Allie Kilgore

Ms. Price

Honors English One

October 20th, 2017

True Love

“Keep love in your heart. A life without love is like a sunless garden when the flowers

are dead.” -Oscar Wilde. The types of love that are evident in Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet

are platonic love, familial love, unrequited love, and romantic love. One of the types of love that

is found most often in Romeo and Juliet is romantic love. Romantic love is affection and

consideration for a partner. Romantic love includes loving each other so much that you would

rather die than live without them, loving each other so much that you would risk your life to save

theirs, and knowing that true love is sacrifice.

Romantic love is shown throughout Romeo and Juliet by the main characters, which are

Romeo and Juliet. Romeo and Juliet love each other so much that they die so that don’t have to

live without each other. Romeo shows Juliet how much he loves her when he says, “With

love’s light wings did I o’erperch these walls, for stony limits cannot hold love out, and

what love can do, that dares love attempt. Therefore thy kinsmen are no stop to me.”

(Shakespeare 2. 2. 71-74). Romeo told Juliet that he would die for her the night he met

her. This is an example of love at first sight. After Juliet found out that Romeo killed Tybalt

and was to be banished, Juliet was so upset that she couldn’t be with him that she says, “Give

me my Romeo, and when I shall die,” (Shakespeare, 3.2.23). This quote means that Juliet

would rather die than be without Romeo because she loves him. When Romeo finds out

that he has been banished he threatened to kill himself so that he didn’t have to live
without Juliet. Romeo and Juliet love each other so much that they are willing to die

rather than live without each other. In Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, Romantic love is

shown through Romeo and Juliet’s willingness to die rather than live without each other

because of the love that they share.

Romantic love is shown in modern day through movies, like Titanic, and is also shown

through marriage. Titanic shows Romantic love through Jack and Rose risking their lives to save

one another. There are several examples of this, such as: Jack saved Rose from jumping off the

side of the boat when she was upset with the life she was being forced to live. Second, when Jack

got blamed for stealing the diamonds and got chained to a pole in the basement, Rose risked her

life to save him when the ocean water started to rise after the boat hit the iceberg. Rose and Jack

were willing to risk their lives to save each other because of the love they share. And lastly,

when the final piece of the boat sank, Jack let Rose lay on the headboard so that she did not have

to sit in the freezing water and because of Jack’s sacrifice Rose lived and Jack faced a tragic end

and froze to death in the water. Jack and Rose are a perfect example of Romantic love because

they are willing to risk their lives to save each other. Their relationship shows that romantic love

is loving one another so much that you would risk your life to save theirs.

No matter the time period, romantic love never changes and true love is always about

sacrifice. In Romeo and Juliet, Romeo and Juliet love each other so much that they would rather

die than live without each other. Juliet proves this point when she risks everything to drink the

medicine that the friar gives her. This medicine will put her in a death like coma long enough for

her family to think that she is actually dead so she can sneak away with Romeo. This is sacrifice.

Juliet is willing to almost kill herself and run away from her family all for a someone she just

met. “Or bid me go into a new-made grave, And hide me with a dead man in his shroud
(Things that to hear them told have made me tremble), And I will do it without fear or

doubt, To live an unstained wife to my sweet love” (Shakespeare, 4.1. 85-90). In Titanic,

Jack and Rose risk their lives to save one another time and time again. Jack was willing to jump

off the boat and into the water after Rose if she jumped, Rose went back to Jack to set him free,

and Jack let Rose lay on the headboard so she wouldn't freeze. When people love each other like

Romeo and Juliet love each other and Jack and Rose love each other, they will do whatever you

have to do to be with them no matter what the cost. This shows that true love is sacrifice no

matter what time period, or what person it is.

The type of love that is found most often in Romeo and Juliet and in modern day is

romantic love. Romantic love is affection and consideration for a partner. Romantic love is when

you love each other so much that you would rather die than be without them, loving one another

so much that you will risk your life to save theirs, and knowing that true love is sacrifice. True

love never changes, no matter what.

Works Cited
● Shakespeare, William. The tragedy of Romeo and Juliet. Elements of literature, houghton

mufflin

Harcourt, 2005, 788-910.

● Titanic. Directed by James Cameron, performances by Leonardo DiCaprio as Jack

Dawson, and Kate Winslet as Rose Bukater, Paramount Pictures and 20th Century Fox,

1997.