MovieChat Forums > Romeo + Juliet (1996) Discussion > I'm an idiot

I'm an idiot

posted 9 years ago by flobiwan-1
11 replies | jump to latest

I just watched this film for the 2nd or 3rd time having a passing familiarity with the play and i just noticed that Romeo was pining for another woman at the beginning. I always thought that he had already seen Juliet and that's who he was referring to when he said he was in love.

To be honest, that kind of lowers my opinion of Romeo a bit. How do we know that what he felt with Juliet was true love? If he could have such strong affections for Rosaline the way he was waxing poetic at the beginning and then immediately abandon them when he sees Juliet, how do we know that, if they had lived, he wouldn't have fallen in love with some other girl 6 months later?

[–] PreachCaleb 9 years ago

I don't remember if it was in the movie, but in the play, the Friar even calls Romeo out on this.

"Holy Saint Francis, what a change is here!
Is Rosaline, whom thou didst love so dear,
So soon forsaken? Young men's love then lies
Not truly in their hearts, but in their eyes."

Let's be bad guys.

[–] flobiwan-1 9 years ago

Yes he did say it in the movie. Hence the subject of my post.

[–] PreachCaleb 9 years ago



Let's be bad guys.

[–] Lelia62 9 years ago

I think we DON'T know if it's true love. They're kids making kid choices.

When I was a teen, I thought it was romantic. Now that I have teens oif my own, I'm impatient with the impetuousness of R+J.

[–] Harbinger_3781 9 years ago

Well mate, whatever you do, don't meddle. Let them make their own mistakes and kiss their own frogs.
One single on-site experience speaks louder volume than ten thousand words.

[–] SenoritaTorres 9 years ago

This has been debated a lot. It does annoy me that Romeo was so besotted with another woman at first because some argue it does cheapen his love for Juliet and make you question everything. However, for me, I think Rosaline was infatuation more than anything else. At the time of hearing of Juliet's death Romeo genuinely could not go on living without her. He didn't have Rosaline at the start and she didn't want him but he was still somewhat coping, just melancholy. He may have thought it was love, until he met Juliet.

[–] PreachCaleb 8 years ago

Except Rosaline is not dead. So Romeo might still hold out hope for her.

In any case, true love is not measured by suicidal tendencies.

You are sin.

[–] TheCommenteer 8 years ago

The whole thing reeks of teen stupidity. Kids are overly dramatic idiots and will enact stupidity even just to prove a point. The whole plot of Romeo and Juliet is a fantastic snapshot of stupidity of youth and age, and a terrible love story.

[–] BlissNEsb (108) 6 years ago

Juliet was the love of Romeo's life; Rosaline a passing lustful infatuation.

[–] EvilPinata (1186) 6 years ago

Or him moving on from Rosaline shows that he did love Juliet even more for him to give up his current conquest. Plus, he was willing to die for her. If that's not true love, I don't know what is. Regardless it's not considered a romance by Shakespeare, it's a tragedy.

[–] [deleted] 5 years ago

Ah, you've never been lovestruck yet!