use of oxymorons emphasizes the difference between the two ideas but also highlights a connection between