Romeo And Juliet Courtly Love

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In response to Romeo’s love, Rosaline is presented as a typical woman in the courtly love tradition. She is cold, chaste and refuses Romeo’s advances. “With cupid’s arrow, she hath Dian’s wit.” By comparing Rosaline to Diana, the goddess of chastity, he emphasises her goddess like status, placing her on a high pedestal. As well as her purity, this mythological reference reflects the expectations of the Elizabethan society, which expected women to remain virginal and reserved, rejecting the advances of men. This is also shown by Juliet’s embarrassment when she realises Romeo has been listening to her romantic talk about him, “or if thou think’st I am too quickly won, I’ll frown and be perverse, and say thee nay,” Here Juliet thinks she ought…show more content…
In act 1 scene 5, he complains, “And in strong proof of chastity well arm’d”, such language, such as, ‘arm’d’, Emphasises how hard it is for him to break down Rosaline’s defences; she is a woman who will not love Romeo and he is grieved by this. He also laments, “O brawling love, O loving hate.” Loving hate, an Oxymoron shows his love for her but also his hate for her rejections of his advances, this could signify his confusion over whether he is truly in love with her or if it is just lust, which is in complete contradiction to when he first meets Juliet. He is much more adoring of her and uses words that show her to be truly the most beautiful girl he has ever met, “O, then, dear saint, let lips do what hands do.”, he uses the metaphor of a saint to highlight her spotlessness, in a far more straightforward manner than when he talks about Rosaline. Indicating his love for Juliet if far more genuine than his love for Rosaline. Similarly to Romeo, in Pride and prejudice Mr Darcy suffers from unrequited love, as in chapter 34 Elizabeth rejects his marriage proposal. However unlike Romeo he is far more composed and reacts in a mature way, he is angry, rather than filled with self-pity, and struggles to appear composed which helps us understand that he is indeed very much in love with her and refuses to let Elizabeth see the damage she has done by rejecting him. He first says to her, “You must allow me to tell
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