In Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet,
Romeo's experience with love so far has been his infatuation with Rosaline. Because she
does not return his love, he moons around, sad and depressed as if he life were over.
Even his words are sappy:
Love is a smoke made with the fume of sighs; /
Being purged, a fire sparkling in lovers' eyes; / Being vexed, a sea nourished with
lovers' tears; / What is it else? A madness most discreet, / A chocking gall, and a
preserving sweet.
Everyone
knows Romeo is despondent over his unrequited love and his friends encourage him to move
on.
Meeting Juliet, he does just that. When Friar Lawrence
asks if he has been with Rosaline, Romeo answers:
With Rosaline, my ghostly father? No. / I have
forgot that name, and that names'
woe.
Friar Lawrence is amazed
to hear of Romeo's new love, as Romeo had gone on for so long about his love for
Rosaline.
Perhaps we also see his immaturity in the speed
with which he forgets Rosaline to fall deeply in love with Juliet in just one meeting.
However, this is where he seems to turn the corner in terms of maturity, for he is
committed to life with Juliet or no life at all.
As he
prepares to marry Juliet, Romeo tells Friar Lawrence:
But come what sorrow can, / It cannot countervail
the exchange of joy / That one short minute gives me in her sight. Do though but close
our hands with holy words, / Then love-devouring death do what he dare. / It is enough I
may but call her
mine.
Romeo's final actions
prove his dedication to Juliet: he cannot be dissuaded from loving her; will not turn
his back on her after he is banished; and, he would rather die than live without her.
These things seem to indicate that he has turned his back on the childishness of
infatuation, such as with Rosaline, to fall deeply in love with
Juliet.
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