Comparison/Contrast Essay – Ro

In Act One, Scene One of Shakespeare’s play, Romeo and Juliet, Mercutio, Benvolio and Romeo are introduced. Mercutio is a very pig headed person. He is very egotistical and sure of himself. He only talks about love and women in sexual ways. Benvolio is the peacekeeper. The first words out of him are, “Keep the peace”. He also is very casual about love. It doesn’t mean that much to him because he knows people fall in and out of love so quickly. When we first meet Romeo, he is a very sad person. He is so hooked on his love interest that it makes him sad all the time. He believes a lot in fate and how fate has a say in the outcome of things. We can tell as soon as they are first introduced, that they all view love very differently. Mercutio’s love doesn’t come from his heart but from his body while, to Benvolio, love has no real depth; Romeo feels love with every part of him, mind, body and soul.

Mercutio’s love doesn’t come from his heart but from his body. He’s sees love as no more than a physical thing. One of the first things Mercutio says when we are introduced to him is, “ This is the hag, when maids lie on their backs. That presses them an

Romeo loves with every part of him, mind, body and soul. When we first meet Romeo he is very depressed about his love for Rosaline. Just because their love is not so wonderful he is so upset. We get this impression when he says,

d learns them to first bear, making them women of good carriage.”(Pg.49, line 93-100) Romeo had told Mercutio that he had a dream and Mercutio is telling Romeo about the fairy that makes people dream their dreams. He tells Romeo that she makes people dream what they want to dream, not what is true. In this sentence he explains to Romeo that the dream fairy teaches women to lose their virginity to any man and become pregnant. He is telling Romeo not to believe in true love but to realize that women are only useful to take control of and make them women of good carriage.

Mercutio also say’s to Romeo, “If love be rough with you, be rough with love. Prick love for pricking, and you beat love down. Give me a case to put my visage in. A visor for a visor.”(Pg.43, line 27-30) He is telling Romeo to not be sad about his love interest, Rosaline, but if love has hurt him then hurt it back. He tells him to get out of the sad mood and put on a happy face for the world because Rosaline’s love isn’t that important. He doesn’t even care that Romeo loves her, but love has hurt him so he must hurt love. Hurting something is physical, and his feelings of love are once again coming from his body actions, not his heart.

To Benvolio love has no real depth. He believes people fall in and out of love very fast and it just doesn’t mean that much in his life. When he is giving Romeo advice not to be so upset about Rosaline he says, “ Alas that love, so gentle in his view, should be so tyrannous and rough in proof!”(Pg.21, line 174-175) He is telling Romeo that love seemed so innocent at first but then you realize from experience it is rough and very controlling at times. He is proving to Romeo that maybe if he didn’t pay so much attention to it, it couldn’t hurt him so much. Romeo has now experienced how love is not always a happy thing and it can hurt him too.

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