In Act 1 Scene 1, Romeo thinks himself "in love" with Rosaline, but he hasn't had enough experience to understand the true depth of feeling meant by the phrase. He moves effortlessly from being hearbroken over his unrequited love to being hungry to realizing that something has been going on...
See This Answer Now
Start your 48-hour free trial to unlock this answer and thousands more. Enjoy eNotes ad-free and cancel anytime.
Already a member? Log in here.
in the area.
Alas that love, whose view is muffled still,Should without eyes see pathways to his will!Where shall we dine? O me! What fray was here?
Romeo understands the concept of love between two individuals, but doesn't know what that can entail.
Love as loyalty to family is also demonstrated in this scene. Sampson and Gregory, backed by Tybalt and the others, pick a fight with the Montagues to demonstrate their family pride and power, the love of their position and the superiority they feel it gives the Capulets.
What, drawn, and talk of peace? I hate the word As I hate hell, all Montagues, and thee. Have at thee, coward!
In act 1, scene 1, of Romeo and Juliet, Gregory and Sampson pick a fight with two servants of the Montague family out of loyalty to their employers, the Capulet family. Their love for the Capulets leads them to display aggression and hostility towards the Montagues. The contrast between their love for the Capulets and their hatred for the Montagues sets the tone for the rest of the play, especially when Tybalt and Benvolio get involved and an insignificant trifle becomes a full-fledged brawl.
Soon after the fight is resolved, Benvolio introduces Romeo to the audience while he discusses Romeo and his current withdrawn behaviors with Romeo's parents. Later, the audience learns that Romeo is suffering from heartache. His emotional pain, inflicted by a woman, contrasts with the physical pain of the brawl. The tension between emotional pain and physical pain suggests that one is more obvious and observable than the other. This introduction of secrecy as it relates to matters of love is another topic explored throughout the rest of the play.
There are a couple of concepts of love (and other things) that can be seen in this scene.
First, you have all the stuff that Sampson says. It's not love, really, that he's talking about, but it is relations between men and women. His vision of "love" is the sort of swaggering, bragging, women-are-sex-objects view of "love."
Then you have Romeo's "love" for Rosaline. His is a sort of pathetic infatuation. He idolizes her and plaes her on a pedestal. His "love" for her makes him weak because she won't return that love.
So the contrast is between two things that I wouldn't even call love -- there's treating women as sex objects and treating them as unattainable and perfect.