Romeo and Juliet Character Analysis Essay Example

In the play, Romeo and Juliet, there are many characters. Each character has their own type of development. However, I will be focusing on the development of Romeo. In the start of the play he’s fixated on Rosaline, but when she rejects him he moves on quickly. He was only sad for a short period of time. Then towards the end, he starts to realize what love is, and how far he would go for the forbidden love between himself and Juliet.

In the beginning of the play, Romeo is heartbroken. He just got his heart broken by ‘the love of his life.’ This is false because not only a scene later, he’s already fallen in love with Juliet. He only has to look at her to know he’s in love. However, how would he know what love is? If he had truly loved Rosaline, it would’ve taken more time for him to have moved on.

Spending time with Juliet changed Romeo’s view on love. During the balcony scene, Romeo keeps swearing his love on inanimate objects, and things that would eventually disappear. Juliet wasn’t feeling that so she tells Romeo, ““O, swear not by the moon, the inconstant moon…” What Juliet was trying to tell Romeo was that the moon can disappear which means that his love can too. Romeo has been forced to think about what love is. He’s confused so he asks Juliet “what shall I swear by…” Juliet still doesn’t want his love to be sworn upon something that could leave or be destroyed. So she tells him to swear upon himself. By swearing on himself, he’s saying that he will love her until he dies. 

Romeo’s character development truly shines in Act 5. Their plan to leave together has backfired and Juliet is ‘dead.’ When Romeo stumbles upon the love of his life is dead. He doesn’t even hesitate. He kills himself too. When Romeo was heartbroken by Rosaline he did have a plan to get her back, but he didn’t try hard enough, because he fell in love with Juliet. However, when Juliet had ‘left’ him, he was distraught. He couldn’t think of anything worse than living without Juliet. 

Out of all the characters in Shakespear’s play Romeo and Juliet, I think that Romeo has had the most development. He went from not knowing what love was, to dying for the love of his life. I think the reason for most of Romeo’s character development is thanks to Juliet. When Romeo was declaring his love for her, she told him that he was wrong. She made him rethink what love was, which eventually led to both of their deaths. If Romeo had never met Juliet, I doubt that his character development would have been so big. In this paper, I only talked about his romance development. Which I feel is the most important. Without his romance development, I don’t think the play would have been the same. The ending would not have been as tragic, but that’s what makes the story so good. The fact that two people loved each other so much that they were willing to die for one another.