Inside the Capulet household Romeo does not dance – as a masquer should – along with his friends. Something else has caught Romeo’s attention: Juliet. The very second Romeo sees Juliet for the first time, all thoughts of Rosaline disappear. Romeo has been struck by Cupid’s arrow: Romeo has fallen in love at first sight.
Speaking to one of the servants (but actually more to himself), Romeo describes the lovely vision before him:
O, she doth teach the torches to burn bright!
It seems she hangs upon the cheek of night As a rich jewel in an Ethiope’s ear – Beauty too rich for use, for earth too dear. So shows a snowy dove trooping with crows, As yonder lady o’er her fellows shows.
The measure done, I’ll watch her place of stand, And, touching hers, make blessed my rude hand. Did my heart love till now? Forswear it, sight,
For I ne’er saw true beauty till this night. (41-50)
Like any good love poet, Romeo feels compelled to praise the beauty of the girl he adores. And he does this through three metaphors. In the first, Romeo describes Juliet as a brightly burning light that outshines all of the torches. Beauty is brilliant and shining, and Juliet’s beauty outshines all of the lights in the room. With the second metaphor (a simile actually: “as a rich jewel”), Romeo also uses personification: Night is personified as a dark or black Ethiopian woman. And Juliet is described as an object (objectification): a jeweled earring. Again, Romeo emphasizes Juliet’s light or bright shining quality. She is like a brilliant diamond. And with the third metaphor Juliet is a white dove amongst many black crows. All other women in the room (including Rosaline) are black crows: they have no beauty. All three metaphors involve contrast: (1) Juliet’s light in contrast to the torches, (2) Juliet’s shining gem in contrast to the black cheek, and (3) Juliet as the snowy dove in contrast to the black crows. Romeo is, quite naturally, comparing and contrasting Juliet to all of the other women he has ever seen. And Romeo is poetically declaring that no other woman can be compared to Juliet. She alone is “true beauty.” And, thus, all other women are false beauties: they are not really beautiful at all.
Some commentators – those who misunderstand the play – wonder (1) how Romeo can so quickly forget Rosaline and (2) how Romeo – or anyone for that matter – can fall in love at first sight. In reading the play, a person may take a great deal of time to ponder over such matters. But in watching a performance of the play, the action happens quickly and most members of the audience are too swept up by the emotion to allow such questions to intrude upon their enjoyment of the drama. Moreover, the reader should keep in mind that drama is representational. Actors stand on a bare stage, but they have the audience believe that they are standing on a street in Verona or in a splendid mansion owned by Capulet. The imagination of the audience fills in the details, and that imagination is fueled by the power of the playwright’s language and by the acting ability of the performers. Time, also, is representational in a drama. A performance may last only two or three hours, but the action of the story may occur over many days, weeks, months, or even years. The playwright is forced to compress large amounts of time into just so many minutes or even seconds; and audiences accept this compression of time as a standard convention of drama. Once again the imagination of the audience comes into play, and everyone in the theater accepts the unreality of time and place.
In real life, Romeo’s quick dismissal of Rosaline and immediate replacing of her with Juliet would be fickle and abrupt. But in the theater, that is not the case. Rosaline is a symbol more than a real character in the play. She symbolizes early affections and infatuation that all young men and women go through in life. Until he had seen Juliet, Romeo had only experienced infatuation in his life; and, like all young men, he thought that infatuation was love. However, with the coming of true love, he realized his error. Rosaline was just an infatuation; but Juliet is true love. The meaning of the entire play hinges upon the audience accepting the idea that Romeo is truly and deeply in love with Juliet (but had not been with Rosaline).
Shakespeare was not the only Renaissance poet to distinguish infatuation from true love. Prior to the time when Romeo and Juliet was composed, Sir Philip Sidney wrote the sonnet cycle entitled Astrophil and Stella. In Sonnet 16 the lover Astrophil explains how he thought he was full of love and knew what love was all about until he met Stella. Then he realized his error – just as Romeo learns when he meets Juliet.
In regards to the second matter, love at first sight, once again the reader should consider that drama necessitates the use of representational time. The playwright must, out of necessity, compress a situation that would in real life take hours or days into short minutes. However, there have been and still are today many people who believe in love at first sight. The world is comprised of those who believe in love at first sight and those who do not. Those who believe in it do so because it has happened to them. But those who do not believe in it have never fallen in love at first sight. Romeo belongs to the first category, and apparently so did Shakespeare.
Also attending at Capulet’s feast is Tybalt, Juliet’s cousin. Tybalt recognizes Romeo’s voice when he hears him speaking to the servant. Tybalt is outraged that a Montague should be present in the Capulet household, and he immediately orders a servant to bring him a sword.
Capulet, however, orders Tybalt to calm down and take no action against Romeo. Capulet is in a pleasant mood that night, and he sees no reason to ruin such a feeling. Moreover, the Prince of Verona has ordered an end to the civil brawls between the Montagues and Capulets. Tybalt, on the other hand, does not care about peace or the orders of the Prince. He is full of anger and hate and rashly tells his uncle that he will not stand by idly while there is a Montague in the house.
Capulet does become angry at Tybalt then and demands that the young, hotheaded nephew should obey his will. Capulet tells Tybalt that he is “saucy” (disrespectful or insolent); and Capulet adds that Tybalt “will set cock-a-hoop” (78). This means that he will cause a disorderly or drunken riot in the house. The word cock here refers (1) to the tap of a barrel containing ale and (2) a boastful crowing rooster. Capulet is thus calling Tybalt proud and boastful as well as telling him that he is behaving in a wild and drunkenly manner.
Capulet also warns Tybalt …
This trick may chance to scathe you. (81)
The word trick in this instance means foolish behavior, and the word scathe means to hurt or harm. Capulet’s words are foreshadowing. Capulet is warning his nephew to calm down and control himself or his actions will ruin him. Tybalt will obey his uncle that night, but he will not calm down. He plans to take action at a later date.