Romeo and Juliet Love at First Sight

Love at first sight is what happened to Romeo when he first laid eyes on Juliet at the party. Early in the story it shows how Romeo is deep in love with Rosaline, a very old enemy of the Montagues but this vanishes upon his first sighting of Juliet. This shows his shallowness towards girls and women. After Romeo first sights Juliet he breaks into a speech of how beautiful she looks pointing out how much she stands out from everyone else. This is also continued through his ‘love speech’ with different examples given.

Not only that this passage does not describe Romeos love but every word he says shows his shallowness towards girls/women. Just before they entered the party, Romeo chose to hold the torch, still thinking of Rosaline ‘his love of his life’, even that shows his impetuousness. He does not love with his heart but loves with his eyes, Romeo might not know this but he believes it, true love comes from the heart. This passage expresses Romeos thoughts, about Juliet’s beauty, into words. Even though this was an instantaneous attraction to her looks, not her personality, it implies that if Romeo sees any other girl as beautiful as her, and (from looking at the picture of Juliet on the front cover) there probably is. He would fall in love with that girl/woman. For example, if Romeo were at this moment in time he would fall in love with every girl he sees, with all the short skirts and all.

Juliet, in Romeos perspective, has an inner beauty lurking within her “o she doth teaches the torches to burn bright”. This line can be interpreted in modern times as ‘she looks hot’ but reading it in half literal and half non literal sense, it implies that she has inner glow of beauty that also shows on herself, she teaches the torches to burn bright. Fire being the only source of light at night it implies she’s more brighter more glowing than fire, combining it in the sense of trying to describe her beauty, not just the outside but the inside as well. The fire learns from her beauty to burn more brighter, to light up the night but she, Juliet, is the brightest as can any torch can be. She has lit up Romeo’s heart on fire.

Romeo also described her “as a rich jewel in an Ethiop’s ear”. Ethiopians being black you can imagine a rich jewel hanging from their ear glistening in the light, romeos thought is that Juliet stood out from everyone else as being a rich jewel and everyone else being ‘black’. The colour black is also used as a dull no meaning colour implying that everyone else was helping her stand out. Thinking of this line in the literal sense, a rich jewel worn by a black woman would stand out much more; being opposite colours and shades, than a whitey wearing a rich jewel would not stand out that much (even if the jewel is black). Romeo is also expressing the idea that the more people there are the more Juliet would stand out.

Another thought given by Romeo in how much she stands out was when Romeo said “shows a snowy dove trooping with crows”. Crows are looked upon