The Connection Between Love and Beauty in Romeo and Juliet Essay Example

In Shakespeare's famous play Romeo and Juliet, taking place in Verona, characters such as Romeo, Juliet's lover, and Lady Capulet, Juliet's mom, value Juliet as very distinguished and worthy because of her beauty. A subject that is clearly shown is that a woman's desirability of love is contradicting based on her beauty. Although this idea may be a disproving statement in our world today, do the characters in Romeo and Juliet really feel the same way? They are supposed to love each other because of their connection and similarities but is there really anything more to their love than attraction to physical appearance? 

This play distinctly demonstrates through many characters that a woman’s desirability of love is contradicting based on her beauty. Romeo, Rosaline’s primary lover, loves Rosaline and perceives her similar to Juliet, worthy of love because of her beauty. While in the woods crying, Romeo informs Benvolio, his trusted friend, about his latest encounter with Rosaline where he found out that she is leaving him. He claims she is depriving the future people of Verona of her beauty which in Romeo's mind, deprives her of any worth. He says, “She’s rich in beauty, but she’s also poor, because when she dies her beauty will be destroyed with her” (I.i.206). Romeo agrees that Rosaline is essentially being ignorant due to her beauty being wasted. If she wanted to, she could be the most desired girl in Verona, if not more, but now even if she is a terrific person, she is worthless because she is destroying her desirability to do what she thinks is more important. As we can see, Romeo surely values Rosaline because of her physical beauty and shames her for not using it to the full ability. He carries on talking about her by stating, “…and so, your beauty is lost to future generations” (I.i.210) He speaks of Rosaline saying she is being disloyal while also choosing the wrong choice since she is deriving the people of beauty. In Romeo’s mind, if she wasn’t so selfish than she would agree to have children and stay with Romeo so that the future of Verona can experience the same beauty Romeo has. Even if he did at one point, Romeo no longer cares about what Rosaline wants and shames her for not living up to her full desirable potential. These examples prove that Romeo values not only Juliet’s, but Rosaline’s worth because of her beauty.

 Not only Romeo, but Lady Capulet, Juliet’s mom, and the people of Verona value Juliet's worth based on her beauty. Currently, Juliet is conflicted between being married to Paris, her possible future husband, and Romeo, her love. We soon start to see the opinions of other characters especially when Lady Capulet tries to convince Juliet to marry Paris. She expresses that it would make Juliet seen even more worthy if the people saw her beauty next to Paris’s handsome appearance. She tells Juliet, “…and it’s wrong for a beauty like you to hide from a handsome man like him” (I.iii.91). Corresponding to Lady Capulet, it would be wrong for Juliet to hide from Paris since standing next to him, Juliet’s desirability would be seen by practically every person in Verona. Through these scenes we begin to see that not only Romeo believes Juliet’s worth is because of her beauty, but now her own mother, Lady Capulet agrees. She tells Juliet once again, “Many people think he’s handsome, and whoever becomes his bride will be just as admired” (I.iii.92). Like I stated before, even with Juliet's sophisticated personality, her mother continues to tell her that she should focus more on physical appearance, because she will be even more admired if she marries Paris. Now two characters, Romeo, and Lady Capulet aswell as all of Verona, believes that a woman’s worth is based on her beauty.

As we can tell, not only Romeo values Juliet's worth based on her beauty, but others concur. Although other characters seem to agree, we see this belief mostly shown by Romeo. After hearing the sorrowful news about Juliet's "death" Romeo decides to go to her tomb and say his final goodbye. But, even with Juliet being dead, Romeo still agrees she is beautiful. While in the tomb he says, “Ah, dear Juliet, why are you still so beautiful” (V.iii.109). Instead of mourning the loss of his lover, he continues to claim that her physical beauty is the main topic on his mind. Typically, in our world today, when someone has passed, we think about all the memories we’ve had with them and how we are going to miss them because of their lovely personalities. But, with Romeo, he talks nothing of their memories or loving her because of how kind she was, he talks about how not even death can make her worthless cause she is still beautiful. He continues to say, “Death has sucked the honey from your breath, but it has not yet ruined your beauty” (V.iii.101). Obviously, these two lovers care about each other very much but considering Juliet is dead and all Romeo can think about is how incredibly beautiful she looks in her tomb, how can we know that their love is anything more than attraction to physical traits. Time and time again, Romeo proceeds to prove to us that a woman’s desirability of love is based on her beauty, Romeo still loves her even when she’s dead because of how beautiful she looks.    

In the minds of Romeo, Lady Capulet, and the people of Verona, woman's desirability of love is contradicting based on her beauty. This can be proven by many examples including the primary example, Romeo talking to Benvolio about how he is upset because Rosaline left him, and he won’t be able to enjoy her beauty anymore. Secondly, Lady Capulet not caring about what Juliet wants but rather how her beauty would be especially admired if she married Paris.  And finally, when Romeo visits Juliet’s tomb referring nothing to their memories or her personality but her physical appearance. We see several times that Juliet is very worthy and desirable because of her beauty alone. In conclusion, a woman's value or worth should be based on more than just her beauty, although these characters may not feel the same, there is always more to people then what they seem. A famous saying is to not judge a book by it’s cover and the same goes for women. Worth has nothing to do with beauty or outside appearance and everything to do with the person you are on the inside.