Love vs. Lust

Throughout the world, readers of Romeo and Juliet have interpreted it as a story of either lust or love. Shakespeare had used several techniques to show that Romeo and Juliet are not in love, but in lust. In the play, Romeo and Juliet had fallen in love with each other only by their beauty in only a few minutes without actually physically meeting each other. This wouldn't happen in real life as someone cannot just fall in love in just a few minutes without actually knowing that person, and just immediately fall in love by just their looks. In the play, Romeo describes Juliet as being so bright that she teaches the torches to shine just like her. “O, she doth teach the torches to burn bright! It seems she hangs upon the cheek of night like a rich jewel in an Ethiop's ear; beauty too rich for use, for earth too dear! So shows a snowy dove trooping with crows, as yonder lady o'er her fellows shows. The measure done, I'll watch her place of stand, and touching hers, make blessed my rude hand. Did my heart love till now? Forswear it, sight! For I ne'er saw true beauty till this night. (Act I, Scene 5, 38-41)”. In Act 2, Romeo proposes to Juliet, only after meeting her a few hours before. They both act carelessly; they both marry too quickly which leads to problems. Love is always patient, and slow, however lust is always quick paced. There are several techniques utilised by Shakespeare in this play that portray lust between Romeo and Juliet. These are dramatic irony, the way that Romeo speaks of Juliet, such as comparing her to light, and the foreshadowing of their fate afterwards. Shakespeare has written Romeo and Juliet, not as a love story, but a lust story.