Romeo and Juliet - real love?

If I remember correctly, the spand of time between them meeting and them dying was something like a week.

If 'real love' means to you what it means to me, then I'd say no, Romeo and Juliet couldn't have experienced what I think 'real love' is. They didn't have close to enough time to learn about each other, and to appreciate the others' existence.

Besides, Romeo was just an emo teenage horn-dog, who ended up meeting a girl that he thought was really good looking, got her in bed, became emotionally attached, and due to an unbelievable amount of testosterone ended up killing himself on her grave. Shakespeare was a genius.

Hmm imho Shakespeare was actually trying to show the naivety of Romeo and Juliet. For instance Romeo was in 'love' with Rosaline only like a day before. He was also trying to show the innocence of them both and how the age old feud was pointless and that it was just an inbuilt hatred passed down from generation to generation with no real foundation. We can see the same thing happening with the Hutus and the Tutsis in 'Hotel Rowanda'

'those that run too quickly, stumble' is a line from the play and it sums up the speed of their meeting/falling in love/and deaths. It also underlines Elizebethen ideology of deeper meaningful thought versus folly in all affairs.

so is there anyone who supports the other side of this discussion?

Nah, I always saw Romeo & Juliet as something more like a satire

Now, A Midsummer Night's Dream, written during the same time as R&J, that's the definition of true love

Lol What between a donkey and a woman? ...

i was expecting people to fight for the other side more.

but i have to say i agree that it was not true love. as someone said above Romeo was depressed about Rosealine, saying she was the most beautiful woman he's laid eyes on and then a day or less later he sees Juliet and is completely changed.

~Jacklyn

i dont think it was true love. not at all.

True love was O. Henry,s The Gıft Of the Magı

sure, many a men are made asses by love

but I meant the love square of the main characters

the fairy king and queen

and the duke and duchess

I believe infauation is the correct term to describe what romeo and juliet shared

Weren't they just teens going through puberty? That's not real love. It's their hormones, and a lot of lust.

I think Juliet would have been happier with Paris in the long run anyway. Romeo tends to annoy me whenever I read it.

If you've seen the the 1968 Romeo and Juliet, you'll see it's just lust. They meet for an hour maybe and gets married the next day. Seriously!

1. Romeo was head or heels for Rosaline, than suddenly it's like, "Oh look, there's someone more beautiful!" And chases after her.

Yep I'll agree with the majority here (Though I'm a little late on this thread).

How can something so short lived be true love?! Is it possible to fall in love at first sight? I think not. There is one thing we must remember "Beauty attracts, ugliness repels" (Walter Russell). If Juliet was not so beautiful would it have happened.

the idea that a person can fall in love with every person that they see shows me that love isn't love it's lust, there's no such thing as love at first sight and therefore no romeo and juliet wasn't true love it was true lust.

I do belive that they shared real love.. because if they were willing to sacrifice everything (which they did, their family, their friends even their lives in the end) then I belive that, thats what true love is all about.. giving something up to make the other person happy even if you can't be with them. and thats sorta what they did... in a round about way

people can sacrifice everything for lust too, they just have to be young and stupid.

aka Romeo and Juliet

no i think that would be called lust if anything.

I believe that it is possible for two people to fall in love over a short period of time, but love needs to be built up over a long period of time.

"Love at first sight" is only the begining of that love. If you don't take the time to get to know the person and work on that love, it fades away and never becomes real, true, love.

As per Romeo and Juliet, I don't think that what they had was true love. It's just not possible to learn everything about someone in a week. Therefore, it would never be possible for them to be in true love since they barely knew each other.

You can't love someone you don't know.

Love grows over time...what they had was just the beginning. The beginning of love isn't the part that truly matters, so I can't say that what they had was a very important connection. Romeo was just a jackass who couldn't prioritize his life.

It figures that people so young would kill themselves without TRUE contemplation.

Oh...what a world we live in and Shakespeare lived in.

Well lets look at it this way - Romeo and Juliet both came from a time where arranged marriages were almost how EVERYONE got married. Meaning that they may not even know their husband or wife at all when they get married. So you could say that (being in that Elizabethan time period) they were yes, in love, because they both chose each other. To them, being able to pick each other as husband and wife meant something, and they knew that their love was deeper than most at the beginning.

Now, take it into todays terms. (Try thinking Leo DiCaprio's movie from the 90's.) Today, people wait three or four YEARS before they get married, instead of the next day like Romeo and Juliet did. However, times are different today. In most countries, marriages aren't arranged, and people get to choose who they marry. That being said, they want to pick the best husband/wife for themselves because they have the CHANCE to. In Romeo and Juliet's time, they didn't have the TIME.

Remember, Juliet was only 13. Unforutnately women got married younger than that in those times, so again, the time thing comes into play. She knew she'd have an arranged marriage sooner or later, and being able to pick Romeo as her husband really meant something, and she was able to love him on her own level.

Now "true love". Possibly. Over time, it would have grown I'm sure.

Okay I really gave you a long description, to any Romeo and Juilet freaks like myself, I hope you read it and enjoyed my point of view lol.