Romeo as a petrarchan lover Flashcards
Big idea 1
He is forlorn and despondent, and he laments (grieves) that
“for beauty, starved with her severity, / cuts beauty off from all posterity”.
for beauty quote explained
The emphasis that Romeo places on Rosaline’s aesthetics shows him to be materialistic and vain.
for beauty quote explained part 2
His depthless, ornamental view of women depicts him as childlike and overly romantic in his perception of love.
“for beauty” quote explained part 3
The iambic pentameter and rhyming couplets that
Shakespeare employs establishes him to be self-involved both in
his disposition (character) and his in his decorative language.
“for beauty” quote explained part 4
Furthermore, his mention of “posterity’ demonstrates that often
women of this era were seen, by young men, as simply vessels
for childrearing.
“for beauty” quote explained part 5
Romeo has a de-humanising, objectifying
view of women
“for beauty” quote explained part 5 (continued)
valuing them purely for their physical and allure
and their maternal capabilities.
Big idea 2
He comes across as self-centred when he says “she hath foresworn to love, and in that vow/ do I live dead that live
to tell it now”.
"”she hath foresworn” explained part 1
He makes her personal vow of chastity about
himself.
“she hath foresworn” explained part 2
The personal pronoun ‘I’ is hugely demonstrative of his self-absorbed, narcissistic qualities.
big idea 3
He is the exemplary Petrarchan lover in that he is in a constant state of self-involved melancholy.
supporting quote for big idea 3
Romeo’s analogy of Rosaline to “these happy masks that kiss
fair ladies”
“these happy masks” quote explained part 1
illustrative of the notion that he doesn’t see her
as she is, rather he sees an idolised, utopian-like version of her.
“these happy masks” quote explained part 2
There’s dramatic irony at play here in that, given the play’s title, Rosaline is obviously not the other lover that is mentioned in the prologue.
“these happy masks” quote explained part 3
his characterises Romeo’s sorrowful disposition, in regard to the idolised Rosaline, to be almost worthy of ridicule.
